Yamaha professional angler Bryan Thrift has won the 2010 FLW Angler of the Year title, a race based upon finish position points. His win caps a season of success for Yamaha professional anglers, who were victorious four out of five times in FLW Tour competition this season.Yamaha, won the Guntersville season-finale event.
Thrift clinched the AOY title at the Guntersville FLW Tour near Huntsville, Ala. on Friday, June 25, after catching 61 pounds of bass over three days. He scored a total of 967 points for the season. Ultimately, Brent Long, also powered by Yamaha, won the Guntersville season-finale event.
Thrift had a remarkable season, finishing fourth in the opening tournament of the season at Table Rock, and then following it with a win at Lake Norman, a third place finish at Fort Loudon/Tellico Lakes in April, and a ninth place finish at Guntersville.
The Shelby, N.C. angler has had a great deal of success in a short time. In 2007, Thrift was named FLW Rookie of the Year, and then went on to finish fifth at the 2007 Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Ouachita. In 2008, he took 15th at the Forrest Wood Cup on Lake Murray. His highest FLW Tour finish in 2008 was eighth on Lake Toho. Thrift finished the 2009 season with a ninth-place position at the Forrest Wood Cup, and ended the year in fifth place in the Angler of the Year standings.
“We congratulate Bryan on this great achievement,” said Dale Barnes, Yamaha Marine Group Division Manager Marketing. “Not too long ago he was named Rookie of the Year, and he has made it to the top.”
In addition to winning the majority of the FLW Tour events in 2010, Yamaha anglers captured three of the top five positions in the Angler of the Year race. Yamaha pro Mark Rose was third in the AOY race with 903 points, and Yamaha pro Brent Ehrler was fifth, with 870 points. Ehrler won the Table Rock Lake FLW Tour event near Branson, Mo. this year and the Lake Ouachita FLW Tour event near Hot Springs, Ark. He also won the FLW Series Western Division event at Lake Shasta, near Redding, Calif., and currently holds the top position for the National Guard Western Division Angler of the Year race with one event remaining. Rose finished second in this past weekend’s event at Lake Guntersville. Thrift, Ehrler and Rose are all headed to FLW Championship in August at Lake Lanier.”We launched our new four-stroke VMAX SHO this year,” said Barnes. “We could ask for no better outcome or testament for a new product than to see it powering winners on the FLW Tour.”
“At Lake Norman I was running 90 to 100 miles a day and burned a tank and a half of fuel,” said Thrift. “With the VMAX SHO, I ran the exact same miles and never even switched to the second tank. I burn a third less fuel with the SHO than the VMAX Series 2.”
“My previous boat was identical to my new one except for the motor. I was running between 67 or 68 lightly loaded. With the VMAX SHO and the extra load of a camera man, I was running 72 or 73.”
Yamaha Marine products are marketed throughout the United States and around the world. Yamaha Marine Group, based in Kennesaw, Ga., supports its 2,000 U.S. dealers and OEM partners with marketing, training and parts for Yamaha’s full line of products and strives to be the industry leader in reliability, technology and customer service. Yamaha Marine is the only outboard brand to have earned NMMA’s C.S.I. Customer Satisfaction Index award every year since its inception. Visit the yamahaoutboards website.
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