The fall of 2002 was a tumultuous time for professional bass anglers across the country. Pros who had simultaneously fished both the Wal-Mart FLW Tour and the BASS Tour without incident were suddenly faced with a new reality.
For the first time in competitive-fishing history, the nation’s two top bass-fishing tours had conflicting tournament dates in April 2003. Additionally, BASS had increased its schedule to 10 events, all held during the same time frame as the six Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship qualifiers.
Pros either had to fish both tours or choose one tour over the other. Fishing both tours meant traveling across the country to some 12 to 15 major-league events in a six-month period. Choosing just one tour meant sacrifices in the other.
Sleepless nights
In the middle of it all was Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky. For several weeks neither Morehead nor his wife Jennie got much sleep.
After tucking their 2-year-old daughter, Sarah, into bed each night, the Moreheads kept late hours thinking, discussing, figuring and praying over what to do about Dan’s fishing career.
“We did not get much sleep during that time,” Morehead said recently while recounting his season. “We calculated every possible scenario, from fishing both tours to fishing just BASS to fishing just the FLW Tour.
“The first realization I had was that I was not going to do both,” he said. “I have been there, done that. I fished both tours, including the EverStart Series and BASS Opens, for several years. I knew what those two-tour guys were getting into. For me, squeezing that many events into a six-month period was ridiculous. I have a little daughter at home, and I am not going to miss her growing up because I am at a tournament every week.”
But the toughest part of Morehead’s dilemma was deciding which tour to abandon and which to embrace. Morehead was going to have to sacrifice a solid career track in one or the other.
“That was the hardest part,” Morehead said. “I grew up on the BASS circuit when Dad fished some of their events in the ’70s. After I turned pro in the ’90s, I qualified for three Bassmasters Classics, won a Top 100 event and an Open. I was building a solid career track at BASS.”
Morehead also had a solid career track on the FLW Tour, including five FLW Tour Championship qualifications and an FLW Tour win.
“What people don’t know about these difficult decisions is that we have a lot of blood, sweat and tears invested in building our tournament-career foundations,” he said. “A win or two and a handful of championships may not sound like much to some, but to us, it’s our career, it’s what we have built, and the idea of giving that up is hard.”
Formulating the plan
As Dan and Jennie Morehead carefully studied their options, it became evident that the FLW Tour fit their needs better.
For starters, the FLW Tour schedule was more economical, especially since one of the events was in Morehead’s back yard – Kentucky Lake. With only six events on the FLW Tour, Morehead could also fish the Central Division of the EverStart Series, which also included a Kentucky Lake stop.
Morehead’s biggest sponsors, Stratos Boats and Evinrude motors, were also Wal-Mart FLW Tour sponsors. But what captured Morehead’s attention most of all was the $1.5 million FLW Tour Championship.
“Every time we ran the numbers, the FLW Tour offered more money, assuming I made the championship. So that became fishing priority No. 1.”
Finally Morehead formulated a plan that would seek a balance between fishing and family. The center of his fishing focus became the FLW Tour and its championship. He would fish the Central Division EverStart Series events in between FLW Tour tournaments, and his time off would be dedicated to his family and other passions like archery and hunting.
Old school bassing
When Morehead started his professional bass-fishing career in 1995, he was not exactly new to competitive bass fishing.
In fact, his father, Dr. Charles “Doc” Morehead, had dabbled in the professional ranks of the BASS Tour in the mid ’70s and had taken little Dan, about 7 or 8 years old at the time, along with him.
“When Dad fished BASS, it was the era of Billy and Bobby Murray,” Morehead said. “Dad was at the first BASS event that Rick Clunn fished. He can verify the story of Clunn needing to make a check just to have gas money to get home. Since Dad was a doctor, he obviously could not commit to the circuits all year long, but he took me to a few, and I got a taste of the competitive-fishing lifestyle.”
In high school, Morehead developed an interest in money, and it looked as if he might become a financier.
“I was captivated by money, economics and the financial markets,” he said. “When I was a junior in high school, my grandparents gave me $5,000 to trade in the financial markets. By the end of the summer, I had made enough off that $5,000 to buy my first bass boat – a small, used boat that would get me out on the water.”
