tournament,” says the 2017 AOY.
“Where I was, the topwater bite would
just go dead after a couple of hours, and
that’s when I would fish deep. I don’t
understand the herring bite all that well
anyway. It was slow fishing, but that’s
OK. I love the summer championship
and love the tough, tough tournaments
like Murray. It suits me. With only about
50 boats you can get a good milk run
going, and it kind of plays into my style
of fishing better.”
Thrift caught fish on the walking bait
over water as shallow as 12 feet and as
deep as 38 feet. His most productive
brush piles and cane piles were 15 to 32
feet deep.
OCTOBER 2017 I FLWFISHING.COM
No bIGGIe
The critical difference between Thrift’s three-day stringer and those of the
anglers who finished ahead of him was kicker fish – or the lack thereof. Though the
North Carolina pro’s 15 keepers weighed in during the event averaged just over 3
pounds each, his biggest fish was a 5-pounder caught the first day. In contrast, win-
ner Justin Atkins’ bass averaged a tad under 4 pounds apiece.
“I’m not really sure why the bigger fish were so hard to come by,” says Thrift.
“That’s just fishing, and all else being equal you never know for sure why somebody
else catches the bigger fish and you don’t.”
Thrift conjectured that one possible explanation was because he didn’t spend
all his fishing hours targeting the herring bite, as did all three of the pros who fin-
ished ahead of him in the standings.
“I guess some of my fish were a little skinnier, a little lighter, because of where
they were [on brush piles and cane piles] and that they weren’t fattening up on the
herring so much. It’s hard to say.”
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