Thrift Hopes To Find More Success In Flw Tour Open On Detroit River
At some point everyone who is successful will face his nemesis, a word that describes something that is the cause of defeat or downfall. The successful face their nemesis head-on, sometimes winning, sometimes failing, but always knowing that in the long haul that nemesis is just a bump in the road.
For Bryan Thrift, the Detroit River has been his nemesis in tournament fishing.
“Both times I’ve fished there in the past, I’ve finished worse than the hundreds,” said the pro from Shelby, N.C.
So, it is with some trepidation that Thrift is heading to Trenton, Michigan, to fish the second FLW Tour Open tournament of the year on the Detroit River. He was packing Thursday so he could leave Friday morning for the 10-hour drive to Michigan.
That long ride gave him plenty of time to go over his two previous visits to the Detroit River and, considering what did not work then, try to formulate a practice plan for the coming week.
“I’ve got to do something different than what I did the last two times,” Thrift said. “I’ve never really figured them out up there and at this point I don’t really know what I will do because there is no way to describe it. It’s Great Lakes fishing. You are out in the middle of a big lake looking for a needle in a haystack.”
It’s not like the entire season hinges on how Thrift does on either Lake Erie or Lake Sinclair next week. His record speaks for itself and it can only be described with one word – successful – which can be defined as productive, prosperous and victorious.
That definition precisely describes Thrift’s career in FLW competition. Thrift burst onto the FLW Tour scene six years ago and fished his way to the Rookie of the Year title in 2007. He followed that with the 2010 Angler of the Year crown.
Along the way he has posted 28 top ten finished, including five tournament wins, and has earned more than $1 million in FLW tournaments. He has qualified for the Forrest Wood Cup every year, with four top 15 finishes, including third place last month at Lake Lanier.
Thrift has three top five finishes and two more in the top 10 in the AOY competition and he posted a seventh place finish this past year. This year he finished sixth in the only FLW Tour Open so far, on Lake Okeechobee in February.
He may not win on the Detroit River next week, or even finish very high, but if so it will be only a bump in the road for a career that has otherwise been nothing but successful.
FLW Tour Open
Detroit River
Elizabeth Park Marina
