Big questions in Cup: Who wins on Hamilton and how?
A pretournament favorite is by no means a sure thing in a bass fishing world championship. Along with the attendant pressure, even a world-class angler can have the breaks go against him — or simply be outfished.
In a tournament that no one has won twice, a marquee name is a prime contender in the FLW Cup this weekend on Lake Hamilton. Bryan Thrift, of Shelby, N.C., is on the short list of favorites to collect the $300,000 first prize Sunday. Two FLW Tour angler-of-the-year titles, six Tour wins and five Costa FLW Series victories swing the spotlight in Thrift’s direction any time he competes.
Fifty-two anglers launch at 6:30 a.m. today and Saturday from Andrew Hulsey Fish Hatchery on the south end of the lake. The top 10 through two rounds return Sunday for a fish-off with weigh-ins daily at 5 p.m. and Sunday’s gala following a free Trace Adkins concert at 4 p.m.
It’s the sixth FLW Cup in Hot Springs but the first on Lake Hamilton since 2005, when local angler George Cochran won the
title virtually fishing out of his backyard.
Hamilton is shorter (7,200 acres) than Lake Ouachita, last year’s site, but boasts enough prime fishing holes to challenge the field.
“Even though I haven’t been here before I do feel a little familiar with it just because of how it sets up,” said Thrift, commenting that Hamilton is “a lot like some of the lakes back home.”
In a practice round with Kyle Wood of flwfishing.com, Thrift gave a brief sketch of his tournament strategy. Loading 32 rods, Thrift started with a buzzbait, the essential technique of victory for Cochran in the 2005 Cup.
“I already know this is how I’m going to start my morning,” Thrift said of fishing shallow. “I just don’t know where I’m going to start yet.”
Marveling at the giant homes on the shoreline (“They got more money in landscaping than I do in my whole house”), Thrift was puzzled that he wasn’t getting more bites.
“Back home you can catch fish under docks all summer long,” he told Wood. “It seems like there is always a few big, dumb ones that live up shallow when it’s hot, but I haven’t found any of them yet.”
Curtis Niedermier, editor-in-chief of flwfishing.com, lists dock fishing, brush piles and bank grass as the most probable patterns this week. Brush piles are abundant on Hamilton, though Niedermier says “once the fishing pressure sets in, it’ll probably take a big worm worked slowly through the brush to get bites.”
Other factors, said Niedermier, are power generation and pleasure boaters, anticipating a rush to the upper and lower ends of the lake. “That’s where the deepest water is found,” he said. “It’s also the area with the most docks and brush piles.”
Cochran said an anything-goes approach worked for him in the 2005 Cup when no one else was on the same pattern as him in the final round.
Estimates vary as to the winning weight, though Cochran, who knows the lake as well as anyone, says it’s been especially generous at night. Although daytime fishing in August is more demanding, Cochran expects better totals than in 2005, when most of the top pros had four-day weights in the mid- to upper 20s.
In an online poll, Thrift gets the nod from three panelists while seven other anglers, including Arkansas veteran Larry Nixon and FLW Tour Angler of the Year David Dudley, have one vote each.
Todd Hollowell, FLW Live co-host and former FLW Tour pro, says “multiple patterns may come into play, and the ability to figure out each day on its own will play right into Thrift’s strengths. Plus, it’s his time. Bryan is one of the best this sport has ever seen, and this Cup is ripe to be his for the taking.”
Peter Thliveros (better known as Peter T.), a former FLW Tour pro who joins Hollowell on FLW Live, said “Thrift can go from deep to shallow quickly.”
Tour pro Greg Bohannan picks the 68-year-old Nixon, citing his local knowledge and an inevitability factor.
“Last time the Cup was on Hamilton, George Cochran won it, and he and Larry are best friends,” says Bohannan. “Larry has fished the lake several times, and he’s just due.”
Justin Onslow, associate editor, tabs tour rookie and threetime Cup contestant Bradford Beavers (“He knows how to prepare and the big stage isn’t going to bother him”) but also foresees a “superstar trifecta.”
“The FLW Cup and its smaller-than-usual tournament field present opportunities for lesser-known anglers to do things,” says Onslow. “It’s been a long time since the prohibitive favorite triumphed in the championship.
“Still, if I were a betting man, I’d put my money on more than one of the biggest names of the sport fishing in the top 10. Give me John Cox, Bryan Thrift and David Dudley — not just one, but all three of them — finishing in the top five this year.”