Bryan Thrift Wins FLW Tour Lake Eufaula

In trying to explain the way in which he approached last week's Lake Eufaula FLW Tour, Bryan Thrift invoked a quote from one of his favorite movies, Kung Fu Hustle, a 2005 action comedy romp about the intersection of martial arts and gangsters. "In the world of kung fu, speed determines the winner," is a line from the film uttered by the character known as Beast. Thrift, well known for his run-and-gun fishing style, cited it when explaining how maintaining a quick pace on the final day would be a key factor in the outcome of the tournament. In the world of brush pile fishing at Eufaula, speed was certainly a central ingredient to Thrift's success. He fished fast, high-tailing it between shallow and mid-depth brush piles, stumps and rocks, probing them, one to five casts at a time, with a slender-profile swimbait in two sizes. He spent virtually his entire practice period idling the lake and marking just about anything that resembled structure that could at some point attract a fish or multiple fish. "I didn't care what it looked like or where it was at," Thrift said of his criteria for waypoint gathering in practice. "I didn't care if fish were there." The game plan Thrift executed was nothing foreign for the four-time FLW Tour winner. In fact, if he were to draw up a blueprint for his ideal tournament scenario would play out, what transpired at Eufaula would serve as the template. "There really was no method to the madness," he said. "That's beauty of Eufaula and probably why I like it so much. I can run around like a crazy man. I love it. My goal is to fish every single waypoint I have there." He accumulated upwards of 200 waypoints and once the tournament began, he'd cycle through dozens per day, stopping at some multiple times. He also wasn't afraid to comb a stretch of bank with a hollow-body frog if the situation arose. "From the minute I saw it on the schedule, I knew what I was going to do there," he said. "Barring some kind of crazy thing like it being flooded and the water being high and muddy, if conditions allowed us to be off shore that's where I'd be. That's my favorite way to fish, going where they live."

Thrift has had a good run at Eufaula in the past. In a pre-spawn FLW Series tournament in 2010, he was the runner-up with 75 pounds over 4 days. Two years ago, he was second again, this time to Randy Haynes. He badly wanted to end the runner-up trend this time around. Thrift said he'd lost all of his Eufaula waypoints from the past - some pros intentionally don't save waypoints so as to avoid fishing history, but Thrift didn't say that was the case - so he spent most of the 3-day practice period combing the lake in search of new brush, old brush, any brush or bottom irregularity that could potentially be used by post-spawn fish who were moving off the bank as the water level dropped during the days leading up to the tournament. "I fished shallow a couple hours each day, but then went to idling," he said. Thrift said there wasn't a specific key depth range for productive brush. "Depth didn't seem to matter," he said. "Most were in 6 to 25 feet." He figured other competitors would also uncover some of the places he found - they did - but he felt like playing the numbers game would benefit him in the end. "A few of us were fishing the same stuff, but it didn't bother me," he said. "If someone was fishing a place I had marked, I'd just move on to the next spot."

Competition:

A prevailing opinion coming out of practice was that it was going to be difficult to produce consistent, strong bags during the tournament with how the water had pulled off the banks. Despite water temperatures in the 80s and low 90s, the fish hadn't yet grouped up on their summer time spots around the river channel drops and ledges. The fish that were using the bank grass for cover were now left to find the next deepest pieces of cover. In some cases, those were brush piles. Thrift said he fished 70 to 80 spots a day for the first 3 days and managed to not only be consistent, but bring heavier bags to the scales in each successive round. He wasn't catching a high quantity of fish due to the frenetic pace he was fishing and the lack of big schools of fish ganged up on these places. "Why I like (fishing brush) so much is because if you didn't get bit on a spot 3 days in a row, you can go in there on the fourth day and catch a 7-pounder," he said. "Or you can fish the same place four times in a day and on the fifth time you can catch one. "I love that kind of fishing. You can pull up and make two or three casts and tell if they're there and go somewhere else." Thursday's scorching-hot weather was followed by cloudy conditions on Friday that had Thrift a little concerned. "Friday was the day I was worried about with it being cloudy," he said. "The last time we were here, the third day was cloudy and I caught 7 pounds. I thought it was going be bad again since the fish might roam and not get on structure. On my second spot Friday, I caught a 7-pounder and they bit like crazy. Nothing affected me." Wind wasn't a huge factor this week, but when it did kick up, Thrift tried to use it to his advantage. "When I'm fishing isolated, one-cast deals the size of the hood of a truck, it's like trying to hit a 4-foot square. When I'm doing that, I like to put the wind in my face. That way, I can point the nose of the boat into the wind and at where I need to cast." He entered the final day in 2nd place, just 4 ounces behind Troy Morrow and didn't get his better bites until the final couple hours. "I hit 40 to 50 spots on Sunday because it took me so much longer to line up on some of my spots and figure out where everything was," he said. "I thought I needed a kicker. I still wasn't convinced I was going to win even in the weigh-in line with as many big fish as there are there and how they were biting in the last couple hours." When Morrow came in with just over 12 pounds, Thrift's quest for a Eufaula victory was complete.

