Troy Morrow lives adjacent to Lake Hartwell in Eastonollee, Ga. and has been busting big sacks there all winter. There's no way he should've weighed an 8 3/4-pound stringer on day 1 of the recent FLW Tour Major that put him in a tie for 103rd place.
He bounced back big-time on day 2 with a 17-01 bag that gained him 60 places in the standings and earned him a $10,500 paycheck. He said if he could've substituted his five biggest culls from day 2 for the measly quintet he'd brought to the scale the previous day, he would've been inside the Top 20 and would've advanced to day 3.
He focused on fish that were 50 feet deep – he said those fish don't even think about moving shallow to spawn until the calendar turns to April. His problem on day 1 was that he didn't give them what they wanted.
He'd been catching them for months on jigs and worms. He tried to force them to eat that stuff all day, but they were having none of it.
"I didn't decide to change baits until I was at home in bed that night, sulking," he said.
He offered them a spoon on day 2, and they were all over it. "By the time I made by second stop, at 8:15, I already had more weight than I caught the whole first day."
The Sunline Strong Performer, which focuses on the angler who makes the most signifiant single-day move in the standings at each tour-level event, is brought to you by the great people at Sunline.
