North Carolina's Thrift Starts Strong In ROY Race

A quick look at the BassFan.com Rookie of the Year (ROY) race really doesn't disclose what happened in the first two tour-level events of the season.

Of course, BassFans know that rookie Derek Remitz won the Amistad Bassmaster Elite Series. He therefore leads the ROY race by a substantial margin (15 points).

But his lead would have been even more explosive if two other rookies hadn't come out swinging too. One was Bryan Thrift, who finished 2nd at the Travis FLW Tour. The other was Craig Dowling, who finished 3rd at Travis.

That's right, rookies rocked a 1-2-3 in the first two tour-level events of the season.

Remitz is currently

at the California Delta for this week's Elite Series event there. The next test for both Thrift and Dowling comes next week, when the FLW Tour visits Tennessee's Ft. Loudoun–Tellico.

As Thrift tells it, his goal there is a Top 50, but he feels at least some momentum going in, and would be thrilled with another Top 10.

Up the Ranks

Thrift's ascendancy to the FLW Tour was punctuated with notable moments of success, which BassFan noted in a story about rookies to watch, published a few weeks ago. Here's a little more about that.

In 2005, he won two Southeastern Stren events from the back of the boat (Eufaula and Santee Cooper).

The next year, he moved to the front of the boat and won the Okeechobee Southeastern Stren – an event notoriously haunted by local studs. He also fished the FLW Tour as a co-angler last year and recorded two Top 10s (Okeechobee and Murray).

And throw two South Carolina BFL boater Top 10s from 2004 on that pile too.

That's a taste of his success, but his quest to turn pro started sometime in his teens.

"Being a pro fisherman has been my goal since before I got out of high school," he said. "I used to play baseball for my high school. We'd get out of school, and not have to be back until 7:30 (for practice), so I'd go out and hit some farm ponds in between.

"And I went to college at UNC Charlotte for biology, which was close to Norman and Wylie. I'd spend a few hours during evenings on those lakes during college. And we had a couple of good ponds on campus, and I got to fish them pretty regularly, depending on who came by."

Sometimes, security would attempt to kick him off the ponds, but he stood his ground. "Sometimes they'd say I couldn't fish, and I'd argue back with them," he said. "I never did quite understand it. Take a basketball court – they wouldn't tell you that you couldn't play. I don't see why they'd build a pond and tell my I couldn't fish."

First Stop

Although some rookies note they feel intimidated at their first big event, Thrift said it was more like business as usual – after all, he'd been there before on the co-angler side.

Two factors, though, increased his comfort level at his first event in the "bigs" – a new sponsor, and good will from his peers.

"I felt comfortable with it," he said. "That was the first tournament where I had Rad Lures and Chatterbait sponsoring me. I'd just got my boat wrapped. A lot of the guys saw the wrap and said it looked good. They welcomed me, and everyone was real nice. You can just walk up and talk to them like it was any other tournament."

That's not to discount the confidence he had from past successes. Still, he's well aware of his rookie status, and the bumpy road that could lie ahead.

"Yeah, I won the Stren last year, and two in 2005 as a co-angler. But I'm still kind of new to fishing the pro side of the events. I feel I still have a lot to learn.

"A lot of guys have been doing this for 5 or 6 years, and they've been to a lot of the lakes. They see how the fish react to cold fronts and things like that, where I just have to go by word of mouth, and some lakes from around my house, for what the fish will do."

This is sort of a different year, though. In fact, if there's one year to be a rookie on the FLW Tour, it's probably this one. Travis was new water. The Tour visits Beaver in a different timeframe than before. Lake Norman isn't a regular stop, or the Detroit River. And next week's Ft. Loudoun–Tellico events will be pretty much new water for most of the field.

Test 2 in Tennessee

Thrift has never fished Tennessee's Ft. Loudoun–Tellico, but he said he'll approach the event like he does all others.

"I just try to go into every lake with an open mind, and try to figure out something I like to do. If I can catch them on a jig, or a Chatterbait, or something else I like to do, that's my ultimate plan."

Asked whether he feels any momentum going into the event, he said: "Yeah. I feel pretty good. But I really don't know how I feel, actually. I just kind of take it day to day, go fishing, and try to do what's best for the situation at the moment."

The situation at Ft. Loudoun–Tellico might turn out to be all about the smallmouth kicker – just like Travis was about one largemouth kicker. The Tennessee venue's notoriously tough, but an 18-inch minimum on smallmouths could mean some big brown fish will make it to the scales.

He's not strong on smallmouths – his geographic roots didn't give him much big-water access to the species. So he thinks he'll use a strategy that's helped him in the past – a combo of power and finesse.

"I don't even have a map of it yet, but I think figuring out how to catch five a day might be real hard. In big tournaments, I try to do two things. If I can find a power-bite on a jig or Chatterbait, I'll go try to catch three or four. I'll also spend a few days of practice with a shakey-head, just trying to figure out how to get a few extra bites.

"If I can catch some on a power-bite, then catch five or six extra fish (in the tournament) and fill out a limit, it should be a pretty good limit.

"My ultimate goal (at the next event) is to make the Top 50," he added. "If I can do that, I'll be very happy. If I could pull out another Top 10 somewhere, that would be awesome."

Notable

> About Remitz' lead in the BassFan ROY race, Thrift said: "I was just looking at that two nights ago. I feel anytime you can finish at the top of the field in Angler of the Year, or ROY, it's going to look good to sponsors. If you win an event, but finish 100th in the other five, it looks good on your paycheck, but consistency is probably the main thing for me. If you can stay consistent, and weigh five fish every day, you're going to do well."

> He's fishing the Southeastern Strens this year again. He's also fishing the Eastern FLW Series (he finished 85th at the Okeechobee opener.)

> He said one of the most important things he learned as a co-angler was how to have confidence in decisions. "When you fish as a co-angler, you see how (pros) go about things – like if you're not getting bit, how to change up and do something different. It could even be something as drastic as running to the other end of the lake. You learn to have the confidence to change what you're doing for a totally new approach."