MLF Pro Profile: Andy Morgan

Game & Fish: You’re the only bass pro we know who would rather be a professional duck hunter.

Andy Morgan: That’s pretty much the truth, although I’d have to say that we might have to expand that a little. I’m a duck-hunting fool, but if I could have my wish and be a full-time pro at hunting, I’d have to hunt deer and turkey, too, and maybe throw in an elk here and there. Duck season doesn’t last but three months a year—we’d have some lean months between February and November. Plus, a man can’t live on duck meat alone, can he?

G&F: But you’re a hunting fool, no opposition to that statement?

AM: I am. I’m maybe the biggest hunting fool you’ll ever meet. I’m happy to say that I’ve made a good living as a professional bass fisherman, but the minute the bass season is over and hunting seasons start, you’ll have a hard time finding me unless you’re looking in my deer stands or duck blinds. I hunt a lot. And I mean a lot lot.

Andy Morgan Shapshot

• MLF Bass Pro Tour angler
• Hometown: Dayton, Tenn.
• Years Pro: 24

G&F: Bow or flipping stick?

AM: Now that depends. If you’re asking me what I’d pick up if I was spending some time, I’d choose a bow. I have a flipping stick in my hand for hours at a time, day after day, seven months out of the year, so that thing is almost an extension of my arm.

If you ask me which one is more valuable to me, I’m going straight for that flipping stick, because that’s how I make my living. But I dearly love to shoot a bow. I have targets set up behind my house where I can pick up a bow, walk out onto my back porch and shoot 50, 75 and 100 yards, and I do it often. Both for practice, and because I just love to shoot a bow.

G&F: Are you more natural at fishing or hunting?

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AM: I don’t know if you’d call me a “natural” at either; I’ve just spent almost all my life doing both. My family hunted and fished for as far back as I can remember. I was guiding duck hunts when I was in grade school, and my dad and I fished bass tournaments from the time I was a kid.I think I was maybe 11 or 12 when I started taking a boat out by myself to fish. I missed my high school graduation to fish a tournament—I made $1,500 that day, so I had a pretty good idea of where I was headed in life. East Tennessee is hunting and fishing country, so I guess if you call me a natural, you can call just about everybody I grew up with a natural, too.