Say this much for Andy Morgan: The man doesn't clutter up his brain worrying about a lot of things that might occur in the future. He lives a life that's probably as close to stress-free as can be found among any professional angler.

The veteran from Tennessee leads the points standings for the FLW Tour Opens heading into this week's event (the third of four) at Lake Champlain. The Top 5 on the list following next month's finale at Guntersville will gain early berths into next year's Forrest Wood Cup.



Morgan won't be anywhere near upstate New York when the tournament gets under way on Thursday, though. He'll be in North Dakota, hunting deer.

He decided long ago that he'd skip this tournament. With a profound dislike for northern fishing to begin with (particularly smallmouths) and no league-issued team deal to defray the cost, he's opted to sit this one out.

"It's just a simple economic deal for me," he said. "I'd have to fund the expense money and the entry-fee money out of my own pocket.

"If I thought I was going to make any money, I'd go, but I've never been that strong up there. And as far as the points, I've never really had a big ego and it doesn't pay anything to win that."

But what about the potential Cup berth, which could make for a more relaxed 2012 Majors campaign?

"I'm not worried about that. It's not like I'm overly confident that I'm going to do well next year, but the way I look at it is if I'm not fishing good enough to make the Cup, then I'm probably not going to do that good in the Cup, anyways. If I don't make it, it'll be my own fault, and I'm willing to take that risk.

"In the meantime, I'm trying to make some good hunting shows for people to watch."

One Down, Several to Go

Before you start thinking that Morgan's hunting excursion will cost him at least as much as competing at Champlain would, that's not the case. Moultrie's The Hit List, the show he stars in along with Gerald Swindle, will be picking up the tab for the trip.

It's his second such outing of 2011 – he's already been to Colorado, where he used a bow to bag a 5-by-5 mule deer that field-dressed at better than 200 pounds. He'll be pursuing a big whitetail in North Dakota this week, and then another the following week in Nebraska.

Filming for other episodes will take him to Illinois, Iowa, Kansas and Kentucky, and one will be shot in his home state.

"Hunting to make a TV show is kind of like fishing a tournament – you've got a little added pressure there," he said. "You've got to make sure that something happens, and that it's something interesting that somebody's going to want to watch. You've got a cameraman with you, and with two people there's more scent, more movement and more noise.

"There's a lot to be prepared for and a lot that can happen, and you have to try to make sure everything's in place when your opportunity comes up."

Keeps Hanging Around

Morgan's 10th-place finish in this year's Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) race was his fifth straight final placement of that high or better (he was the runner-up to Bryan Thrift in 2010). He'd naturally like to kick that door down at some point, but he's not obsessed with capturing the crown.

He'd have made a stronger run at the AOY this year if not for an 89th at the Red River in May – an event in which he was one of several anglers to incur major boat problems due to the low-water conditions. The worst of his other five finishes was a 40th and he followed up the regular season with a 5th-place showing at the Cup.

"It'd be great and it'd be a nice feather in my hat, but it wouldn't change my life," he said of the AOY. "I'm the kind of guy who just goes out and tries to catch as much as I can every day and make as much money as I can in every event, and then I sit back and see how that hand plays out. I don't get too uptight over much.

"If I keep making good runs at it, it'll eventually fall into place. You have to have pretty much a perfect year and there's always one guy that that happens to. It just hasn't been me yet."

Notable

> Morgan said he will compete in the final FLW Tour Open next month at Guntersville.

> His consistency over the long haul is reflected in the BassFan World Rankings, where he started the year at 8th and ended it at 7th.