Bryan Thrift continues to hone his skills using his fast pace style to catch cold clear water bass. Bryan, with a little advice from his friend Matt Arey, began to speed up his jerkbait presentation and stayed away from his shallow river areas and caught enough to win. Throwing a Megabass Vision 110 on a 6-foot, 6-inch medium heavy Damiki Dark Angel rod Mr. Thrift worked his bait as fast as he could pausing when his arms began to burn. This technique allowed Thrift to sack 20 pounds 8 ounces. Thrift managed a 4 pounder with just minutes left to fish. Thrift commented that this fish was the winning fish for sure. Thrift made $125,000 for his efforts and shared the presentation with his newborn son with a smile.
Stacey King rallied to a second place finish. King was unable to bring a limit to the scales and it proved to be the difference as he finished just 2 pounds, 2 ounces behind Thrift. King used a Cordell Super Shad which is no longer produced. The tailspinner prved to be the ticket and with local knowledge of Beaver Lake Stacey King used all of it to help himself with a great finish with 16 pounds, 12 ounces on the final day.
Ron Shuffield falls to third place after catching just 3 bass on the final day. The calm clear weather hurt Shuffield’s bite but he stuck with what got him to day 4 and it just did not work out. The first two days helped Shuffield stay in the hunt on day 4 but as all tournament anglers know it don’t always happen the way we want. Shuffield managed 49 pounds, 4 ounces and the third place finish earned him a check for $30,000.