Reel Chat with ANDY MORGAN
Wal-Mart Open winner Andy Morgan discusses his first FLW Tour victory, prefishing techniques and his angling heroes, among other topics.
– MODERATOR COMMENT –
Welcome to FLW Live Reel Chat. This week we’re joined by FLW Tour pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn. As the recent $200,000 winner of the 2007 Wal-Mart Open at Beaver Lake, Morgan currently boasts more than $800,000 in FLW Outdoors career earnings. In addition, Morgan has recorded a staggering 36 top-10 finishes at FLW Outdoors events, including 10 top-10 finishes on the FLW Tour since 1996.
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Over the years, Morgan has amassed three BFL victories, two Stren Series first-place finishes as well as his first-ever FLW Tour win – which took place on Beaver Lake this May. In 2007, Morgan is off to a very strong start, finishing no worse than 48th place at any event all season. In addition, Morgan is currently second overall in the Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year points race for the FLW Tour. Today Andy Morgan is here to take questions from you, the fans. Let’s get started.
Q: Andy, what was it like to finally get your first-ever FLW Tour win?
— Jon Pageler (Napa, Calif.)
A: Man, I’ll tell you what, it was a load off my back. It’s something I’ve been after for many, many years. It just makes me a lot more excited to get back out there and go fishing again.
Q: Congratulations on your win. I never thought I would see you with a spinning rod in your hand. Do you use the shaky head in local tournaments, or do you still power-fish on your local lakes you know well? Also, I know that you plant special cover in your local lakes. What type of area (depth, bottom contour, composition, etc.) works best for planting cover in your local area? Thanks.
— A. Outlaw (Camden, S.C.)
A: Very seldom do we use a shaky head around home. I still like to power-fish back home. The better I know a body of water, the more confidence I have in my power-fishing abilitiies. And you win more tournaments around here with that technique. At different times of the year, you target different bottom contours if you’re planting cover, so it’s hard to give you specifics regarding that question. Generally, we put cover back where cover was. So if some cover washes away due to natural conditions, I’ll occasionally try to replace it. But we don’t plant cover as much as other people think. I don’t spend a lot of time on one particular lake – even my home lakes – so I just don’t have a lot of spare time to do stuff like that. And in grass lakes, you almost never have to plant any additional cover.
Q: Heading into the Wal-Mart Open you had 35 top-10 appearances with no FLW Tour wins. Did you ever start to worry that you might never win an FLW Tour event?
— Harry Goldstein (New York City, N.Y.)
A: Well, worried, no. Concerned, I guess you could say that. It takes a lot to win one of those. It takes a flawless tournament and a lot of luck to win these. So you start to get concerned: “Hey, when is my number going to roll around?” I’ve been close, but all it takes is one mistake. The funny thing is the one I won I never expected to win. Going into that last day, trailing Jay (Yelas), I thought there was no way I was going to win. So it just goes to show you. If Jay catches three keeper largemouths, I was done.
Q: What made Beaver Lake so tough to fish during the Wal-Mart Open, as it seemed like most of the pros really struggled to find a successful pattern?
— Titus Song (Minneapolis, Minn.)
A: I think it was just the postspawn aspect. Once the spawn is done on Beaver, most of the fish just go to the middle of the lake and suspend, and they’re really hard to catch. I think at Beaver, more fish suspend than most other lakes. It’s kind of weird. Those fish just go roaming around.
Q: You had a real good tournament on Lake of the Ozarks last fall. Were you throwing finesse gear there too, or were you using football-head jigs?
— Matt P. (Osage Beach, Mo.)
A: I caught some fish finesse-fishing on a shaky head and a drop-shot, and the rest of the time I caught fish on a buzzbait and a War Eagle jig. But the two days I went power-fishing, the conditions were nasty, which are the exact conditions to power-fish.
Q: Is reaching the $1 million mark a goal for you?
— Robby S. (Buckhead, Ga.)
A: Actually, I haven’t even looked at the stats. I take it a tournament at a time, a day at time. You need to worry about what’s in front of you, not what’s behind you. If you don’t take things one bite at a time, one step at a time and one day at a time, you really start to lose your focus. You better be able to go out there and tackle what’s in front of you that day.
Q: Andy, what are your favorite baits and fishing techniques?
— Jon Stebbins (San Diego, Calif.)
A: I’d say definitely fishing a jig and flipping. My favorite scenario would be flipping bushes at some place like Kentucky or Barkley lakes – I like to do that almost better than anything.
Q: Why does David Dudley always call you his hero? If I remember correctly, at Okeechobee he referred to you on-stage as his all-time favorite hero. That guy can fish, but he’s a different breed.
— Mitch (La Belle, Fla.)
A: It’s just a joke me and David have. I started calling him “my hero” five years ago. He’s a great fisherman; he’s just got a knack for catching them. He’s probably one of the best outdoorsmen in the country as well. So, it’s just kind of a joke that both of us share.
Q: When you arrive at a new lake that you’ve never fished before, how do you go about prefishing for a tournament?
— Eric Vrooman (New Orleans, La.)
A: I’ll check out the conditions, the time of year, etc. There are a lot of different variables you have to consider. I’ll go to the launch site first, put a hard day of fishing in and then make a decision as to whether I want to go up or down a lake. I try not to have too many preconceived ideas when I go fishing. It’s really important to see what it’s all about. You learn a lot when you spend 12 hours on the water about what you might need to change the next day. So time spent on the water is priceless. I just put the boat in the water and basically go down the bank, fishing, gathering information.
Q: Congratulations on the big win! How hard was it to stick with the “sissy stick”? I’m sure in the back of your mind you were thinking, “I bet I could get the flipping stick out and go get a good kicker fish out of a treetop somewhere.”
— Tim Kennedy (Hixson, Tenn.)
A: I never practiced with a flipping stick throughout my entire time at Beaver. So I didn’t feel comfortable switching the last day. I told myself I was going to stay in my one area and try not to be a hero. But I do have to admit that I had a flipping stick in the boat. Those are the demons you fight right there. You have to stay focued and keep to the task at hand. You can’t panic. Through experience, when you start to panic and change up on the fly, I’ve found it really doesn’t usually work out.
Q: Which anglers did you grow up admiring, and who, if anyone, have you modeled your career after?
— Rich Price (Oakland, Calif.)
A: I always look at Larry Nixon and, of course, Kevin VanDam. Larry will sit back and beat you with a Texas-rigged worm, and VanDam will power-fish until the sun goes down – and I’ve really learned a lot from both of those guys.
Q: What is your all-time favorite lake, or body of water, to fish?
— Patrick Zak (San Francisco, Calif.)
A: It would definitely be something on the Tennessee River with anything on the Coosa River being a close second. So I’d have to say something like Kentucky or Barkley lakes I’m really comfortable fishing.
Q: I heard that the FLW Tour may return to Knoxville next year, but later in the season after the spawn. If this rumor is true, what will the fishing on Loudoun-Tellico be like? Could this be win No. 2?
— Jeff H. (Elk River, Minn.)
A: You hate to be too confident, but I’d be a lot more confident in the postspawn on those lakes. We wouldn’t have low water or be dealing with a bunch of crazy smallmouth.
– MODERATOR COMMENT –
Andy, thanks for your time and for joining us today on FLW Live Reel Chat. Congratulations on your recent FLW Tour victory and your 2007 AOY title pursuit.
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And thanks to all of the fishing fans who took part in today’s chat. Join us again soon for a live discussion with yet another of the nation’s top pros.