KNOXVILLE, Tenn. – Bryan Thrift of Shelby, N.C., caught a five-bass limit weighing 15 pounds, 15 ounces Thursday to capture the lead on day two of the FLW Tour event presented by Folgers on Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes. His two-day catch of 10 bass weighing 36 pounds, 2 ounces gives him a 2-pound, 3-ounce lead in the tournament featuring the top pros and co-anglers from across the United States.
“I knew today was going to be a lot tougher day for me,” said Thrift, who won the March FLW Tour event at Lake Norman. “In practice I’d only found six keepers and I caught all of those the first day of the tournament.”
Thrift said on Thursday he revisited the bank he caught his fish on Wednesday and more fish had moved up on it and he managed to catch five keepers off of it. Thrift said he foul hooked another bass that would have given him another pound, but he had to release it. According to rules, all fish caught outside of the mouth while sight fishing must be immediately released.
“Hopefully we can go back out there tomorrow and it’ll bite again,” Thrift said. “I found one more today I didn’t catch that I think is a keeper, so we’re going to go try to catch him.”
Thrift said he caught the majority of his fish on a Damiki Hydra and a “crawfish” bait. A forecast of rain moving into the area Friday and Saturday had most anglers wondering how it would affect their strategies.
“I’ll probably have to abandon the smallmouth,” Thrift said. “If it’s rainy and cloudy I’ll probably throw a swimbait and topwater all day and try to see if we can catch some keeper largemouth.”
Glenn Browne of Ocala, Fla., is in the No. 2 spot with a two-day total of 10 bass weighing 33-15.
“I started out fairly close running to a couple of places where I’d caught some yesterday and I ended up catching one,” said Browne, who has won more than $511,000 in FLW Outdoors events. “I pulled into my primary area and I’m flipping laydowns and wood and stuff like that. It took me an hour or an hour-and-a-half to catch my limit once I got there.
“I caught a lot of fish today, Browne added. “I probably caught three limits of fish today. I went through a lot of fish to catch what I caught. It seems like they’re moving in. They’re real white and look like lake fish coming in there. I’m hoping there’s more to come. I hurt them pretty bad, or caught a lot today, out of such a small area.”
Rounding out the top-10 pros after day two on Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes are:
3rd: Goodwill pro Chad Grigsby, Maple Grove, Minn., 10 bass, 33-1
4th: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 10 bass, 29-5
5th: J.T. Kenney, Palm Bay, Fla., nine bass, 29-4
6th: Brandon Coulter, Knoxville, Tenn., 10 bass, 28-8
7th: James Watson, Waynesville, Mo., 10 bass, 28-6
8th: Cabelas pro Clark Wendlandt, Leander, Texas, 10 bass, 26-13
9th: Chevy pro Jay Yelas, Corvallis, Ore., 10 bass, 25-10
10th: National Guard pro Justin Lucas, Montevallo, Ala., nine bass, 25-6
Overall there were 506 bass weighing 1,027 pounds, 2 ounces caught by 133 pros Thursday. The catch included 65 five-bass limits.
Pros are competing for a top award of up to $125,000 this week plus valuable points in the hope of qualifying for the Forrest Wood Cup which will be held Aug. 5-8 at Lake Lanier in Atlanta, Ga., where they could win as much as $600,000 – the sport’s biggest award.
Darrell Mitchell of Taneyville, Mo., leads the Co-angler Division with a total of 10 bass weighing 18 pounds, 10 ounces, followed by Kevin Hawk of Ramona, Calif., in second place with eight bass weighing 17-6.
Mitchell caught five bass weighing 9-11 while fishing with pro Mike Surman of Boca Raton, Fla., Wednesday and five bass weighing 8-15 while fishing with pro Dan Morehead of Paducah, Ky., Thursday.
Rounding out the top-10 co-anglers are:
3rd: Johnny Manning, Arkadelphia, Ark., eight bass, 15-7
4th: Keith Honeycutt, Temple, Texas, seven bass, 14-3
5th: Keith Iddins, Knoxville, Tenn., five bass, 14-2
6th: Alan Hults, Gautier, Miss., seven bass, 13-15
7th: Brian Wilson, Somerset, Ky., five bass, 13-6
8th: Spencer Shuffield, Bismarck, Ark., eight bass, 13-2
9th: Greg Schultz, Wayzata, Minn., five bass, 12-14
10th: Todd Lee, Jasper, Ala., five bass, 12-9
Overall there were 222 bass weighing 402 pounds, 3 ounces caught by 114 co-anglers Thursday. The catch included five five-bass limits.
Co-anglers are fishing for a top award of $25,000 this week plus valuable points that could help them qualify for the 2010 Forrest Wood Cup.
Anglers will take off from Tellico Recreational Area Ramp east of Lenoir City, Tenn. at 7 each morning. Friday’s weigh-in will be held at Tellico Recreational Area Ramp at 3 p.m. Saturday’s final weigh-in will be held at the Knoxville Convention Center located at 701 Henley St. in Knoxville beginning at 4 p.m.
Fans will be treated to a Family Fun Zone & Outdoor Expo at the Knoxville Convention Center on Friday from 5 to 9 p.m. and Saturday prior to the final weigh-in from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a drawing for a Can-Am ATV courtesy of WNML-AM and rod and reel combos will be given to the first 300 kids under 14 in attendance on Saturday compliments of the Knoxville News Sentinel. The Family Fun Zone & Outdoor Expo includes Ranger boat simulators, the opportunity to interact with professional anglers, enjoy interactive games, activities and giveaways provided by sponsors, and learn more about the sport of fishing and other outdoor activities. All activities are free and open to the public. For a full schedule of events, additional information and to register for the ATV, visit http://www.flwoutdoors.com/knoxville/.
Coverage of the Fort Loudoun/Tellico lakes tournament will be broadcast in high-definition (HD) on VERSUS. “FLW Outdoors,” will air June 6 from 12:30 to 1:30 ET. “FLW Outdoors,” hosted by Jason Harper, is broadcast to approximately 500 million households worldwide.
About FLW Outdoors
FLW Outdoors, named after Forrest L. Wood, the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, is the largest fishing tournament organization in the world offering anglers worldwide the opportunity to compete for millions over the course of 189 tournaments in 2010. FLW Outdoors has also taken fishing mainstream with FLW Fantasy Fishing awarding the largest prizes in the history of fantasy sports. FLW Outdoors memberships are available featuring numerous benefits including Player’s Advantage. For more information about FLW Outdoors and its tournaments, browse FLWOutdoors.com or call (270) 252-1000. For more information about FLW Fantasy Fishing, visit FantasyFishing.com.