Sorry for the delay in this update. It took us a few days to wrap our heads around just how good Bryan Thrift is after his latest win (actually, we had some back-end issues we were fixing, and we apologize for the delay).
Seriously, though. Thrift continues to show he’s in a class all to himself with how he’s been fishing.
After winning the FLW Tour event at Cumberland over the weekend – his 6th major victory – he now has a 903.895 average. To put that in perspective, since our launch in 2011, no angler has ever eclipsed the 900 mark for a 2-year average. That’s typically something we seen from dominant anglers in the minor levels.
So, how did Thrift end up holding yet another trophy?
Despite fluctuating conditions throughout the event, Thrift stayed steady targeting smallmouths on the lower end near Indian Creek. As is his typical, he really had no discernable pattern, as he hit points, bluffs, lead-in banks – basically anything.
While he bounced around a lot, he only really used two lures: a 3-inch Damiki Armor Shad and a Keitech Swing Impact FAT 3.8. He fished both on 1/8- and 3/8-ounce jigheads. He’d slowly windthe swimbaits back out was key to keeping the bait down 5 to 12 feet deep. Some of his fish were suspended, but Thrift believes others might have been on the bottom but were willing to come up to eat the bait. Some bit very close to the bank in shallower water.
Obviously, Thrift is way ahead of Jacob Wheeler for the No. 1 spot in our rankings. The hard part now will be maintaining it, as his “worst” finish he can drop anytime soon is a 37th-place.
Looking at the rest of the top 10, Mark Rose continues to climb, as he’s now up to seventh, replacing Cody Meyer, who slipped to 15th after this weekend. The only other FLW pro who can content for the top 10 in the rankings is former No. 1 Andy Morgan, who seems to be righting the ship after a dismal start to his season.