Winning Pattern:

Making long casts on each spot was a key part of Thrift's game plan. "I like to stay way off like that anyway," he said, "especially with as much pressure as these places were getting. I felt like it was giving me more of an advantage since that's the way I've always done it."

Winning Gear:

Swimbait gear: 7' medium-heavy Fitzgerald Rods Stunner HD casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 10-pound P-Line Ultimate fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. unnamed jighead, 4" and 5" unnamed paddletail swimbait. The bigger bait was Thrift's first offering on most spots and if he'd feel fish nip it or tap it, he'd follow up with the smaller bait on lighter line to catch them.

Frog gear: 7'2" heavy-action Fitzgerald Rods Bryan Thrift Signature Series frog rod, unnamed casting reel, 65-pound P-Line TCB braided line, unnamed hollow-body frog (brown). The frog produced four of his weigh-in fish during the tournament. "It was more of a random, 'Hey, let's go try this on day 2 thing.' I was fishing a brush pile and there was a little pocket about 100 yards out from me that had some grass in it. I figured I could go over and throw a frog. I caught a 4 and two 3s there."

Main factor: "Having the confidence to stick with what I wanted to do and knowing in the back of my head all I had to do was hit five good places to get five good bites a day. Sometimes you'd get frustrated when you'd run 20 or 30 spots and not get a bite, but you run three in a row and catch three 5-pounders."

Performance edge: "The combination of my Fitzgerald Rods and P-Line fluorocarbon. I was making some bomb casts and that 7'6" Okeechobee rod is just an awesome rod for that kind of fishing."

Lake Eufaula Winning Pattern BassFan 5/19/15 (Todd Ceiser)

Morrow's runner-up finish resulted in a 30-spot jump in the points standings and he's now 45th with two tournaments to go. His big move was a product of tedious preparation for the Eufaula event. He spent time there before the lake went off limits, riding around to locate brush piles, but he employed a more detailed method rather than staring at his electronics. When he'd come over a brush pile that looked fishy, he'd lower a Marcum submersible camera down into to see what it looked like in real time. "I used the camera because of where I live," he said. "Both Hartwell and Lanier are big-time offshore brush pile lakes. Lanier's brush replenishes decent, but not Hartwell, especially up the river. Once you take a fish off a pile, it's going to take a while before another one gets there. "My team partner and I developed a way to use the camera in practice instead of burning up fish because it's not like new fish are going to swim to these piles immediately. There were two or three fish in these piles and that's about it." Using the camera gave him all the details he needed to decide if the spot was worth coming back to in the tournament. "I know how they're sitting, the size, species, what's in there with them and what kind of wood is there," he said. "I also can tell you which way the limbs are pointing so I knew how to approach each one with a crankbait. I know the bottom around it and I know the temperature."

He said the water temperature on the bottom in 15 feet was 10 degrees cooler than the surface temperature so he knew how to better manage the water in his livewells for fish care. When the water started to recede in practice, he had a strong feeling the brush piles would be a big player in the tournament. "There were quit e few shallow when we got here, but it was like 75 percent of them left and went to the piles when the water dropped," he said. Once the tournament started, he settled on a crankbait, big worm and drop shot as his three best fish-catchers. He also had a progression of baits he'd throw depending how far off of a brush pile he was. "When I'd approach and get to be about 100 feet away, I'd throw the crankbait," he said. "If I hit it, usually a big one would eat it on the first cast. I'd set the crank down and pick up the big worm and bomb it in there two or three times. As I got closer, I'd pitch the drop shot in there. "I slowed down on some and did catch some after pulling over top of them a little bit." He said brush piles in creek mouths or outside of creek mouths seemed to have better concentrations of fish in them. "It seemed like some of the fish were getting way out finally, but the piles in the smaller pockets were vacant, he added.

Crankbait gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Duckett Fishing Micro Magic casting rod, Lew's BB-1 Speed Spool casting reel (5.4:1 gear ratio), 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, SPRO Little John DD 70 crankbait (citrus light). He swapped the stock Gamakatsu trebles on the Little John DD for No. 2 short-shank Gamakatsu trebles to limit getting hung up. The Little John DD is designed to run 16 to 20 feet deep and Morrow said the bait was grinding the bottom all the way to the brush pile on the retrieve and he said the big lip helped it deflect better off cover.

