Going into the fifth and final FLW Majors Division qualifying tournament of the year for the 2011 Forrest Wood Cup, the main goal for Bryan Thrift, the FLW Tour’s 2010 Angler of the Year, is just to make a check on Pickwick Lake this weekend.

Already qualified for the FLW Tour Majors Championship, Thrift would like to earn some money for his family which now includes his first child, 9-month-old Wylie.

Thrift started the year right where he left off in 2010, taking first place in the season opener March 2 on Beaver Lake and earning $125,000. He boosted his annual pay by $20,500 March 24 on Lake Hartwell, then hit a two-tournament skid where he finished out of the money before picking up a $9,930 check for 34^th place at Kentucky Lake June 16.

Although he has not fished on a pace as hot as last year when he won the points championship, and he has fished out of the money in two of the five tournaments in the series so far this year, Thrift said it actually has been a good year for him.

He capped off the 2010 season with a 10^th place finish in the Forrest Wood Cup last August on Georgia’s Lake Lanier then picked up a total of $155,430 in three paydays so far this year, bringing his career-win total in FLW Outdoors tournaments to $849,636.

“Any time you win one it makes a good year,” he noted.

Catching enough of the right kind of fish to make a check at Pickwick might not be as easy as it sounds, Thrift admitted, although he will be in the same boat as the other anglers in the field.

“Fishing is not as good as I thought it would be,” he said late Wednesday after four days of practice. “There are a lot of schools out there, but it’s hard to get one to bite.”

The problem is the fish are deep because of the high water temperatures, and they are in hiding.

“I definitely think it is going to be won out deep on the ledges,” the Shelby, N.C., angler said. “I do have a couple of shallow places where I think I can catch a few fish, but I am going to try to catch fish out deep. I don’t think the tournament can be won fishing shallow.”

As he checked over his equipment Wednesday night before launching early Thursday morning for the first day of the FLW Tour Major on Pickwick Lake Thursday morning, Thrift outlined his game plan for the final qualifier.

“I’ll be using my electronics to locate both structure and fish. If I find structure and there are no fish on it, I will not fish it. If there are fish down there I’ve been throwing an 11-inch Dimiki worm on 12-pound line with a 3/4-ounce sinker to keep it down the current. I’ll be fishing it slow,” he said.

And if the fish are not biting deep, Thrift said, he will go to Plan B, which is to fish the two shallow places he found with some fish on them.

Since he has already qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup, he wants to earn some money for young Wylie’s scholarship fund. And then, once he gets going in the Forrest Wood Cup next month on Lake Ouachita in Hot Springs, Ark., he’d love another top 10 finish, “hopefully a first place,” he said.

 

FLW Tour Major

Jul 21-14, 2011

Pickwick Lake

McFarland Park

www.flwoutdoors.com