Thrift Sets Early Pace at Saginaw Bay

By MLF Communications

BAY CITY, Mich. – The vast waters of Saginaw Bay yielded a little bit of everything on Day 1 of the Bass Pro Tour season finale. While much of the field power fished for largemouth, some used finesse tactics to catch smallmouth and a few combined both approaches during Thursday’s opening day of qualifying.

All of the above tactics produced bunches of bass. Bryan Thrift led the way, boating 48 scorable bass for 127 pounds, 11 ounces. One of four pros to top the 100-pound mark on the day, he leads Edwin Evers by 16-9. Thrift’s banner day saw him catch the most scorable bass, amass the most weight and tie for Berkley Big Bass honors with a 4-11 largemouth.

“I didn’t expect it to be that good,” Thrift said. “I thought I could catch some bass, but I never thought I could catch them that good.”

Meanwhile, it took nearly 55 pounds to claim a spot above the 20th-place elimination line. The field as a whole wrangled 1,278 scorable bass totaling more than 3,100 pounds – easily the highest totals for a competition day during the 2025 season.

While Thrift lives more than 700 miles away from Saginaw Bay, he’s clearly taken a liking to this portion of Lake Huron. The North Carolina native finished ninth when the Bass Pro Tour first visited the fishery in 2023. Even though that event was contested with a five-fish limit as opposed to the current every-fish-counts format, Thrift was able to pick up where he left off, catching largemouth around isolated offshore grass patches.

Thrift thinks the featureless nature of the inner bay aligns with his wheelhouse because it allows him to idle and scan for sneaky offshore spots, which he’s long been one of the best at maximizing.

“It’s pretty shallow and featureless, not a lot of contours, and I can spend time looking for stuff with that Humminbird Side Imaging and find some of that isolated structure,” he said. “Luckily, it’s holding a few largemouth.”

Thrift started Day 1 on a spot that produced for him in 2023, then ran a few other areas that set up the same way. Whereas he only got about 10 to 12 scorable bites per day two years ago, Thrift found the grass patches teeming with largemouth. He attributes that to the low water level, theorizing that it prompted some of the bass to move from the ample emergent vegetation that lines the bay to deeper habitat.

“I’ve got to imagine that’s what put as many fish out there this time versus last time we were here,” he said. “Last time we were here, I was only catching 10 or 12 per day, but it was a lot of 3-pounders, 3½-pounders. And today, it was just a lot of 2½ to 2-15s.”

As good as Thrift’s opening day was, he doesn’t believe he’s found the winning formula just yet. He caught all of his weight off four spots Thursday, and he doubts they can hold up across four days of competition. He’s also concerned that the wind, which is forecast to blow harder each day, could hurt his bite. As a result, he’s still not sure whether he’ll use the second day of qualifying to scout for new spots or push to win the Qualifying Round, thus earning an automatic trip to Championship Sunday. Ideally, he’d like to do both.

“I’m going to let the wind decide what I do,” Thrift said. “I would like to go practice. I’d also like to win the round, make that guaranteed Championship berth. But I know I don’t have enough fish for four days, for sure. There’s absolutely no way. I don’t see how I can keep catching that many bass off of it. So, I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m going to play it by ear.”

Here's how the Top 10 looks after day 1:

1. Bryan Thrift: 48, 127-11
2. Edwin Evers: 45, 111-3
3. Keith Carson: 44, 109-13
4. Nick Hatfield: 43, 100-4
5. Jacob Wheeler: 35, 94-0
6. Marshall Hughes: 39, 93-8
7. Bobby Lane: 34, 87-2
8. Brent Ehrler: 30, 71-4
9. Jake Lawrence: 30, 70-13
10. Justin Lucas: 27, 69-12

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