Worm gear: 7'7" extra-heavy Duckett Fishing White Ice casting rod, Duckett Fishing320R casting reel (7.1:1 gear ratio), 20-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1/2-oz. Eco Pro Tungsten worm weight (pegged), 6/0 Gamakatsu offset worm hook, Zoom Magnum Ol' Monster worm (plum apple).

Dropshot gear: 7' medium-heavy Duckett Fishing Micro Magic spinning rod, unnamed spinning reel, 16-pound Sunline SX-1 braided line (main), 8-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line (leader), #1 Gamakatsu Finesse Heavy Cover hook, 6" unnamed worm (morning dawn).

Main factor: "The number of piles I had marked and knowing what was in the ones I was fishing."

Performance edge: "The way I run my Lowrance units - I run so many of them, I don't have to switch screens. I don't miss near as much as some guys."

Lake Eufaula 2-5 Patterns BassFan 5/20/15 (Todd Ceiser)

Clent Davis kept his momentum going at Lake Eufaula after a Top-10 finish at the Kentucky Lake Central Rayovac Series the previous week. He held the day-1 lead at Eufaula after catching 22-09, but his stringers fell back into the 13- to 15-pound range after that as he played the brush pile game. "To me, it feels really good," he said. "At Kentucky Lake, we hit it perfect. Here, I had a shot. I'll win one eventually." He made a 38-spot jump in the AOY standings and is up to 69th with two tournaments go. He'll need two more Top-20s to have a shot at making the Forrest Wood Cup. "I know I'm going to have to bust them the next two tournaments," he said. "I put myself in hole right away this year. We're expecting a baby the week of the Cup so I don't know if I'd even be able to fish anyway." At Eufaula, Davis spent most of his practice behind the steering wheel, idling and watching his Garmin electronics. "I was looking for schools, but I never found them," he said. "I found a couple hundred piles, but I don't ever fish brush when I'm fishing off shore. I'm usually out on the ledges. If it was a brush pikes, I marked it. I have it two marks for a pile that looked like it had fish on it. I just marked everything I saw.

"I caught a couple up toward takeoff, but the big ones live on lower end so that's where I focused my time." Eventually, he developed a three-pronged attack when it came to fishing brush. He caught some out of shallow brush, but his big fish came out of the 15- to 18-foot window. "I had a routine where I'd start way back off the spot," he said. "I'd feel like the further back you were the better off you'd be. I'd make the first cast with a swimbait, then follow up with a big Mister Twister worm. I also cranked a few, but for the most part is the swimbait and worm." The crankbait produced in the afternoons on shallower piles, he added. "I'd make three to five casts and then be off to the next one," he said. "Some I worked more because it seemed like the fish were off around them on the sides. There was one in particular where I caught big ones that were just off to the side." He fished within sight of several of the Top 10 finishers, including runner-up Troy Morrow and winner Bryan Thrift. "It was wild the amount of fish (the lower end) put out," he said.

Swimbait gear: 7'7" heavy-action Phenix Ultra MBX casting rod, unnamed casting reel, 15-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, 3/4- and 1-oz. swimbait jigheads, 7" Nichols Lures swimbait (shad), 5" Mister Twister Magnum Swimsation (pearl). He rigged the Nichols swimbait on the 1-oz. head with an 8/0 hook and the Swimsation on the 3/4-oz. head with a 4/0 hook.

Crankbait gear: 7'6" heavy-action Phenix X-Series crankbait rod, same reel, 15-pound Yo-Zuri Hybrid line, Duel +4 crankbait (chartreuse blueback). He also caught a few keepers on the Mister Twister HANG 10! 10" worm.

Main factor: "Not fishing in practice. The main thing to me was covering water and looking for fish. I wasn't interested in seeing how big they were just yet."

Performance edge: "My Garmin electronics. The new mapping they have is unbelievable. At Eufaula, they have couple brush piles where nothing shows up on a Navionics chip."

