“This is what it’s all about” said Andy Morgan. “I don’t care what it is…fishing, marbles, if I’m playing, I want to win.”

“When you think of the caliber of anglers that fish this event, winning would mean a ton to me” added David Walker. “I’ve been close so many times that it seems like I should be due. I’ve taken this competition seriously and to be at the brink of a championship is awesome.”

“Yeah, the money is great, but it’s about that belt” said Andy Morgan. “It’s a prestige event and being able to say you beat the likes of a David Walker, Mark Davis, and Dan Morehead…that’s big.”

With the announcement by host Joe Thomas that the first four quarters would be shortened to one hour and the match would culminate with a two hour fish-off, each angler immediately began to refine their strategies.

“You could see the wheels start turning” commented Thomas. “These guys knew we would throw them some type of curveball in the championship match, they just didn’t know what it would be. As soon as I made the announcement, you could tell that the strategies were changing. It’s a tricky game when you have to consider showing your hand early on or saving your best for the final two hours. Some anglers want to bury their counterpart early and make them sweat. Others just want to take a few jabs and play it safe. With Andy and David, we felt it was going to be a chess match in the first four quarters and that’s exactly how it played out.”

With just one hour per quarter to fish, Morgan and Walker began by playing defense early on, fishing riprap banks and easily defensible spots on sprawling Lake Dardanelle. But it was the one that got away that marked the biggest difference in the early going. Fishing on a weekend with a massive regional tournament also being held on the lake, David Walker was having a tough time coaxing a bite at the mouth of Piney Creek with several local tournament boats already pounding the area. After making consecutive casts to a bridge abutment, Walker set the hook on a stout largemouth only to watch the hook break free, but not before he got a good look at what he considered to be a three pounder.

“With bites as hard to come by on a pressured lake during less than ideal conditions, you can’t make a mistake like that and expect to come out on top” said Walker.

And then Mother Nature decided to play a little havoc with the proceedings by releasing a deluge of rain, wind, lightening and thunder onto Lake Dardanelle which came very close to causing a postponement of the match.

“We fish through everything but lightning” added referee Mark Randolph. “If it starts to get dangerous, we pull the plug and I was just seconds away from doing just that. We try to keep this competition authentic. It’s not a baseball game. We don’t have rain delays. The only thing that shuts us down is lightning, period.”

Fortunately, the storm moved north just far enough to let the match continue. At the end of the four quarter head-to-head play, both Morgan and Walker were tied with one fish a piece. This week, the dramatic two-hour shootout will determine the 2008 UMF Champion. Don’t miss a second of the action this week on Ultimate Match Fishing only on Outdoor Channel, America’s Leader in Outdoor TV.