SOMERSET, Ky. (April 15, 2018) – Pro Bryan Thrift of Shelby, North Carolina, added to his ever-growing list of accolades Sunday, bringing another five-bass limit of smallmouth to the scale, this one weighing 18 pounds, 10 ounces, to win the FLW Tournament at Lake Cumberland and the top prize of $125,000 – his sixth career FLW Tour win. Thrift’s four-day total of 20 bass weighing 70-2 gave him the win by a 1-pound, 10-ounce margin over second place pro Allen Boyd of Salem, Indiana, the TBF “Living The Dream” package winner who weighed 20 bass for 68-8 to finish second and earn $30,000.
“I’ve had a phenomenal week,” said Thrift, the reigning Angler of the Year who moved into a tie for third all-time for most career FLW Tour wins. “I was starting down in Indian Creek and fishing my way back to Burnside each day.”
Thrift weighed in a limit of smallmouth bass each day by fishing points, bluffs, lead-in banks and the mouth of the creek. He credited his equipment setup as being the key to his win.
“I caught all of my fish this week on two main baits – a 3-inch Damiki Armor Shad (flash shad) and a 3½-4-inch swimbait (Tennessee shad),” said Thrift. “I used the Armor Shad when it was sunny the first two days. When it got cloudy, I started throwing the bigger swimbait. The Armor Shad is a more subtle swimbait.”
Thrift threw the swimbaits on 8-pound-test P-Line Tactical Fluorocarbon line, a 7-foot, medium-heavy Fitzgerald Fishing Stunner HD rod, and an Abu Garcia Revo MGX baitcasting reel.
“I feel like the 8-pound line helped me get a lot more bites,” he said. “A lot of people don’t like using that light of line on a baitcaster, but you just have so much more control over your bait. I never lost any fish this week and the key was the combination of my rod, reel and line.”
The top 10 pros on Lake Cumberland finished:
1st: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C., 20 bass, 70-2, $125,200
2nd: Allen Boyd, Salem, Ind., 20 bass, 68-8, $30,100
3rd: Clent Davis, Montevallo, Ala., 20 bass, 67-10, $25,000
4th: Greg Bohannan, Bentonville, Ark., 20 bass, 65-9, $20,000
5th: Andy Morgan, Dayton, Tenn., 20 bass, 65-4, $19,000
6th: Chris Johnston, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, 20 bass, 63-1, $18,000
7th: Chris McCall, Palmer, Texas, 20 bass, 62-11, $17,000
8th: James Watson, Lampe, Mo., 20 bass, 62-2, $16,000
9th: Darrel Robertson, Jay, Okla., 20 bass, 61-14, $15,000
10th: Kerry Milner, Bono, Ark., 20 bass, 60-3, $14,000
Overall there were 50 bass weighing 162 pounds, 15 ounces caught by pros Sunday. All of the final 10 pros weighed in five-bass limits.
Joel Willert of Prior Lake, Minnesota, won the Co-angler Division and $20,000 Friday with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 24 pounds, 2 ounces, followed by Robert Case III of Point, Texas, who finished in second place with 10 bass totaling 23-15, worth $7,550.