11th PLACE 10th PLACE 13th PLACE
flat-out beaten, but in a few cases it was one bad break on his part or one lucky break on another angler’ s part that cost him the win.
“ At Beaver [ this season ] I jumped one off that was over 6. If I catch that one I don’ t know if I was going to beat Canterbury, but it would’ ve been close,” he recalls.“ It seems like every time I catch them, Dudley will dig one out of a tree and beat me. It seems like I’ m never the one to get a break. It seems like it never works out, and I finish second and I finish third. It’ s aggravating. But I don’ t know what else to do about it.”
Season Recap
Morgan’ s two worst finishes of the season came at the first two stops. He finished 40th at Okeechobee and 42nd at Hartwell.
“ My first tournaments were not that great. I got checks, and I was proud of that, but to win AOY they weren’ t the kind of checks you need to get. The last four tournaments I put it together, and it just worked out well.”
Morgan’ s fearlessness with regard to scrapping a pattern was on display early on in the season.
“ Okeechobee was kind of like that. I had to bob through a couple of areas. I really wanted to live in one area,” he recalls.“ I scrapped that and went and got a 40-something-place finish. I got a check.
“ At Hartwell I wasn’ t going to sight-fish. I was totally against that. Then I ended up going and sight-fishing just to cash a check.”
At Beaver, Morgan caught his fish“ running around like a wild man” and placed sixth. And at Pickwick, he never even bothered with the deep bite, instead finding water all to himself and finishing 11th.
Kentucky Lake was“ pretty standard” for Morgan. He’ s been fishing there for years and knew what to expect.
“ Once you get in these summer months things get a lot more predictable,” he adds. He placed 10th on Kentucky Lake by dragging a Zoom Ol’ Monster worm.
Champlain was probably Morgan’ s biggest hurdle. He’ s not a fan of Northern smallmouths.
“ I’ m just not comfortable up here,” he said after the daytwo weigh-in.“ It’ s not a good feeling to come here in a slugfest and have to catch them. I think this is my fifth time here, and every time everybody catches them.”
Morgan did what he always does en route to proving that he is a tough closer when in a position to win AOY. He scraped and clawed up north for two days, saying it was“ real jagged” fishing, and he made the cut. On day three he turned and headed south to try for a big bag of largemouths after his best areas dried up in the qualifying rounds. Of course, by that point he’ d already sewed up AOY.
It was a quiet tournament for Morgan. He didn’ t really contend to win, but he obviously didn’ t bomb out. He was there on the weekend, like he always is, after 140 other pros had already gone home, reminding everyone what kind of performance it will take if one of them wants to usurp his throne and wear the crown. photo by andy hagedon
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FLWFISHING. COM I AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2016