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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