2016 Bassmaster Elite at Bull Shoals/Norfork Day 3: Tharp Leads Going into Final Day!

Top 12 head to Norfork for Final Day.
By Bryan Brasher
BASS PRESS RELEASE
Randall Tharp suffered through one of the toughest seasons of his professional career in 2015, but it seems to have given him some extra motivation for this year's campaign.

Tharp opened the 2016 Bassmaster Elite Series season with back-to-back Top 20 finishes — and now, he has caught enough fish at this week's Bassmaster Elite at Bull Shoals/Norfork to move himself into position to claim his first Elite Series win.

Big rods and jigs jumps Tharp to lead. (Photo: BASS)

He brought in five bass Saturday from Bull Shoals Lake that weighed 16 pounds, 4 ounces and moved from fifth place to the top of the standings with a three-day total of 45-8. The tournament, which began Thursday on Norfork Lake and moved to Bull Shoals Friday and Saturday, will shift back to Norfork for Sunday's championship round with Tharp leading the remaining Top 12 anglers.

"I started in the same place today where I lost a big one (Friday), and I never had a bite," said Tharp, who has three Bassmaster Open victories but none on the Elite Series. "Where I pulled my trolling motor up (Friday), I just decided to keep on going. I kept the trolling motor down until 11 o'clock, and that's how I caught most of what I had.

"It was new water — a lot shallower than what I had been fishing — and I just fished everything in front of me."
Tharp said he was struggling early, but a slight change in technique helped.