By Todd Ceisner
BassFan Editor


In trying to explain the way in which he approached last week’s Lake Eufaula FLW Tour, Bryan Thrift invoked a quote from one of his favorite movies, Kung Fu Hustle, a 2005 action comedy romp about the intersection of martial arts and gangsters.

“In the world of kung fu, speed determines the winner,” is a line from the film uttered by the character known as Beast. Thrift, well known for his run-and-gun fishing style, cited it when explaining how maintaining a quick pace on the final day would be a key factor in the outcome of the tournament.

In the world of brush-pile fishing at Eufaula, speed was certainly a central ingredient to Thrift’s success.

He fished fast, high-tailing it between shallow and mid-depth brush piles, stumps and rocks, probing them, one to five casts at a time, with a slender-profile swimbait in two sizes. He spent virtually his entire practice period idling the lake and marking just about anything that resembled structure that could at some point attract a fish or multiple fish.

“I didn’t care what it looked like or where it was at,” Thrift said of his criteria for waypoint-gathering in practice. “I didn’t care if fish were there.”

The game plan Thrift executed was nothing foreign for the four-time FLW Tour winner. In fact, if he were to draw up a blueprint for how his ideal tournament scenario would play out, what transpired at Eufaula would serve as the template.

“There really was no method to the madness,” he said. “That’s the beauty of Eufaula and probably why I like it so much. I can run around like a crazy man. I love it. My goal is to fish every single waypoint I have there.”

He accumulated upward of 200 waypoints and once the tournament began, he’d cycle through dozens per day, stopping at some multiple times. He also wasn’t afraid to comb a stretch of bank with a hollow-body frog if the situation arose.

“From the minute I saw it on the schedule, I knew what I was going to do there,” he said. “Barring some kind of crazy thing like it being flooded and the water being high and muddy, if conditions allowed us to be offshore that’s where I’d be. That’s my favorite way to fish, going where they live.”

Here’s how he did it.

Practice

Thrift has had a good run at Eufaula in the past. In a pre-spawn FLW Series tournament in 2010, he was the runner-up with 75 pounds over 4 days. Two years ago, he was second again, this time to Randy Haynes. He badly wanted to end the runner-up trend this time around.

Thrift said he’d lost all of his Eufaula waypoints from the past – some pros intentionally don’t save waypoints so as to avoid fishing history, but Thrift didn’t say that was the case – so he spent most of the 3-day practice period combing the lake in search of new brush, old brush, any brush or bottom irregularity that could potentially be used by post-spawn fish that were moving off the bank as the water level dropped during the days leading up to the tournament.

“I fished shallow a couple hours each day, but then went to idling,” he said.

Thrift said there wasn’t a specific key depth range for productive brush.

“Depth didn’t seem to matter,” he said. “Most were in 6 to 25 feet.”

He figured other competitors would also uncover some of the places he found – they did – but he felt like playing the numbers game would benefit him in the end.

“A few of us were fishing the same stuff, but it didn’t bother me,” he said. “If someone was fishing a place I had marked, I’d just move on to the next spot.”

Competition

> Day 1: 5, 15-15
> Day 2: 5, 18-12
> Day 3: 5, 19-14
> Day 4: 5, 15-05
> Total = 20, 69-14

A prevailing opinion coming out of practice was that it was going to be difficult to produce consistent, strong bags during the tournament with how the water had pulled off the banks. Despite water temperatures in the 80s and low 90s, the fish hadn’t yet grouped up on their summertime spots around the river channel drops and ledges.

The fish that were using the bank grass for cover were now left to find the next deepest pieces of cover. In some cases, those were brush piles.

Thrift said he fished 70 to 80 spots a day for the first 3 days and managed to not only be consistent, but bring heavier bags to the scales in each successive round.

He wasn’t catching a high quantity of fish due to the frenetic pace he was fishing and the lack of big schools of fish ganged up on these places.

“Why I like (fishing brush) so much is because if you didn’t get bit on a spot 3 days in a row, you can go in there on the fourth day and catch a 7-pounder,” he said. “Or you can fish the same place four times in a day and on the fifth time you can catch one.

“I love that kind of fishing. You can pull up and make two or three casts and tell if they’re there and go somewhere else.”

Thursday’s scorching-hot weather was followed by cloudy conditions on Friday that had Thrift a little concerned.

“Friday was the day I was worried about with it being cloudy,” he said. “The last time we were here, the third day was cloudy and I caught 7 pounds. I thought it was going be bad again since the fish might roam and not get on structure. On my second spot Friday, I caught a 7-pounder and they bit like crazy. Nothing affected me.”

Wind wasn’t a huge factor this week, but when it did kick up, Thrift tried to use it to his advantage.

“When I’m fishing isolated, one-cast deals the size of the hood of a truck, it’s like trying to hit a 4-foot square. When I’m doing that, I like to put the wind in my face. That way, I can point the nose of the boat into the wind and at where I need to cast.”

He entered the final day in 2nd place, just 4 ounces behind Troy Morrow, and didn’t get his better bites until the final couple hours.

“I hit 40 to 50 spots on Sunday because it took me so much longer to line up on some of my spots and figure out where everything was,” he said. “I thought I needed a kicker. I still wasn’t convinced I was going to win even in the weigh-in line with as many big fish as there are there and how they were biting in the last couple hours.”

When Morrow came in with just over 12 pounds, Thrift’s quest for a Eufaula victory was complete.

Winning Pattern Notes

> Making long casts on each spot was a key part of Thrift’s game plan. “I like to stay way off like that anyway,” he said, “especially with as much pressure as these places were getting. I felt like it was giving me more of an advantage since that’s the way I’ve always done it.”

Winning Gear Notes

> Swimbait gear: 7’ medium-heavy Fitzgerald Rods Stunner HD casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 10-pound P-Line Ultimate fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed jighead, 4” and 5” unnamed paddletail swimbait.

> The bigger bait was Thrift’s first offering on most spots and if he’d feel fish nip it or tap it, he’d follow up with the smaller bait on lighter line to catch them.

> Frog gear: 7’2” heavy-action Fitzgerald Rods Bryan Thrift Signature Series frog rod, unnamed casting reel, 65-pound P-Line TCB braided line, unnamed hollow-body frog (brown).

> The frog produced four of his weigh-in fish during the tournament. “It was more of a random, ‘Hey, let’s go try this on day 2 thing.’ I was fishing a brush pile and there was a little pocket about 100 yards out from me that had some grass in it. I figured I could go over and throw a frog. I caught a 4 and two 3s there.”

The Bottom Line

> Main factor in his success – "Having the confidence to stick with what I wanted to do and knowing in the back of my head all I had to do was hit five good places to get five good bites a day. Sometimes you’d get frustrated when you’d run 20 or 30 spots and not get a bite, but then you run three in a row and catch three 5-pounders.”

> Performance edge – "The combination of my Fitzgerald Rods and P-Line fluorocarbon. I was making some bomb casts and that 7’6” Okeechobee rod is just an awesome rod for that kind of fishing.”



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