Because of his love for bass fishing, Morehead decided to attend college at Murray State University – only seven miles from Kentucky Lake. Because of his interest in finances, he studied business.
“During my first semester of college, I either deer-hunted or bass-fished every day,” he said. “Needless to say, I had to repeat that semester, but not before my dad pulled me out of school and lined me up with some employment at a scrap yard. That was the dirtiest, nastiest job I ever had. After 10 months of that, I was ready to go back to school and study.”
Morehead studied, but he also continued to fish. “I paid a lot of tuition with local tournament winnings,” he said.
In May of 1994, Morehead graduated from Murray State with a Bachelor of Science in business and finance.
Bassing in the big leagues
On the heels of graduation, Morehead was ready to pit his fishing skills against the best anglers in the nation. He entered the BASS Central Opens that fall.
“Dad and I went to the bank, and he co-signed a $50,000 line of credit so I could start my fishing career,” Morehead said. “I was going to give myself three years to make it as a professional bass angler.”
Morehead wasted little time in proving he had the skills to compete at the top level. After one season of Opens, he qualified for the Bassmasters Classic.
After his first Classic appearance in the summer of 1995, Morehead went straight into the 1995-1996 BASS Tour. But following a full season on tour, he noticed he was having a bit of a cash-flow problem.
“By the fall of 1996, I had spent $46,000 of my allotted $50,000,” he said. “By the start of the ’96-’97 season, I had just enough money left to pay a few entries.”
For those who are predestined to become professional bass anglers, the big win always comes at just the right time – and Morehead’s timing was impeccable. He won a BASS Tour event on the Potomac River in September 1996. For his win he received $46,000.
“I paid off all my debts and got married the very next month. I promised my wife that we would never owe money to anybody again,” he said.
From there, Morehead’s professional angling career took off. He started fishing both the FLW Tour and the BASS Tour simultaneously.
For the next several years, Morehead experienced a good share of tournament success. He qualified for both the FLW Tour Championship and the Bassmasters Classic in 1997. In 1998, he won an FLW Tour event on Kentucky Lake and a BASS Open on Lake of the Ozarks, and he again qualified for both tour championships.
He qualified for the FLW Tour Championship in 1999 and 2001 as well, but Morehead’s fishing cooled off a bit in 2001. Late in 2000, he learned that one of his longtime sponsors, OMC, had filed for bankruptcy.
“Losing OMC kind of took the wind out of my sails,” he said. “My boat and motor sponsor were my two biggest-paying sponsors, and suddenly they were gone. That loss of income and security made me apprehensive. Our daughter was just a year old, and my wife had just stopped working – it all kind of caught up to me at once.”
Eventually, Morehead got his two major sponsors back, but it took a while. Stratos Boats was the first to sign Morehead back on in late 2001.
The spring of 2002 was another rough ride for Morehead, fishing-wise. He did not get any lift under his wings until May 2002, when he won an EverStart Series event on Kentucky Lake. Several months later, Bombardier bought Evinrude, and Morehead got his motor sponsor back.
“I probably could have knocked on other doors and found another boat and motor sponsorship,” he said. “But loyalty is important to me. I don’t want to be one of those guys who jumps ship every year. I have been with Stratos and Evinrude for a long time. They have stood by me in some thin times, and I was very happy to be back with both of them.
“The summer of 2002 was a real turning point for me,” he said. “I had my old sponsors back, and my fishing felt good again. Once I jumped that last hurdle of deciding which tour to commit to, everything just flowed. Every time I put my boat in the water this season I felt like I was going to catch fish.”
Putting the plan to work
Morehead charged out of the gates at the FLW Tour season opener on Lake Okeechobee with a third-place finish.
“Okeechobee has always been my nemesis on the FLW Tour,” he said. “Once I got off to a good start there, Angler of the Year never crossed my mind, but the championship sure did. I figured I was right on target.”
At Atchafalaya, he posted a 23rd-place finish, and his focus stayed locked on a championship berth.
When Morehead finished eighth at the third stop on Lake Murray and took a 19-point lead in the Angler of the Year race, the title looked like a possibility.
“The three lakes I was worried about the most were behind me, and I had a 19-point lead,” he said. “I remember driving home from Murray and thinking that Angler of the Year was a very real possibility.”
