BREAKING DOWN BRYAN THRIFT
THE 2017 AOY
By Colin Moore
The first thing you ’ re likely to notice about Bryan Thrift is the million-dollar smile , a warm smile that blinks on and off as circumstances require . Unless he ’ s distracted or lost in thought , Thrift seemingly is always smiling . His is an enigmatic smile , suggesting friendliness , of course , but also a touch of defensive shyness . And to other tournament competitors , perhaps , it ’ s also the sly smile of a fisherman who ’ s about to put his considerable skills to work again , or else display their results .
Imagined or real reticence , Thrift ’ s smile was in full force in 2017 when he put together another in a long line of solid seasons and won the FLW Tour Angler of the Year title . For some , such a year might seem epochal ; for Thrift , merely inevitable . En route to winning accolades as FLW ’ s most consistently excellent angler , he scored 1,275 of a possible 1,400 points and fended off a slew of the Tour ’ s finest , most notably 2017 runner-up Andy Morgan .
Building on 2016
Although Thrift has flirted with the AOY title just about every season , it ’ s eluded him since he first claimed it in 2010 , the year his wife , Allison , gave birth to their son , Wylie , and also the year his father and longtime fishing mentor , Tommy Thrift , passed away .
It ’ s tempting to think that Bryan ’ s 2017 season was his retribution for 2016 , when he registered what seemed for him a subpar season . He only finished 19th in the standings . It was his lowest annual finish since his Rookie of the Year season in 2007 , when he finished 28th overall ( since then , he ’ s never finished lower than eighth in the standings , other than in 2016 ). But such an assumption would be wrong , because Bryan doesn ’ t gauge a season by how high in the standings he finishes so much as how it affects his bank account .
“ Most of all I judge my year by how much money I make ,” he confesses . “ As long as I can pay the bills I consider it a good year . Monetarily , 2016 was a great year .”
Indeed it was , and provided Bryan with enough cash to pay a lot of bills , with some left over for Wylie ’ s college fund . He has averaged more than $ 150,000 per season in Tour and Forrest Wood Cup prize money since joining the Tour as a pro in 2007 . In 2016 , he collected $ 59,100 during the regular
AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2017 I FLWFISHING . COM
Tour season , but that wasn ’ t all he earned . He boosted his income last year with a $ 37,600 check at the Forrest Wood Cup ( fourth place ), a $ 93,200 payday for a Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division win on Santee Cooper and $ 71,000 more for an FLW Tour Invitational victory on Lake Norman in the fall .
This year he ’ s made $ 225,500 fishing the Tour ( including $ 100,000 for the AOY ) and $ 24,450 in the Costa FLW Series Southeastern Division , with the Cup and the Costa FLW Series Championship still to come .
A Self-Appraisal
The 37-year-old Thrift is at the apogee of his career . He can beat anyone , on any fishery , with rivers being the possible exception . Fishing talents aside , Thrift feels he has matured as a decision-maker , and disciplined himself into focusing on the event at hand , rather than allowing himself to be distracted by what might happen somewhere down the road .
“ I make it tournament to tournament . Each lake is different ,” he says . “ Confidence and momentum play a role for a lot of guys , but for me it doesn ’ t work so much . I fish every tournament like it was the most important one , like it was the championship . That ’ s not to say I don ’ t pay attention to what ’ s going on . After Beaver Lake [ where Thrift finished third ], and because of where I was in the standings , I started putting more pressure on myself to not let up . I feel like I ’ ve learned a little since 2010 , but the playing field is pretty level , because the competition has learned , too , and I can ’ t cut myself any slack .”
Thrift has disciplined himself to approach every fishery as if he ’ s never fished there before . He ’ s more inclined to overlay what he knows about bass and where they ’ re likely to be based on his general understanding rather than what happened the last time he fished a lake .
Thrift ’ s well-publicized weakness is figuring out rivers . Admittedly , he hasn ’ t had that much experience fishing them . The problem with rivers is that fish are where you find them , and virtually every stretch of bank , be it on the main run or in a backwater , looks “ fishy .” River bass have their own reasons for being where they are , but it doesn ’ t necessarily constitute a repeatable pattern elsewhere in the system .
57