Quick Bites: Wal-Mart Open, FLW Tour Beaver Lake – Day 4

Morgan gets the monkey off his back, Yelas upset at being upset and a local angler lives out his dream

2007 Wal-Mart FLW Tour

Rogers, Ark.

Finals, Sunday

Now he finally knows what Phil Mickelson feels like … Heading into the Wal-Mart Open, Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., had a staggering 35 top-10 finishes in FLW Outdoors related events, including nine top-10 finishes on the FLW Tour alone. However, the one thing he didn’t have to his credit was a single victory on the FLW Tour. Not one. However, all that changed today. Not only did Morgan grab an improbable come-from-behind victory over juggernaut Jay Yelas, but he also accomplished the feat on a lake that has haunted him his entire career. “If you would have told me five years ago I would win a tournament on Beaver Lake using a spinning rod, I would have told you that you were crazy,” he said. “In the past, I haven’t done very well on this lake. So to win here is really special. I finally have that monkey off my back.” And he did so under the most unlikely set of circumstances. With Yelas holding nearly a 2 1/2-pound lead heading into the finals, Morgan knew that he would either have to have a career day on Beaver Lake or have Yelas stumble to pull out a victory. Although he did his best to ensure the former (netting an 8-pound bag in the finals), it was the latter that propelled him to his first title. “Honestly, heading back to the marina, I didn’t think there was any way I was going to win,” he said. “All Jay needed was 5 pounds, 10 ounces to beat me. I kept thinking about the 3-pounder and 4-pounder I lost yesterday. For me, that had pretty much decided it. But Jay stumbled and I was finally able to win one. I’m so spun out right now; I don’t know what to say.”

Yelas pattern dries up at crucial time … For all of his storied accomplishments, Jay Yelas had never won an FLW Tour event in his career. Holding a 2 1/2-pound lead heading into the finals, Yelas looked like the prohibitive favorite given how difficult the fishing conditions had been all week. In short, Yelas’ 2 1/2-pound lead was looking more and more like a 5-pound lead at a typical FLW Tour event. And, as the weigh-in progressed, the event slowly started to feel more and more like a Jay Yelas coronation ceremony than anything else. One by one, Yelas’ rivals weighed in relatively harmless stringers with no one angler breaking the two-day mark of 15-pounds until Morgan came to the scales with a 15-pound, 12-ounce total. However, even after that, Yelas only needed 5 pounds, 10 ounces to claim his very first title. Given the fact that Yelas had weighed in double-digit sacks for three consecutive days, the title seemed to be in the bag. But then something strange happened. Yelas reached into his bag to bring his fourth fish to the scales and grabbed nothing but air. Suddenly, Yelas’ three-fish limit was only good enough for second place. And Morgan was now the champion. “It’s kind of a heartbreaker really,” said Yelas, who had been targeting community docks all week with a swim bait. “I had caught a limit there in the first hour all three days and today I couldn’t even catch one fish (at the docks). I just scrambled around after that. I eventually caught three fish but they weren’t enough. It’s frustrating. To have a 2 1/2-pound lead on this lake and not win is pretty tough. If I had caught just one more keeper, I probably could have won” However, to Yelas’ credit, he had nothing but praise for Morgan. “I didn’t even realize that he’d had 35 top-10 finishes without winning one of these. He’s a great angler and he was definitely due.” In the end though, Yelas did leave with some nice parting gifts, including a $75,000 check for second place, three consecutive top-10 finishes on the FLW Tour and the distinction of being the current points leader in the 2007 Land O’ Lakes Angler of the Year race for 2007.

A rookie makes good … While Morgan was beaming from ear to ear after taking home his first-ever FLW Tour win and $200,000 first-place check, an angler from Bella Vista, Ark., was arguably having as much fun as anybody onstage. J.R. Beehler, fishing in his first-ever FLW Tour event, wound up finishing in third place at the Wal-Mart Open and walking away with $50,000 in prize money. “I’ve been working up to this for a long, long time. It was just a dream come true,” said Beehler. “I’ve watched Jay Yelas’ career for about 20 years now and to be onstage competing with him was just incredible.” Beehler said that his finish has also given him something much more important than a nice, fat paycheck. “It’s not about the money for me,” said Beehler, who fought back tears numerous times during today’s weigh-in. “It’s about getting my confidence up knowing that I can compete on this level. The whole experience has been really cool. It’s definitely the neatest thing I’ve ever done in my life … next to marrying my wife.”

Quick numbers:

17 -6: Total weight in pounds and ounces of Andy Morgan’s winning stringer.

35: Morgan’s total number of top-10 appearances in FLW Outdoors events before finally winning an FLW Tour title.

200: Prize money in thousands of Morgan’s first-place check.

61-6: Total weight in pounds and ounces caught by pros during final day of competition.

3: The number of consecutive top-10 finishes for Jay Yelas on the FLW Tour.

0: Total number of FLW Tour wins for Jay Yelas in his career.

7: Total number of limits caught in the finals.

Sound bites:

“Over the years I kept hearing, `Andy, when are you finally going to win an FLW Tour event?’ Hopefully this will now shut up a lot of my friends.” – joked FLW Tour pro Andy Morgan after finally winning his first-ever FLW Tour event.

“I put 1,000-percent effort into each of these tournaments and many times, it doesn’t pay off. But today it finally did.” – FLW Tour pro Andy Morgan relishing his first

FLW Tour victory.

“I was lucky because the difficult fishing conditions were definitely in my favor.” – FLW Tour pro J.R. Beehler modestly discussing how his hometown advantage helped fuel a third-place finish at the Wal-Mart Open despite the fact that he’d never fished an FLW Tour event in his life before this week.

“Me, Andy (Montgomery) and our partners probably caught 40 fish off that spot this whole week. I caught a limit there in the first hour each of the first three days.” – FLW Tour pro Jay Yelas talking of the dismay he felt when he came up empty at his prime fishing location during the finals.

“Jay Yelas is the fastest man in bass fishing. He’s hard to catch.” – FLW Tour pro Andy Morgan discussing the difficulty of trying to overcome Yelas’ 2 1/2-pound lead shortly before the start of final weigh-in.

“Even if I finish in 10th place today I’ll be ecstatic.” – FLW Tour pro Jacob Powroznik talking about the excitement of making his first-ever top-10 appearance at an FLW Tour event.

“This is a dream come true. People I don’t even know are coming up to me and shaking my hand. It’s just been a blast. It’s been a great four days. I don’t know what else to say.” – FLW Tour pro J.R. Beehler on the joys of finishing in the top-10 in his first-ever FLW Tour event.

“It’s just mind boggling.” – Ranger Boats founder and FLW Tour namesake Forrest L. Wood on the possibility that someone will walk away with a top prize of $1 million at this year’s Forrest Wood Cup, slated to run Aug. 2-5 in Hot Springs, Ark.

Quick notes

The televised version of this week’s FLW tournament at Beaver Lake can be seen on July 1 (part one) and July 8 (part two) at 11 a.m. Eastern Time on Fox Sports Net.