“ Growing up on Chickamauga , I never finesse fished , but when I started fishing the FLW Tour and going different places and trying to earn checks , finesse fishing was something you pretty much had to do ,” Neal admitted . “ I just started from there : picking it up and trying to throw a shaky-head rig , drop-shotting and using a Neko rig .”
Morgan , for one , was not surprised by Neal ’ s adeptness at new techniques .
“ Michael played baseball growing up – he pitched – and he was very competitive ,” Morgan said . “ It ’ s no different in fishing . He ’ s gotten better every day and every year . He ’ s excelled at it since day one . We ’ re only talking about 10 years he ’ s been doing this . He ’ s on the right path at a young age .”
2021 : Things Went Right for neal
Neal ’ s AOY-winning campaign in 2021 was a case study in remaining consistent throughout a season – and finishing with a flourish . He began the season with a 22nd-place showing at Lake Okeechobee , finished 33rd at the second event of the year at Lewis Smith Lake and then finished the season with was an incredible string of finishes : third at Lake Murray , 11th at Lake Eufaula , second on the Potomac River and 11th on the St . Lawrence River .
“ There ’ s something from every single tournament that I can look at and say , ‘ Wow , that was lucky ,’” he said . “ At Murray , for one , I went up the river in practice for about three hours and had one bite and it was a 2-pounder . Then , the first day I had an OK bag skipping docks , the second day I had to find something else to do – I went up the river and started catching them . The fourth day , that ’ s where I caught almost all my fish .
“ At the Potomac , I didn ’ t fish down south all tournament , then I ran back to Aquia ( Creek ) the last day and caught some fish that were really key to coming in second . Every tournament , there ’ s something that happened that just helped things go right .”
Even at the St . Lawrence , on his last day of fishing in 2021 , Neal had some things just go right .
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
PHOTO BY JODY WHITE
48 MAJORLEAGUEFISHING . COM | OCTOBER-NOVEMBER 2022