Fearless in his own way.
“It just works out sometimes,” he
says. “I put a lot of effort in. It’s one of
those deals, and I really hate to say it,
you just never give up. It’s an old cliché,
but it really works. If you have an hour
left in the day, you better be fishing just
as hard as at the beginning of the day. It
takes that kind of grinding, and that kind
of mentality of ‘you’re not going to beat
me.’”
It’s not accurate to suggest that
Morgan’s not a winner when he’s won
three AOY titles and their respective six-
figure paychecks in the last four seasons.
But he’s not a winner in the way that
Scott Martin is a winner. Martin won the
Tour finale on Champlain and now holds
the record for most FLW Tour wins (six),
is the only angler to win three Tour
events on the same fishery (Champlain)
and has won the Forrest Wood Cup. He
also won the AOY title – his first – in
2015.
Morgan has only won a single Tour
event in his career, and that was back in
2007. Jimmy Houston pointed out that
stat on stage before the day-three weigh-
in at Lake Champlain, while chatting
with Chris Jones. Houston didn’t mince
words. He said that Morgan rarely wins,
but he’s always there when the top-20 list
is called, and he hangs around often
enough to make top 10s. That’s why he
always competes for AOY. And it’s why
he has 62 top-10 finishes across all FLW
circuits – an FLW record – but only six
total wins, with just the one on Tour.
This is also where Morgan relies on
his fearlessness. He’s not afraid to not
win. To him, it’s not losing when you
earn a paycheck and always make the
Forrest Wood Cup.
All those top 10s and near-misses can
wear a guy out, but Morgan says he’s
sort of become immune to the “could’ve
beens.”
“I guess you get a little more … well,
honest to God, you get used to the beat-
down, because I’ve fished so many
events and I never win. If you’ve been in
this awhile and get used to that, you’re
kind of numb,” he says.
It’s worth considering that Morgan’s
wait-it-out approach is effective in
annual points races, but maybe it’s not
as effective in individual events. Since
his win in 2007, Morgan has finished
runner-up at Tour events five times,
plus scored numerous other top-five
finishes. In some of those cases he was
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