Thrift Hoping To Hold High Ranking In 3Rd Flw Tour Open On Wheeler Lake

FLW Tour Pro Bryan Thrift

Bryan Thrift has one job – bass fishing – and he has been at the top of the game for most of the six years he has been at it.

The Shelby, N.C., angler has won over $1 million in his short career, with 28 top 10 finishes in tournaments, including five wins. In his six years on the FLW Tour he has made the Forrest Wood Cup six times, finishing in the top 10 four times, including 5th in 2007, his rookie year, and 3rd this August on Georgia’s Lake Lanier. He has been ranked in the top 10 five of the past six years in the points standings and was the FLW Tour Angler of the Year in 2010.

Throughout it all, Thrift has relied on an innate ability to locate and catch quality fish most of the time, a talent he says comes simply from “fishing hard.”

“That’s the only thing I know. I kind of catch them on whatever and wherever,” he said in unpretentious understatement. “I used to just throw a jig everywhere, but it seems like once I quit doing that and started throwing a little bit of everything I started doing better.”

Thrift said that will be the basis of his strategy when practice starts Sunday for the third FLW Tour Open tournament of the year on Alabama’s Wheeler Lake. The tournament will run Sept. 20-23.

“I’ll probably run all over the lake and try to fish a little bit of everything,” said Thrift who has fished Wheeler twice before, placing around 23rd once and “not good at all” the other time.

He plans to refine his strategy in practice, he said.

“I’ll probably start out shallow. It is a Tennessee River lake and you can always catch fish shallow on the Tennessee River. I’ll also have to spend some time out on the ledges, particularly if they pull some current.”

Thrift, who is currently ranked 4th in the FLW Tour Opens Division, said diversity is the key to his fishing success. He finished 6th in the first Open of the year on Lake Okeechobee in February and 33rd in the second Open tournament on the Detroit River in August.

“If you fish somewhere all the time and fish the same places there you never really learn anything new. You just have to keep trying different stuff, learn something new.”

Although his Dad introduced him to fishing, taking him to ponds and down to the river when he was growing up, he said Louie Hull, who makes the popular Shooter Lures, was the person who guided him into bass tournament fishing.

“Before I had my first boat he got me started fishing lakes and fishing for bass. Once I picked up bass fishing, Louie took me under his wing and showed me the ropes,” he said. “I always liked fishing. It seemed liked it came naturally to me. And then Louie and I fished tournaments together for a long time.”

Thrift said his goal is to stay in the top 30 in points and qualify for his seventh Forrest Wood Cup in 2013. The 2013 Forrest Wood Cup will be in Shreveport, La., Aug. 15-18 on the Red River.

 

FLW Tour Open

Sep 20-23, 2012

Wheeler Lake

Ingalls Harbour

www.flwoutdoors.com