WHAT’S THE SECRET
TO THRIFT’S GREATNESS?
AFTER SPENDING SEVERAL DAYS SHADOWING THE
NORTH CAROLINA PRO, THE AUTHOR REALIZES IT’S
By Joe Balog
NOT WHAT YOU THINK
B
Editor’s note: In 2020,
Bryan Thrift will compete on
the Major League Fishing
Bass Pro Tour.
64
ryan Thrift is the best competitive
bass fisherman in the world. For
some time now, I’ve held on to that
belief, and Thrift’s performance has easily
proven my point.
Consider his record since 2015. He has
19 FLW Tour top 10s and 10 top-10 finish-
es in the Costa FLW Series. Six of those
events resulted in victory, with the latest
coming at the 2019 FLW Cup. Thrift makes
the Cup religiously and always performs.
He’s earned 10 top-10 Cup finishes in his
career, including consecutive top 10s from
2012 to 2017.
Frankly, there has been no more domi-
nant record in pro fishing in recent history.
In February 2019, six months before
Thrift became the Cup champion, I set out
to determine what makes him so good. As
Thrift’s assigned press observer for the
Lake Toho FLW Tour event, I spent three
days, mainly in silence, observing him dur-
ing both competition and the pre-tourna-
ment practice period. It was somewhat
unnerving for us both.
Truth be told, immediately following the
event, I was a bit disappointed. Nowhere
did I find Thrift’s lucky horseshoe or magic
lure. Perhaps I wasn’t privy to the good
stuff, I thought. Maybe he held back a bit.
But numbers don’t lie, and, despite
what I personally observed as a mediocre
practice, Thrift somehow took the last spot
in the cut and went on to win $10,500.
I spent much of the spring pondering
that tournament, wondering where it was I
went wrong. How did I let Thrift’s secrets
slip through my fingers, despite devoting 30
hours with the man in the heat of battle?
And then it hit me: The answers were
there all along.
No Room for Error
I’d heard Thrift had a reputation for
being incredibly versatile, and on the first
day of practice he didn’t let me down.
Thrift began the morning with 28 rods at
the ready. He stowed seven next to the
passenger seat because they wouldn’t fit
on the front deck.
“My biggest fear is not being ready for a
situation in practice,” he said in reference
to his rod selection.
Later, I’d find the key word in that state-
ment was “practice,” as it seems Thrift’s
practice never ends.
Thrift’s rod abundance assures he
never second-guesses his actions while
tournament fishing. If something feels
right, he tries it – every time. Later, during
the event, Thrift purposely stopped his
boat and dug out a punching rod, making
a grand total of one cast before putting it
back in the locker.
He understands the numbers game.
“You just need to make five good casts,
two days in a row,” he told me.
Thrift’s practice methods appeared
unusual at first. Rather than fish the end-
less miles of shoreline vegetation like his
competitors, Thrift spent the vast majority
of his practice time on Toho idling in an
attempt to find subtle offshore haunts
where an overlooked group of fish might
have taken up residence. It’s been a key
method in the past.
“You win tournaments when you find
fish doing what they’re not supposed to
be doing,” he said. “Ideally, I like to have a
couple groups of fish located in practice,
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