Andy Morgan Previews 2015 Forrest Wood Cup

We recently spoke with the 2013 and 2014 FLW Tour Angler of the Year, Andy Morgan to give us a little preview of the 2015 Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita, which takes place August 20-23. Andy finished 5^th at Ouachita in 2011 and will be gunning for his first Forrest Wood Cup victory this year. Let’s see what he had to say:

Garmin: How did pre-practice go? 

Andy Morgan: About like expected. I didn’t really learn anything other than what I already knew. Of course, it was hot and the fishing was slow, to say the least. It was pretty much a wasted trip. I’m not a big pre-practice guy anyway, but in the summertime it can help because nothing really changes this time of year. The weather stays stable and it’s always hot. It either rains or the sun is out. But honestly, not a lot came out of that trip.

Do you expect much to change by the time the tournament begins?

No, the only thing that I thought was going to change was the water level. The water had been coming down for a few weeks prior to pre-practice and it continues to drop at a stable level. That’s really the only thing that I thought would change much of anything, if even that. I don’t think they’ve had any huge rains, so I think it’ll just keep coming down.

I think the fish might move around a little bit, maybe change a couple positions, but I don’t think you’ll see a big movement. It’s just hot; it’s like 100 degrees every day. Water temps were 90 degrees out shallow. It was crazy.

Were you finding fish in the grass? Brush?

I actually went out there in hopes of fishing a bunch of grass, but the grass coverage in the lake was pretty mediocre. Part of the lake had grass in it, but the grass bite wasn’t even that great. I think most fish will be caught out of deep brush and channel edges. That’s just stuff that I’ll run through when I go out there for practice the week of the tournament.

Will you be fishing deep, shallow, or a combination of the two?

I think you’ll see a lot of fish caught shallow on topwater, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that those fish are shallow. A lot of them will come out from deep water to hit it. You can catch them over some of those deep points and stuff on topwater, but I think the tournament will be won deep, offshore.

How have your Garmin units helped you this year and how will they help you at Ouachita?

I’m probably one of the most simple fishermen you’ll ever talk to. I like anything that brings simplicity to my day. I just switched to running Garmin electronics on my boat this year and figured these units out with basically no help at all. They are so simple to learn. The menus are easy to scroll through and the settings are easy to change.

I am running four GPSMAP 840xs chartplotter/sonar combo units with a Panoptix PS31 Forward transducer. I’ve been blown away with how clean the DownVü and SideVü picture is. I’m not a guru on this stuff by any means; I’m more of a shallow water guy, but when it comes down to reading DownVü and SideVü, I can read the Garmin ClearVü Sonar so much easier than I could any of the others. I have gained a lot of confidence in it and actually caught some fish just by reading my electronics. Of course, I’ve caught some in the past with other brands, but I caught more this year with my Garmin units than I ever have before. They’re just simple, easy to read and easy to use.

Of course, Panoptix is awesome when you’re fishing any type of cover, whether it be grass, brush, or whatever. I can see a live picture of what’s out there in front of me and make a precise cast to it. It’s a game of odds. With Panoptix, I can make more accurate casts to things in the water that I can’t see with my eyes, saving me a ton of time and in turn I’m going to catch more fish. I’m far more impressed with Panoptix than I ever have been with any other kind of fishing electronics.

How many pounds over four days do you think it will take to win?

It’ll probably take somewhere in the mid-50s.

Thanks for taking the time to speak with us, Andy, and good luck at the Forrest Wood Cup!

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