April 2018 FLW Bass Fishing Tournament
Lake Cumberland - Bryan Thrift Wins
Here is the amazing "Day 5" fishing video where Thrift walks through the winning pattern for catching smallmouth and largemouth bass on Lake Cumberland. The full breakdown of the fishing tournament is below.
Winning Pattern Breakdown
Top 3 Key Baits / Lures:
Many of the top performing anglers were fishing Spinner Baits. Even Thrift himself would power fish a spinner bait to get a limit, then slow down and fish a 3 to 4 inch swim bait in shad colors (Tennessee Shad, Sexy Shad) to get the bigger bass. The majority of the top 10 finishers, including Andy Morgan, had a lot of success on Largemouth fishing a spinner bait in flooded timber.
From Thrift's FLW Interview:
"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)... 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."
"The most challenging part, was being able to fish this slow before I had a limit."
With the swimbait, Thrift sits as far off from the bank as he can, while still reaching it, so as not to spook the bass. He wants the bait just off the bottom, following the contour of the lake as he retrieves. So starting in 5-8 feet at the bank then letting the swimbait arc deeper as he retrieves slowly.
Andy Morgan on Day One:
"It's really, really random. I don't know what the next one is going to be beside or when the next bite is going to come. But it's my kind of fishing. It ain't no dragging around."
Here Morgan was referring to fishing slow and towards the bottom for smallmouth, which is how Thrift won. Thrift also noted that bites were tough to predict: "I don't like lakes where you just 'go fishing,' I like to know where they're at," but Cumberland tends to be one of the lakes where you have to just "go fishing."
Season Breakdown
The fish gradually crept up shallower as the tournament progressed, where anglers targeting largemouth increasingly fished the bank towards the fourth day. On the first day, Andy Morgan noted:
"I think they're right on the cusp [of spawning]…. The five [largemouth] I caught today were all females, and were all full of eggs."
Smallmouth bass were also starting to spawn on Cumberland's lower end.
Weather / Conditions Breakdown
The water was dropping a little each day, but the bigger condition change was the weather. Days one and two were warm, windy and clear as a bell. Day three was warm, but some rain and storms moved into the area later in the morning. Day four was colder and stormy.
Day-by-Day Weather:
Location Breakdown
The most common factors in each of the top five pros' reports were that everyone fished the middle and lower sections of the lake. This was Indian Creek for Thrift and Morgan, but others did well in Wolf Creek. The fishing was best early in the morning.
As Thrift noted: "Best bites were in the morning it seems, with things slowing down around 11am."
Pictures of Indian Creek, Wolf Creek, and just how far the anglers were willing to run to fish the regions they thought held the largest amount of big bass:
Key Takeaways
- •Power fish with a spinnerbait to get a limit, then slow down with swimbaits for bigger fish
- •Shad colors (Tennessee Shad, Sexy Shad) were the top producers
- •Fish the middle and lower lake sections - Indian Creek and Wolf Creek
- •Best bites came in the morning before 11am
- •Pre-spawn to spawn transition - fish moving shallower each day