Peru man sweeps Invitationals Angler, Rookie of the Year titles

TRENTON, Mich. | After catching fire at the Toyota Series level in 2023, Alec Morrison entered his debut season touring nationally on the short list of favorites to claim the Polaris Rookie of the Year title for the Tackle Warehouse Invitationals. True to form, Morrison continued his meteoric rise through the tournament ranks by not only coming through to claim that crown but winning the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race as well. While Morrison came up 10 ounces short of winning Stop 6 Presented by B&W Hitches on the Detroit River, he'll return to New York with an impressive hardware haul. After besting Jake Lawrence by 17 points in the season-long AOY competition, Morrison received $50,000 from Fishing Clash as well as a berth to REDCREST 2025 on Lake Guntersville. He'll also receive a new Polaris UTV plus an invitation to join the Bass Pro Tour — Major League Fishing's top circuit — in 2025. "It feels unbelievable," Morrison said. "It's super cool to be able to win against such a stout field." Laying the groundwork for a spectacular season For as long as he can remember, Morrison has wanted one thing more than any other: To make his living fishing for bass. He's worked to achieve that objective since well before he was old enough to drive. "I'd get home from school, and my mom would bring me to the lake and dump me in the water, and I wouldn't do my homework," Morrison recalled with a laugh. "I would just go out there and literally fish until dark. I spent a lot of nights fishing until dark and then graphing until like 3 a.m." Bud Cipoletti, who Morrison considers a mentor and close friend, first met Morrison when Morrison was about 11 years old. It didn't take long for Morrison's knowledge and passion to stand out as he competed on and around Lake Champlain, his home fishery "Everybody just saw the fire in his eye, the passion, the focus level at a very young age," Cipoletti said. "And we all saw it coming, his ascent to success." The rest of the country got a glimpse of what Cipoletti had seen in 2023. That winter, Morrison spent several months living with Cipoletti and Garrett Rocamora in Florida. Already a strong offshore smallmouth angler, Morrison threw himself into learning more about shallow grass fisheries and trophy-sized largemouth with gusto and results that amazed Cipoletti. "I met up with him at the end of a day on (Lake) Placid together, and I watched him put together like a 49-pound bag," Cipoletti recalled. "It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I watched his whole process, and it felt like somebody who had perfected their method. He had a whole system of scanning forever, for four hours, and finding all of the juice, and then going back through scientifically, methodically — with the wind, against the wind. And I watched him put together that insane bag, and I was like, this is crazy. And the thing is, he did that every day for the next few weeks. He put together like 45-plus-pound bags on a lake that everybody had said was on the downslide. And then he won every local tournament in Florida that he entered." Morrison rode that momentum to a May Toyota Series event on Sam Rayburn Reservoir. In his first ever trip to the famous fishery, he not only beat a field of Texas hammers but set a Toyota Series record with his 24-pound margin of victory. While Cipoletti said he wasn't surprised by Morrison's performance, Morrison himself points to his Rayburn route as a moment he started to believe he could compete outside of the Northeast. That confidence further ballooned as he went on to win one Phoenix Bass Fishing League event on Champlain plus finish second in another as well as winning the Angler of the Year crown for the Toyota Series Northern Division. "Rayburn was definitely a huge turning point," Morrison said. "I feel like I fished kind of a specific kind of way, and I had a few good events on my home body of water, Champlain, in years past, but I basically never won anything. Once I was able to get that victory, I was able to kind of look at myself as an angler and realize, I can do this; the way I like to fish works." A nearly flawless campaign Even as well as Morrison finished the 2023 campaign, he didn't enter his rookie season on the Invitationals thinking about winning Angler of the Year or qualifying for the Bass Pro Tour. With Rayburn and Champlain both on the schedule, his primary goal was to win one of those two events. "I was like, I should probably fish (the Invitationals) considering two of them are places I feel really confident at," Morrison said with his typical nonchalance. "So, that was really the main goal going into the season was to win those two events, and it's really crazy how things kind of came together." While Morrison didn't hoist the trophy at either event, he did finish among the Top 10 in both. Now, looking back at a season he initially thought might contain some highs and lows, it's his consistency that jumps off the page. Morrison made the cut