FLW BASS TOURNAMENT

Morgan keeps lead at FLW tournament

NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF -- 04/25/15 Andy Morgan, FLW Pro from Dayton, Tenn., takes the stage during weigh-in on day three of the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake on Saturday Apr. 25, 2015 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers. Morgan maintained his lead with a three-day total weight of 39 lbs. 2 oz.
NWA Democrat-Gazette/BEN GOFF -- 04/25/15 Andy Morgan, FLW Pro from Dayton, Tenn., takes the stage during weigh-in on day three of the Walmart FLW Tour at Beaver Lake on Saturday Apr. 25, 2015 at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers. Morgan maintained his lead with a three-day total weight of 39 lbs. 2 oz.

ROGERS -- Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tenn., caught five bass weighing 10 pounds, 9 ounces Saturday in the third round of the FLW bass tournament at Beaver Lake, giving him a 1-pound, 9-ounce lead over Matt Arey entering today's championship round.

The angler who finishes the tournament with the heaviest combined four-day weight will win $100,000, or $125,000 if he owns a Ranger boat. A victory would also edge Morgan closer to his third consecutive angler-of-the-year title.

Morgan jumped from 15th place to first on Friday with five bass that weighed 15 pounds, 7 ounces and a two-day weight total of 28-9. He won the Beaver Lake tournament in 2007 and finished second in 2014.

Arey, of Shelby, N.C., won the Beaver Lake tournament in 2014 and is well within striking distance, as is Stetson Blaylock of Benton, who won the co-angler division at Beaver Lake in 2007, and John Cox of Debary, Fla. Those three are within 9 ounces of each other.

Blaylock caught five bass weighing 11-2 for a three-day total of 37-3. He finished the first round in ninth place, but moved up to fifth place and then to third. He likes that trend, but he said a different trend troubles him.

"I've dropped a pound a day," Blaylock said. "I need another 13-pound bag like I had the first day to have a shot."

Blaylock has shown classic tournament form each day by weighing in four solid keepers and at least one big fish. He said he'll need to upgrade every fish to catch the weight he needs to win.

"The weights are so close," Blaylock said. "Today my problem was just landing the bites. I had a couple of opportunities to upgrade, but I couldn't get them in the boat. I had one up to the boat that would have given me the lead, but it got off at the boat."

Blaylock said he's fishing the right way in the right places. The fish he's targeting are in post-spawn mode, guarding fry over nests in the shade.

"Guys that made the top 10 are in those areas, too, but they're not catching the ones I'm catching, I guess," Blaylock said. "I'm throwing at places that look like there should be fish, and I'm getting bit."

Morgan, ranked No. 1 in the world by Bassfan.com, isn't fishing a particular pattern. He said he's casting at anything that looks good, whether it's rock, wood or sand.

"That's all I know to do here," Morgan said. "I'm all out of fish. I've burned through all my sight fish, so I'm 'junk fishing' 101. I'm just throwing at whatever's in front of me. I'm not on any fish. I'm just covering a lot of water."

Other anglers in the third round complained about the wind, but Morgan said it helped him decide where to concentrate his efforts.

"The most comfortable thing about the whole day was the wind," Morgan said. "The wind gives you some direction about what side of the cove to fish, what side of the lake you need to look at."

Arey (5/10-9; 37-9) sounded uncomfortable about his prospects for the final round. He said he's fishing the conditions as he always does, but this year's conditions don't favor him.

"Last year they were coming at me," Arey said. "This year it seems like they're going away from me.

Cox (5/12-13; 37-0) said he struggled to make sense of Beaver Lake the first day, but he caught the most weight of anybody in the top 20 on Saturday. His approach is simple, he said: he's pitching a few feet below spawning ledges to catch pre-spawn bass that are staging before they go to their beds.

Unlike the other anglers in the top 10 who drive $70,000 fiberglass bass boats with the latest electronic graphs, Cox runs an aluminum boat with no transducers. He said he doesn't need them for his style of fishing.

The final weigh-in will begin at 4 p.m. at the John Q. Hammons Center in Rogers.

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Sports on 04/26/2015

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