Bryan Thrift hasn't had many bad days as a professional angler. But boy, he sure had one at the Detroit River in July.
The 29-year-old from North Carolina had caught a solid sack on day 1 of the final regular-season FLW Tour event and was poised to win the Angler of the Year (AOY) race when points leaders Andy Morgan and Glenn Browne came in extremely light. But he endured a nightmarish day 2 and watched David Dudley snatch the coveted trophy.
"The whole season went like clockwork until that last day," he said. "I'd definitely say it was the worst day I've had in the 2 years that I've been on the Tour.
"I caught a 4-pounder on my first cast of the day and it seemed like everything was going great. But after that, it went downhill in a hurry."
A Quick Ascent
Thrift, who as recently as 2005 was fishing the Strens as a co-angler, has experienced wild success in his brief pro career. He made two Top 10s as a rookie in 2007 en route to a 28th-place finish in the points, and then topped the year off with a 5th in the Forrest Wood Cup at Lake Ouachita.
He made only one weekend appearance this year (an 8th in the opener at Toho), but achieved a remarkable level of consistency. Prior to Detroit, his worst finish was a 48th at Lewis Smith.
Things started off nicely in Michigan, too, with that 17-13 bag that had him sitting in 33rd place. But after catching that 4-pounder early on day 2, he got only three more bites the rest of the day and lost the most important of those – a 4 1/2 that would've gained him about 50 places in the standings and given him the AOY.
Instead, he finished 105th in the tournament and 5th in the points race.
The easy-going ex-construction worker can chuckle about it now, but he still doesn't know what went wrong out there on Lake Erie. It's not like he wasn't around any good fish – his co-angler, Todd Robbins of Romulus, Mich., bagged 14-12 and made the Top 10.
"It was just one of those days where nothing seems to go right," he said. "And the whole time my co-angler was just whacking them left and right – I couldn't get my mind right and I couldn't get comfortable. I was frustrated bad.
"If I had it to do over again I wouldn't do anything differently at all. It was a real good spot and I had the right bait – 15 pounds was definitely doable. I was 100% sure I was going to win (the AOY) and there was almost no way I could screw it up. It just did not happen."
More Groups, Less Running
Other than that one lousy day, Thrift's season went about as smoothly as he could've hoped for. He didn't make any more Top 10s after Toho, but he had a 15th at Beaver and a 20th at Fort Loudoun Tellico. His other two finishes (44th and 48th) were also well within the money cutoff.
Thrift, who was still fishing as a co-angler in 2005, has made a meteoric rise up the pro ranks.
His greater consistency this year was at least partially due to a shift in practice strategy. He focused more on finding bunches of fish rather than an array of spots that might hold one or two at any given time.
"Last year, a lot of times I'd have 40 or 50 places where I thought I could get one bite," he said. "This year I tried harder to find a good group that I could sit on and catch numbers of fish.
"At Toho I found a good group and ended up catching them pretty easily, and at Beaver I had a group where I could catch one on every cast. I also found that group at Detroit, but they just didn't do me right on the second day."
He said winning an AOY is "fairly important," but he's more concerned with continuing to cash checks and making a decent living. He was married last year and plans to be a father at some point within the next several years.
A Tour victory is also a primary objective for him – mainly because of the financial security that would come along with it – but he's not impatient to achieve it.
"I'm just going to keep taking it one tournament at a time. My main goal is to be consistent – I want to do good enough to stay up there in the points and make the (Cup).
"But if I get the chance, I want to win one. I practice to win every tournament I fish."
Notable
> Thrift likes the look of next year's Tour schedule even though he has little or no experience on some of the venues. "I've only been on Guntersville one time and I've never been to Kentucky Lake or Table Rock," he said. "But I like to go places I've never been because I always learn something. I like to put my own twisted spin on the historical pattern and see if I can figure something out."
> He started the year at No. 258 in the BassFan World Rankings, but has climbed all the way to No. 17.
