On days one and two of the
name
hometoWn
WeIght
tournament, conditions swung
1. BRYAN THRIFT
SHELBY, NC
70-02
back around, and sunny, warm
2. ALLEN BOYD
SALEM, IN
68-08
weather sent the lake’s large-
3. CLENT DAVIS
MONTEVALLO, AL
67-10
mouths and smallmouths into
4. GREG BOHANNAN
BENTONVILLE, AR
65-09
their favored staging areas (They
5. ANDY MORGAN
DAYTON, TN
65-04
would eventually be spawning
*Includes Ranger Cup
during the tournament.).
Stained water and strong
winds prompted a strong shallow spinnerbait bite for largemouths that were set up
around flooded cover, but Thrift bided his time targeting smallmouths. His patience paid
off on days three and four when overcast skies and heavy rains returned and set up
perfectly for smallmouths to win out.
All he had to do was make a minor tackle adjustment.
“I used the Armor Shad when it was sunny the first two days,” Thrift adds. “When it got
cloudy, I started throwing the 3.8 swimbait. The Armor Shad is a more subtle swimbait.”
Thrift’s approach was to cover water throughout his home area by making long casts
and fishing every inch of the lead-in banks located in and outside the creek. He never
really worked into the adjacent pockets. He did make a few stops at a secondary area,
which, on the final day, coughed up a 5-pound kicker.
When a surface chop was present to camouflage his approach, Thrift stayed close to
the bank and fished parallel, but it was usually more effective to position a long cast away.
“When I would sit way out would be places the wind wasn’t blowing in on,” he says. “I
think after four days, they were a little wary of the boat overhead.”
The presentation was very slow and subtle. Thrift launched his swimbait up along the
shoreline and crawled it back out. The result was an impressive series of limits that tallied
15-9 and 17-4 on days one and two, followed by 18-11 and 18-10 sacks on the weekend –
weights the largemouth anglers just couldn’t keep pace with in the hills of central Kentucky.
fIsh
20
20
20
20
20
WInnIngs
$125,200*
$30,100
$25,000
$20,000
$19,000
WINNING CO-ANGLER
HAGEDON
BROWN & GREEN
The smallmouth bite was impressive at Cumberland, but largemouths com-
prised a greater percentage of the catch among the top 10. Tournament winner
Bryan Thrift and third-place pro Clent Davis were the only ones to weigh in only
smallmouths. They each fished swimbaits. The rest of the top 10, including James
Watson, shown here, either weighed in an even mix or leaned heavily on the large-
mouths, and they all relied mostly on spinnerbaits.
Most of the largemouth action came in the backs of pockets where high water
had inundated bushes and sycamore trees, with bushes being the better producer.
Those who weighed in a mixed bag fished similar areas, but also targeted second-
ary points and lead-in banks. Both species were in the midst of the spawn, and the
overall catch included a mix of prespawn, spawning and postspawn bass.
juLy 2018 I fLWfIshIng.com
joel Willert
Prior Lake, MN.
Winning Weight:
24-02 (10 fish)
Winning program:
On day one, Willert
fished a small swimbait
along bluff walls in a
deep-water area
upstream from the
General Burnside State
Park takeoff site. The
Minnesota co-angler
weighed in a mixed bag of
largemouths and small-
mouths. Fishing down the
lake on day two, he
tossed a spinnerbait to
bring in a full limit of
largemouths.
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