Lake Eufaula 2-5 Patterns BassFan 5/20/15 (Todd Ceiser)

Strader has competed at Eufaula in May before, but he'd not before seen the set of conditions that faced the field last week. Falling, warm water with most of the fish in a post-spawn phase before they move out to their summer haunts. The frontrunner for the AOY title year pieced together several different programs and saw his weights jump on days 2 and 3 to make his second straight Top-10 cut. "I was a little worried because I knew it'd be a totally offshore deal, but I found out I could catch them a lot of different ways," he said. "I like tournaments like that." He spent two days of practice searching for brush and offshore spots down the lake and spent the other day fishing in the Chattahoochee. "I had a really good day in the river, but the water fell a little and messed it up a bit," he said. "It's all about timing in the river just like the lake. When I saw the water falling and figured if it would come back up, somebody had a chance to do well in the river." Ultimately, he made the call to fish brush and hydrilla on the lower part of the lake. He threw a mix of worms and creature baits and combed the tops of the hydrilla clumps with a vibrating jig. "After what I saw with hydrilla and brush down the lake, I knew that's where it would be won," he said. One of the keys to his 21-01 stringer on day 2 was his slow retrieve on the Zoom Magnum Trick Worm. "If you pulled it up high or moved it too fast, they wouldn't bite it," he said. "I had to drag the bait and I couldn't shake it or hop it. It had to be subtle. That Magnum size is beefy, but subtle." The hydrilla fish were keying on yellow perch and Strader feels the trailer he used allowed him to catch fish behind other competitors.

Finesse worm gear: 7'5" medium-heavy Powell Max 3D casting rod, Lew's Team Lew's Lite casting reel (6.8:1 gear ratio), 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/4-oz. Reins Tungsten slip sinker, 4/0 Lazer TroKar offset worm hook, Zoom Magnum Trick Worm (redbug).

Big worm gear: Same rod, same reel, 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 3/8-oz. Reins Tungsten slip sinker, same hook, Zoom Ol' Monster worm (redbug).

Creature bait gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Powell Max 3D casting rod, Lew's Team Lew's Lite casting reel (7.6:1 gear ratio), 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, same hook, Zoom Z-Craw.

Vibrating jig gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Powell Max 3D casting rod, same reel as creature bait, same worm line, 1/2-oz. homemade vibrating jig, Zoom Swimming Fluke Jr. trailer (Tennessee shad).

Main factor: "Just keeping an open mind and trusting my gut and following that. If something came to me, I did it.I didn't fight it, I just did it."

Performance edge: "I cannot stress enough the important of your electronics. Without the side imaging and DownScan on my Lowrance, there's no way I would've found what I fished. To be able to tell exactly what you're looking is makes such a big deal."

Lake Eufaula 2-5 Patterns BassFan 5/20/15 (Todd Ceiser)

Turns out it was a good thing Jeff Gustafson brought his dad along for the trip to Lake Eufaula last week. Without Jim Gustafson in the back of the boat during practice, it's safe bet Jeff wouldn't have tapped into the shallow-water surface feeders that ultimately carried him to the best finish of his Tour career. While fishing shallow one day in practice, Gustafson's dad, who fished the event as a co-angler, opted to tie on a topwater popper-style bait. The younger Gustafson didn't endorse the move right away. After his dad caught three good ones on it, he was sold. "I probably would've never gotten on that program if he hadn't have been in the boat with me," he said. "I didn't come here thinking to fish topwater the whole time." While others were playing musical brush piles, Gustafson went around and threw a couple different poppers at laydowns, "do-nothing banks," docks and over some shallow brush. He said there were shad around the areas he fished, but he didn't catch fish keying on clusters of bait fish. "That was surprising, but I'm there were places on the lake where there was some big-time feeding going on," he sad.

He made the Day-2 cut in 4th with 35-11 and stayed in the Top 5 the rest of the way despite catching four on the final day. "Whenever I come to these touraments with a notion of how I'm going to catch fish or should fish, I never do as well," he said. "Whenever I stumble into something and get on a pattern that's unique, those are the tournaments I've done better in." While those running the brush piles said they went long stretches between bites, especially in the middle of the day when the sun got high, Gustafson was still catching fish consistently. "You just throw out all the rules," he added. "I almost think in the middle of the afternoon, the bite was better than first thing in the morning on the topwater. It certainly wasn't worse."

Topwater gear: 7'5" medium-heavy G. Loomis NRX casting rod, Shimano Chronarch Ci4+ casting reel (7.6:1 gear ratio), 30-pound PowerPro braided line (main line), 20-pound unnamed monofilament line (leader), Jackall Binksy (HL Chart Strike Gill), Rebel P-70 Pop-R (bone).

Main factor: "Committing to doing something different and recognizing I was getting the right kind of bites doing that. I think it was important to be open minded and do something that wasn't by the book."

Performance edge: "Those Shimano reels. I was making a lot of casts easy day and they are so smooth and light that it made it easy to do."

Lake Eufaula 2-5 Patterns BassFan 5/20/15 (Todd Ceiser)