Morgan wins Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake

Tennessee native overcomes 2 1/2-pound deficit to snatch title away from Yelas

ROGERS, Ark. – Team Duracell pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., caught a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 17 pounds, 6 ounces to win $200,000 in the $1.5 million Wal-Mart Open on Beaver Lake. Morgan topped his closest rival, Jay Yelas of Tyler, Texas, by more than 1 1/2 pounds to earn the win and 200 points toward qualifying for the $2 million Forrest Wood Cup in Hot Springs, Ark., where the winner will earn as much as $1 million – the biggest award in bass fishing – Aug. 5.

“I was devastated going into the final day more than 2 pounds behind Jay,” said Morgan, who notched his first FLW Tour victory with the win on Beaver Lake. “I’ve fished long enough and been in these pressure situations before, and you just have to let it roll off your back. You can’t lay down and quit. I just hoped that Jay would stumble, and today his schoolers didn’t come up.

“I figured he’d have five fish, and I’d have five, and there’d be no way to catch him,” Morgan said.

Morgan said he really had to “grind” Sunday to catch his fish, which included eight keepers. He employed a 1/8-ounce War Eagle Shakey Head jighead with a watermelon candy Zoom finesse worm to catch his limit. Morgan defined his “grinding” technique as fishing methodically.

“I had the trolling motor set on 10 percent and was casting every three feet,” Morgan said. “I tried to drag it out to 7 or 8 feet of water and then reel it in. I was throwing in up to maybe 4 feet of water and catching my fish 6 to 8 feet deep in grass.”

Morgan opened the tournament Thursday in second place with five bass weighing 12-15. He stayed in second place Friday with a five-bass catch weighing 8 pounds, 3 ounces to advance into the final round of 10 pros with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 21-2. On Saturday, weights were cleared, and Morgan caught five bass weighing 9-6 to advance to the final day of competition in second place. Morgan added another five bass weighing 8-0 to his final-round total Sunday.

Yelas, who led the tournament after days two and three, caught a final-round total of eight bass weighing 15-12 to claim second place and $75,000.

“I went to my spot I had started the past three days and caught a limit out of it in the first hour three days in a row,” said Yelas, who is leading in the Land O’ Lakes Angler of the Year points standings. “I never had a keeper bite there today. I caught a few shorts and didn’t lose any, but I never got a keeper bite.

“I only needed to go in there and catch one keeper today to win,” Yelas added. “I guess it just wasn’t meant to be.”

Yelas said he and Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C., fished a dock in the back of a creek that they had shared on the first day of competition. On Thursday, Montgomery started the day on the right side of the dock and Yelas took the left side. Montgomery’s side proved to be the more productive one. On Friday, the tables turned and the largemouth were on Yelas’ side of the dock. Yelas said he caught the dock fish on a 6-inch swimbait.

Yelas and Montgomery, along with their partners, caught more than 40 keepers off of the dock during the course of the tournament. Yelas said he returned to the dock Saturday and Sunday, but the fishing hole had dried up at the time he needed it most.

“The shad weren’t in there as good as they had been, and the fish weren’t schooling, and I knew right away it was going to be tough for me,” Yelas said. “I went around and scrambled and fished some other stuff and got three little keepers.

“How can you not go and start on that spot when you’ve had such success on it?” said Yelas, whose three bass Sunday weighed just 3 pounds, 15 ounces. “I don’t know that I would have done anything different today.”

“I knew his spot had to dry up sooner or later, and I was just hoping it would happen today,” Morgan said.

Rounding out the top 10 pros are J. R. Beehler of Bella Vista, Ark. (nine bass, 14-14, $50,000); Bounty pro Jacob Powroznik of Prince George, Va. (10 bass, 14-1, $40,000); Montgomery (nine bass, 12-3, $30,000); Chad Morgenthaler of Coulterville, Ill. (10 bass, 12-3, $29,000); Berkley pro Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla. (nine bass, 11-8, $28,000); BP pro Ray Scheide of Russellville, Ark. (nine bass, 11-8, $27,000); Dwayne Horton of Knoxville, Tenn. (six bass, 6-5, $26,000) and BP pro Alfred Williams of Jackson, Miss. (four bass, 5-8, $25,000).

Overall there were 45 bass weighing 61 pounds, 6 ounces caught in the Pro Division Sunday. The catch included seven five-bass limits.

On Saturday, J.R. Grubb of Hamburg, Ark., won the Co-angler Division and $30,000 with a five-bass limit weighing 11 pounds, 13 ounces followed by Chris Koester of Rogers, Ark., in second place with five bass weighing 11-11 worth $10,000.

Grubb opened the tournament in 26th place Thursday with five bass weighing 5-10 while fishing with Team Tylenol pro Gabe Bolivar of Ramona, Calif. On Friday he jumped into second place on the strength of a five-bass catch weighing 9-4 while fishing with Jimmy Milsaps of Canton, Ga. He wrapped up his win while fishing with Morgan.

“I’m satisfied with what I had,” said Grubb, who is fishing his second season as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. “I had my limit by 10 a.m. and I backed off to let Andy get his fifth fish.”

Grubb said he caught his fish using two topwater baits, a white Zara Spook Jr. and a Bomber Long A, which he swam back to the boat.

“I also caught fish on a silver rainbow Fluke, and that’s just what it was – a fluke,” Grubb said. “I hadn’t thrown a Fluke all week, but I had one tied on and I tried it. I had it rigged on 8-pound test line with a 1/8-ounce weighted hook. I’d just dead-stick it by letting it die and then just popping it up.”

Koester led co-anglers into the final day of competition, but came up 2 ounces short of the win.

“I’m a little bit sick,” said Koester, who caught all of his fish on a swimbait. “There were a lot of ups and downs today. I caught four fish in the first hour, and I thought I was off to the races. Then the bite died. We spent the rest of the day trying to get bit, and I could not catch another keeper.”

Rounding out the top 10 co-anglers are Arch Cornett of Huntsville, Ala. (five bass, 6-13, $9,000); Dino Caporuscio of Coto de Caza, Calif. (three bass, 5-8, $8,000); Sammy Orr of Maryville, Tenn. (five bass, 5-7, $7,000); Mark Myers of Cedar Falls, Iowa (five bass, 4-15, $6,000); Spencer Shuffield of Bismarck, Ark. (two bass, 3-8, $5,000); James Green of Lincoln, Ala. (two bass, 3-4, $4,000); Andrew Lemle of Perrysburg, Ohio (two bass, 2-8, $3,000) and Stetson Blaylock of Benton, Ark. (two bass, 2-7, $2,000).

Overall there were 36 bass weighing 57 pounds, 14 ounces caught in the Co-angler Division Saturday. The catch included five five-bass limits.

Coverage of the tournament will be broadcast to 81 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States on July 1 and 8 as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television program. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sunday mornings at 11 Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to 429 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed fishing program in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.

The next $ 1 million FLW Tour stop, presented by Snickers, will be held on the Potomac River in Charles County, Md., June 14-17.

Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail presented by Abu Garcia, Ranger Owners Tournament Championship Series, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series, Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Striper Series. These circuits offer combined purses of nearly $43 million through 241 events in 2007.

Wal-Mart and many of America’s largest and most respected companies support FLW Outdoors and its tournament trails. Wal-Mart signed on as an FLW Outdoors sponsor in 1997 and today is the world’s leading supporter of tournament fishing. For more information about Wal-Mart, visit Walmart.com.

For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, visit FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000.