MORGENTHALER’S MAJOR FOCUS

Story by Matt Pangrac - FLW photos by Matt Pangrac - PAA photos courtesy of PAA Communications

Coulterville, IL - Entering his 8th season on the FLW Tour, Chad Morgenthaler is on a mission to refocus and qualify for the second Forrest Wood Cup of his career.  Between 2003 and 2005, the Illinois pro recorded nine Top 10 finishes in FLW EverStart, Bassmaster Open, Bassmaster Tour, and Elite 50 competition.  Since 2006, he has finished in the Top 10 just five times in EverStart, FLW Tour, and PAA Tour competition. 

With a readjusted schedule, new attitude towards tournament fishing, and a 3rd place finish already under his belt at the recent PAA Tour Team Challenge, it looks like things might be lining up for Morgenthaler to make his move in 2012.

Major Focus
After fishing six FLW Tour Majors, four FLW Tour Opens, four PAA Tour events and the Toyota Texas Bass Classic in 2011, Morgenthaler said that he made a conscious decision to scale back his tournament load in 2012 in order to focus on quality over quantity. 

“My wife has been beating me over the head for years to really pay attention to how many tournaments I fish each season because I tend to get burnt out,” he explained.  “I’m no spring chicken anymore, and even though I’m in pretty good shape, after so many weeks in a row of fishing daylight to dark it kind of starts losing some luster for me.”

Morgenthaler said that he originally planned on fishing another full schedule in 2012 that included 10 FLW Tour events, four PAA Tour tournaments, and three Bassmaster Opens, but he opted to drop three of the FLW Tour Opens (fishing only Okeechobee) and the Bassmaster Opens at the last minute.

The decision resulted from a combination of losing Fishouflage as one of his sponsors and the need for more down time.  “I just wasn’t excited about the locations of the other three Tour Opens this season, and when you combine that with losing some sponsor money, it was just one of those decisions that I needed to make.”

He hopes that the six additional weeks off during the season will give him time to recover and be fully prepared for the FLW Tour Majors.  “Getting some breaks in between events should definitely help me,” said Morgenthaler. “I can look back over my career and see that whenever I’ve fished less, I’ve fished much better than I have when I’ve tried to increase my tournament load. 

“When you’re fishing a lot of events and you’re on a roll, it’s great.  When you lose that roll, then the bad things start to compound and you just can’t get away from it.  You start getting tired and it becomes really easy to miss things.”

After serving a one-year term as President of the PAA in 2010-2011, Morgenthaler said that after his term ended, he noticed a significant improvement in his on-the-water performance. “I definitely have a lot more time now that I’m not the PAA President,” he explained. “I’m still active with the organization, and Dave Mansue is doing a great job now, but once that responsibility was over I started fishing a lot better. 

“The additional time will really allow me to start working towards some of my goals,” Morgenthaler continued. “I’d really like to think that at some point I can make a run at an AOY title, and I need to get back in the groove with things.”

Strong Start
After kicking off 2012 with a 3rd place finish at the PAA Tour Team Challenge on Florida’s Lake Toho with teammate Glenn Browne, Morgenthaler is off to a good start in 2012. 

“Glenn has logged a ton of hours on that lake and my track record isn’t that bad in Florida, so we thought that we had a chance to do well,” said Morgenthaler.  Leading the tournament after the first day with a limit weighing 31.89-pounds, the team became a victim of their own success.  “It kind of created a problem, because then we couldn’t leave that area.  We knew if the weather cooperated a little bit, we could bust another big bag.  It just never happened.”

Morgenthaler is hoping to keep the Florida momentum going in to the first FLW Tour Open of the season on Lake Okeechobee.  In the 2011 FLW Tour Open on Okeechobee, he averaged over 21-pounds a day and finished 23rd.

“It wouldn’t surprise me if it took 110-pounds to win this year,” stated Morgenthaler. “All the three- to four-pounders that we were culling last year are now five-pounders.  There have been a lot of stringers over 22-pounds weighed-in down there, and I know that it’s hard to believe, but it’s just incredible right now. It’s going to be another slugfest.”

Favorable Schedule
Looking at the schedule for the FLW Tour Majors, Morgenthaler said that he’s hoping for a fast start for the first half of the season.  "Table Rock and Beaver are going to fish to my strengths, and I really think that even though I didn’t do well there last time, Lake Hartwell is really going to set up well for me,” he explained.  “I have a tendency to start the season with some good finishes.”

One of the biggest question marks floating over the FLW Tour this season is just how much umbrella rigs will come in to play.  Morgenthaler acknowledges that regardless of his past history on Beaver and Table Rock, the new rig could change things.

“Am I excited about having to use it? No.  But am I going to use it to try to stay competitive?  Yes.  I don’t have a lot of time with that system under my belt yet, but it’s going to come in to play,” he stated. “It could be a major player on both Beaver Lake and Table Rock. It’s going to affect the outcome of the tournaments this year.  I’ll get some experience with it and maybe it will benefit me this season.”

Morgenthaler said that over the past year, he has changed his approach to tournament fishing, and he’s starting to see results. “I was fishing a little bit defensively most of the time, and I just wasn’t getting a shot at those 20-pound limits,” he admitted. “I’ve changed up the way that I fish under certain conditions and I’ve noticed some immediate differences.  I’m catching bigger fish now that I have in the past three or four years.

“I haven’t made the Forrest Wood Cup in a while, and I kind of need to get myself in the right frame of mind.  I’ve still got a lot of work to do, but I feel like recently, I’ve been making the right moves,” he concluded.