By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

The man who holds the record for most career Top-10 finishes in FLW history now – finally – owns the title that rewards the type of consistency he's built a career on.

Andy Morgan, the easy-going, no frills Tennessean who sometimes prefers a tree stand to the front deck of his bass boat, clinched his first Angler of the Year (AOY) title Friday with another workmanlike effort that saw him make yet another Top-20 cut and has him in position to make a run at his third Top-10 of the year.

After finishing among the Top 10 in points the last 6 seasons – he led entering the final event in 2008 – he finally reached the pinnacle this year and he did it with a strong showing on the familiar waters of Lake Chickamauga near his home in Dayton, Tenn. He caught 16-10 on day 2 to run his total to 34-11, good enough for 14th.

"Oh, it's starting to sink in now," he said Friday night after finishing up tackle prep for day 3. "It was just another day for me, but it's a great accomplishment. It's just one of those deals where it's such a long shot to win it and now that's it happened, I'm like, 'Damn! Wow, it can happen to me!'

"I couldn't have scripted it any better, other than winning the tournament. It was pretty sweet. I'm very pleased with that. It's great to win, but it's even better to win at home and have everyone come out to support you."

He came into the season finale with a 9-point lead over good friend Bryan Thrift, who bunked at Morgan's house this week. Even if he slips to 20th Saturday, the smallest deficit Morgan can win by will be 30 points, which will represent the largest margin of victory since 2010 when Thrift bested Morgan by 51 points.

If not for a 68th-place finish at Beaver Lake, site of his only FLW Tour win, he would've made the AOY chase a blowout. Beaver was the only time in the last eight Tour events he's fished dating back to last year that he finished outside the Top 15.

"Looking back over the years where I've done better than others, it seems like the years when we've had really wet springs is when I've done well," he said. "This year, we've had plenty of water everywhere, other than Beaver, so I guess it was the perfect scenario for me to win AOY."

Over his career – he started fishing FLW in 1996 and has been fishing full-time since 2003 – he's amassed 25 Top-10s in FLW Tour events and 54 overall across all FLW leagues. He's won eight times across FLW and Bassmaster leagues, but his lone Tour win remains the 2007 event at Beaver Lake.

"I've never really thought of myself as being snake-bitten," he said. "I've always been that hard-luck guy who's had a lot of 2nds and 3rds through the years. There have come times, though, when I've said, 'Good God, when's something good going to happen?'"

Now that it has, don't expect the shiny AOY trophy or the $100,000 bonus that goes with it to change the 41-year-old on or off the water. He said Friday felt like just another day at the office.

"Sure, it's a great feather in my cap, but I'm not going to get too high or too low," he said. "It's like farming. Every so often, you get a drought and other times you get just the right amount of rain and then other times you get a flood. You have to take it day to day.

"You can't get too high on yourself. I think the ones who do that eventually fall apart and I'm definitely not one of those guys. I'm not geared that way."

What he is geared to do is compete. He's been fishing tournaments since he was 15. That's when he won a nearly 300-boat Chattanooga Bass Association individual-weight tournament at Chickamauga.

"That got the ball rolling. I got the taste for it then," he said. "I've always thought I could make it in fishing. Any money I've ever made has been from fishing.

"I actually don't fish much in my off time. I do occasionally, but I just really like the competition of tournaments."

Because he won AOY he's qualified to fish his record 16th career Forrest Wood Cup next month at the Red River in Louisiana. It also clinched him a berth in next year's Cup, the location of which isn't likely to be announced until this year's Cup.

As for his fishing this week, he says the lake is fishing about as good as can be expected right now.

"A lot of the schooling places have been found," he said, "but I've got some sneaky places and I've seen a lot of stuff that nobody was fishing."

He estimated catching 15 to 18 keepers on day 1, but that tally dropped to nine on Friday.

"I've had some decent bites, but I haven't caught a 4-pounder yet," he added. "They've all been in that 3- to 3 1/2-pound range. I'm actually kind of surprised I haven't caught a big one yet."