With Kentucky Lake being one of the remaining tournaments, it’s easy to see how Morehead thought Angler of the Year was within his grasp. But it was actually the last event, scheduled for Wheeler Lake, that gave him the most confidence in bringing the title into fruition.
“I am not big on those Northeast smallmouth tournaments,” he said. “I love to go up there and fish, but tournament-wise, they are tough on me. It’s really easy to go to Champlain, catch 15 pounds a day for two days and come home with your tail between your legs. When I get up there, I don’t know how to catch 3 3/4-pounders over 3 1/4-pounders. Needless to say, I had a lot more confidence finishing the tour at Wheeler – especially in June – than up North.”
On a roll
Morehead came roaring into Rogers, Ark., for stop No. 4 steeped in confidence. After a few days of practice on Beaver Lake, he candidly told fellow competitors that he would win the tournament.
The term “cocky” soon surfaced on the whispers of his competitors. Morehead caught flack from his friends for being a little too boastful about his abilities so early in the season. They were afraid that flaunting such an attitude would be a certain kiss of death for his title chances.
But Morehead silenced the wave of whispers and concerns when he laid claim to the Wal-Mart Open with an 8-pound margin of victory and left Beaver Lake with a 51-point lead in the Angler of the Year race.
Beaver Lake was the peak of Morehead’s season. He went on to defend his lead on his home turf on Kentucky Lake, but a slipup there (55th place) allowed Castrol pro David Dudley of Manteo, N.C., to cut his lead to 26 points and apply some pressure going into Wheeler.
Morehead made the last event of the year really interesting by turning in his worst finish of the season (68th). He left the door wide open for a come-from-behind takeover by Dudley, but Dudley could not capitalize. Morehead officially won the 2003 Land O’Lakes Angler of the Year title by a 47-point margin.
On cockiness and confidence
When asked about his reputation to boast about his fishing abilities from time to time, Morehead is quick to respond.
“To me, there is a fine line between cockiness and confidence,” he said. “If someone asks me if I am catching fish, I don’t lie to them. I tell them what I think I can catch. If I think I can catch 12 pounds a day at Beaver Lake, that’s what I will say. To me, that’s just confidence. Believe me, I know what it feels like to be humbled in this sport. I am not ashamed to say that I have sure enough been humbled at this game. But at this level of competition, a major component of success is attitude.”
Morehead points to the console of his Stratos bass boat, just above the steering wheel, where a sign reads, “Believe it and achieve it. Doubt it – do without it.”
“That’s a saying Randy Clark, a co-angler, taught me,” he said. “Of all the variables we cannot control in this sport, attitude is one we can control. If you don’t have the right attitude to start with – if you doubt yourself – you will lose before you begin. You have to believe in yourself and your abilities. To me, that’s just being confident, not cocky.”
Focus and family
Off the water, Morehead says that focus and family have been two other major components in his Angler of the Year journey. The focus has come in the form of competitive archery, and family has been in the form of more time at home.
“When I fished both tours for several years, I lost contact with some of my passions – archery and hunting – and being away from home so much tore me up,” he said. “So as part of my plan this year, I decided to spend the time I was not fishing with my family and rediscovering my other interests.”
Morehead has been shooting competitive archery since 1982. He says that it is a discipline that has much in common with tournament fishing.
“Competitive archery requires extended periods of intense concentration,” Morehead said. “Many times, shoots last four or five hours, and you have to be focused each time you step up to shoot. It is mentally taxing. When that arrow leaves your hand, you know, before it hits the target, whether it was a good shot or not. That same feeling applies to fishing. Like I said earlier, each time my boat left the dock this year, it was like that arrow leaving the bow on a good shot; I just knew I was going to catch fish. Out of 18 tournament days this year (on the FLW Tour), I weighed in 85 bass out of a possible 90. That’s about 95 percent in the bull’s-eye.”
In addition to fishing one tour, believing in himself and sharpening his focus with archery, Morehead adds that being with his family has had a significant impact on his fishing, too.
These days, when he spends time at home, he gives Jennie and little Sarah his undivided attention instead of hastily repacking his truck and boat to run off to another tournament.
“I can now come home and totally forget about the water for a few days,” he said. “After spending a week with the family I am rested, refocused and ready to fish. This whole year has just been grand. I love it when a plan comes together.”