Bryan Thrift Wins FLW Costa Series Santee Cooper
Thrift said he didn't accomplish much of anything in the days leading up to the event. "Practice was pretty awful," he said. "I kept looking for them where I thought they should be and trying to make them be where they weren't." He spent some time searching for active spawners, but that was unproductive. "In the tournament, I really had no choice but to fish history. I went to places where I'd gotten big bites before and just started catching them." He visited both lakes on each day of the event and plied a wide variety of shallow cover. He caught weigh-in fish on a crankbait, a flipping stick and a frog and picked up one good one on a rattlebait.
Competition:
Thrift said he doesn't think he caught a single fish exceeding 5 pounds in practice, but the five he brought to the scale on day 1 averaged that number. He began the day running five or six places that were known staging areas for fish bound for the beds, but they produced just a single 2 1/2-pounder. He made a major move at 9 o'clock and started fishing cypress trees, and he had a limit within a couple hours that included a couple of big ones. He added later added two more quality specimens that were enticed by a frog and he settled into 7th place, about 6 1/2 pounds behind leader Scott Canterbury. Day 2 started out like gangbusters. Before 9 o'clock, he'd run some staging areas with a crankbait, flipped some trees and pulled a frog over some vegetation, and all three tactics produced fish in the 7-pound class. A lone 2-pounder was all he managed for the remainder of the day, however. He'd have been atop the field at the cut had he been able to complete his limit, but instead found himself a pound behind new leader Bradley Dortch and also trailing Fisher and Tim Malone by a few ounces. He'd erase all deficits on the final day, though. He popped a 6 1/2-pounder from a staging area in Lake Marion within the first 10 minutes on day 3, and also caught a 3 1/2-pounder and a short fish. He transitioned to the cypress trees and added a 4, then headed down to Lake Moultrie to fish some places he hadn't visited yet. He picked up a pair of 5 1/2s Ð one on a frog and the other on a Rat-L-Trap. He boated some other fish over the next 2 hours or so, but none aided his cause. He left himself an hour to flip some additional trees in Marion on his return trip to the launch, and that paid off in a 7 1/2-pound brute that represented a 4-pound cull and provided his winning margin. "I still didn't think I'd win," he said. "The fish bit a lot better on day 3 and I figured that everybody else was waylaying them. "I figured I had a chance, but I still thought that not having that fifth fish on the second day was going to cost me."
Winning Pattern:
Thrift thinks he caught pre-spawn, spawning and post-spawn fish at various times throughout the event. "I'm sure that some of them were on beds, around the trees and stuff, but I couldn't see them," he said.
Winning Gear:
Cranking gear: 7' medium-heavy Fitzgerald Crankbait/Topwater rod, unnamed casting reel (5:1 ratio), 12-pound P-Line fluorocarbon line, Damiki DC-200 (real shad).
Flipping gear: 6'9" medium-heavy Fitzgerald Bryan Thrift Signature Series Skipping rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), 20-pound P-Line fluorocarbon, 1/2-ounce Damiki Mamba jig (brown/blue), Damiki Knock Out or Zoom Super Chunk trailer (green-pumpkin).
Frog gear: 7'2" heavy-action Fitzgerald Bryan Thrift Signature Series Frog rod, unnamed casting reel (7:1 ratio), 50-pound P-Line XTCB braided line, unnamed 4" buzzing frog (black).
Main factor: "With the lack of a good practice, I'd say it was just knowing how many big fish are in those lakes. It was just fishing with the confidence that every bite could be an 8-pounder."
Performance edge: "The combination of that 6'9" skipping rod and the Mamba jig was a killer set-up. Some of the cypress trees had limbs that were 3 inches off the water that extended out 4 or 5 feet, and it was a big advantage to be able to get the bait all the way to the tree."
Santee Cooper Costa Winning Pattern BassFan 3/15/16 (John Johnson)