at all six Invitationals. He finished among the Top 10 four times, with three of those being fourth place or better. His average finish of 8.67 is the best by an angler on the Invitationals/Pro Circuit since Bryan Thrift in 2010. "He had 17 pretty much great days of fishing in a row," fellow Invitationals pro and New York native Brett Carnright said. "He never slipped up one time, never had an off day, which is extremely impressive, because when you go to new bodies of water and only get three days of practice, usually a couple times throughout the year, you're going to have a bad day." While his season contained a lot of memorable moments, Morrison pointed to two that went the furthest toward propelling him to the points crown. The first occurred on Day 2 at Sam Rayburn, when he caught an 11-pound lunker. The second came during his first day of practice on Kentucky Lake. Morrison said he feared that event more than any other on the schedule, but after finding a stretch of offshore structure dotted with spawning smallmouth, he suddenly believed he could contend for the win. It was after he finished fourth in that event that Morrison said he seriously started gunning for Angler of the Year. "I was real nervous about that one, and it all pretty much changed on Day 1 of practice," Morrison said. "In three hours, I figured out what I needed to do to basically win. That was really kind of the turning point to kind of take a step back and be like, 'oh, man, (AOY) is a potential, for sure.'" Morrison credits his ability to succeed on unfamiliar bodies of water to his electronics mastery. Coming from a 25-year-old in the modern fishing era, that probably isn't a surprise. However, while Morrison is certainly adept with forward-facing sonar, he thinks his willingness and ability to break down a lake using mapping, SideScan and down imaging are his greatest strengths — skills he honed by graphing nearly all 300,000-plus acres of Lake Champlain. "I grew up essentially learning that the dude who put the most work in behind the console was typically the guy who did the best," Morrison said. "It's taken thousands and thousands of hours to graph all of Lake Champlain. But I learned so much valuable information about fish and why they get on places that they do." Cipoletti called Morrison "brilliant," saying he has a natural feel for fish behavior and tournament strategy that few others possess. But just as important, he points to the work ethic he observed during Morrison's stint on Lake Placid as what separates him. "He stayed out until 3 in the morning again, just scanning," Cipoletti said. "It's not even a tournament lake, it's just his obsession with being the best. It's like Michael Jordan-type stuff for me to witness, like somebody just shooting hoops until 3 in the morning, practicing more than anybody else." Overcoming a penalty to finish strong As good as Morrison's Invitationals season was, he never held the Angler of the Year lead prior to Stop 6. He entered the final event of the season 6 points shy of Lawrence. Rather than fishing for points, Morrison entered the event shooting for the win, a mindset he tries to employ every time he takes the water. Running to Lake St. Clair, he decided during practice he didn't want to fish among the crowd in Anchor Bay. Instead, he found two areas void of competitors where more bass seemed to be showing up each day. "A lot of guys were fishing in very similar areas, and I really only spent like two hours in those community areas in practice," Morrison explained. "After two hours, I knew that the whole Anchor Bay deal was just not going to be it for me, and I wanted to find something to myself, and it worked out." It turns out, Morrison found the winning fish. However, on Day 1, he incurred a 2-pound penalty for making a cast with six bass in his livewell, which wound up costing him the trophy. While that stung, the fact that Morrison was still able to finish second and clinch the AOY crown illustrated his quiet resolve. "I've never made a mistake like that on the water, and I certainly won't ever make one like that again," he said. "It cost me the tournament. But in another sense, it pushed me to go even harder each day, because it felt like I was trying to climb Mt. Everest the rest of the day. I had to go above and beyond just to have a good day. So, it definitely pushed me through the event." Those who know Morrison best think the close call will only further fuel his ascent. He plans to fish both the Invitationals and Bass Pro Tour schedules in 2025, and both Carnright and Cipoletti don't expect his success to slow down. "I think this AOY is going to even bump him up another level," Carnright predicted. "I think he's going to hit another gear after this week. I think he's just going to continue to excel." "He's going to continue to threaten to win or win anything he enters," Cipoletti said.

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Peru man sweeps Invitationals Angler, Rookie of the Year titles

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