After Big O Bomb, Thrift In Unfamiliar Territory

By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor

Bryan Thrift has himself convinced he may have lost the ability to catch a bass. Whether it’s at Lake Norman in his native North Carolina or anywhere the FLW Tour takes him, he’s not sure that given 8 hours on the water and the right selection of baits he’d be able to fool a bass into biting.

That’s what happens when the No. 9-ranked angler in the BassFan World Rankings stumbles badly out of the blocks to start a new season. While his self-assessment may be a touch dramatic, Thrift’s performance at the FLW Tour season opener at Lake Okeechobee (132nd) has the veteran pro a little bit on his heels as the schedule shifts to Lake Hartwell next week.

“Every tournament is a big deal for me, but after a 130th, I’ve got to make the Top 50 in every tournament we have left to have a legitimate shot at the Cup,” he said.

The Okeechobee outcome was his worst Tour finish since the 2007 Detroit River event where he was 160th. It's worth noting, though, that following his most recent triple-digit finish (107th at Hartwell in 2014), he won the next tournament on the schedule at Sam Rayburn Reservoir.

His quest to dig out of the massive hole begins next week at Hartwell, the South Carolina fishery that’s produced mixed results for him in the past. Along with his bomb there in 2014, he also notched a 5th in 2011.

He’s moved past the Okeechobee debacle and is solely focused on Hartwell.

“I’m over it now – it took me a week or so,” he said before pausing. “I still can’t catch a fish if it’s any consolation.

“My confidence is always shaky,” he added. “I don’t think I’ve ever put the boat in and said, ‘I’m gonna bust ‘em,’ because as soon as I say that I’ll zero and look like a fool. That’s what’s cool about this sport – it’s the unknown. You might get the bites and catch a giant bag or you might lose them all. There’s just too many ‘mights.’”

Big O Blues

Okeechobee has been mostly kind to Thrift in the past, but 2016 was a different story. He posted a 102nd-place finish at the Southeastern FLW Series event there in January. He returned last month hoping to improve upon that with what he learned. Instead, things got worse.

“I never got on anything in practice,” he said. “I got on stuff where I could get bites, but in the tournament I could hardly get any bites. I think I picked the wrong areas to fish.”

He weighed 7-11 (four fish) on day 1 of the Tour event and managed a limit for 6-8 on day 2.

“My biggest trouble in Florida is I like to stay away from the crowds and you can’t do that because the crowds are where the fish are,” he said. “I try to find needles in the haystack and I don’t think I’ve found it there before. I feel like if everybody’s down south flipping those reeds, I don’t feel like I can go behind someone and catch one. If they’re there, they’re going to catch ‘em. I let my head get to me too much.”

Being successful in Florida is much different than having success at fisheries in other states. Florida-strain bass are incredibly sensitive to changes in the weather and wind and there was plenty of that during the Tour event.

Couple that with Thrift’s penchant for running and gunning and it added up to a tournament he’d love to have over again.

“I’ve lost the ability to just go fishing,” he said. “As weird as that sounds, I’ve built my success on having spots where I know where one should live and the run to the next one. You can’t do that in Florida. You have to camp and make them bite. That’s hard for me to do.

"I like to run and gun and have a milk run to hit through a day. Down there, the lake is so big and there’s so much water.”

Short Memory

Thrift said he had pretty much gotten over the frustration of his Okeechobee finish by the time he got home after the event. He and his wife are in the midst of having a new home built in Shelby, N.C., so he has plenty of things to distract his attention away from fishing.

“Usually when I get home and get to playing with (son) Wylie, I quit worrying about it,” he said. “I get back to having fun. If I come home mad at the world because I didn’t catch fish, my wife would slap me around.”

He said opening the season with a dud was a disappointment, but he’s not going to reinvent himself or alter his approach because of it.

“I’m not going to change my strategy,” he said. “I’m going to fish how I fish and just hope it works out. I don’t feel like you can change your strategy. Some guys say that but I say that’s bogus. Everybody out there is trying to catch the five biggest ones out there.”

Having been to Hartwell numerous times in March and the rest of the venues on this year’s schedule gives Thrift some faith that he can get back into Cup contention. He’s fished the last nine Forrest Wood Cups, notching six Top-10s along the way.

“It gives me a little more confidence because I have an idea of what should be going on at each lake, but it’s one of those deals that you never know until you get out there,” he said. “With two tournaments on the Tennessee River, I’ve done well on a couple of the lakes, but it’s a another crowd issue. I just like to find my own stuff.”