Lake Cumberland, April 6-9, 12th
Four tournaments in, and Thrift finished out of the top 10 for the first time in 2017. He didn’ t miss a beat in the AOY race, however, and actually improved his lead in the standing by a few points. Clark Wendlandt replaced Cobb in second place as Thrift moved out to a 52-point lead in the standings. He was in 20th place after day one, then jumped into fifth on day two with a mixed bag of three largemouths and two smallmouths.
Thrift’ s limits had averaged better than 3 pounds per fish in the first two rounds, but his average fell to just under 2 pounds per bass on the third day.
This tournament was another fun one, because I’ d never been to Cumberland before either. I enjoyed exploring it. It’ s a great fishery.
Mississippi River
Lake Cumberland
PHOTO BY ANDY HAGEDON
Beaver Lake, April 27-30, 3rd
Again, Thrift suffered through the day-three blues. After two decent stringers, he returned with 9-9 in the third round. Making some mid-course corrections, Thrift caught the second-best stringer of the championship round. He fished near the dam with a 4-inch Damiki Stinger rigged on a jighead – his own version of a Ned rig. Atypical for him on Beaver Lake, Wendlandt wound up in 142nd place and effectively dropped out of the AOY chase. Scott Canterbury, who finished sixth at Beaver for his second consecutive top 10, replaced Wendlandt in second.
What can I say – Beaver is Beaver. We’ ve fished it so much I feel like a local. I look forward to going there, but I don’ t really even fish in practice. Mainly I try to find new stuff. Otherwise, I have a little milk run that I always fish.
Beaver Lake
Mississippi River, May 18-21, 59th
It’ s no secret that rivers and Thrift don’ t get along, even though rivers would seem to suit his preference for running banks with a variety of shallow-water baits. He had identical 12-9 sacks the first two days and wound up in 59th place. The AOY gap tightened a bit as perennial contender Andy Morgan moved up three notches into second.
I don’ t like fishing in crowds, and that one was sort of a grind for me in that way. I definitely caught a lot of fish, but it was kind of limited as far as the different areas.
PHOTO BY ANDY HAGEDON
PHOTO BY ANDY HAGEDON PHOTO BY CHRIS BURGAN
Potomac River, June 15-18, 48th
As the final tournament of the season began, Thrift wasn’ t battling so much against fish or other anglers as his ongoing struggle to master river fisheries. Though he scored a sixth-place finish on the Potomac in 2012( and was third in the 2013 Forrest Wood Cup on the Red River), Thrift’ s average placement in FLW river tournaments is about 59th place. He was leading the AOY race in 2015 when a 74th-place disaster on the Potomac in the last event of the season knocked him out of contention. Scott Martin won the title, and John Cox was second.
In the end, the 2017 finale was no repeat of 2015. Though it was a cliff-hanger, Thrift’ s 48th-place showing was good enough to evade Morgan, who was 15th in the same tournament.
The Potomac is a place where I’ ve been four or five times and never really figured it out. This time I made myself fish all the community holes and try to figure out how to catch them as best I could. But I got a check there and sealed the deal [ for the AOY title ].
Potomac River
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