FLW Tour Angler of the Year Anthony Gagliardi recently inked a deal to join Team Lucky Craft. He joins current team members Brent Ehrler, Marty Stone, Takahiro Omori, Kelly Jordon, Skeet Reese, Mike Auten, Gerald Swindle and Joe Thomas.
About the deal, Gagliardi said: "I'm very excited about it. It's a great company to be with – they have great products across the board – and I'm really excited to be a part of the team because of the way they promote their anglers."
His sponsor portfolio has been light. He's told BassFans numerous times that he wasn't in a rush to find sponsors. Rather, he wanted to wait for the right deals. Along with Ranger and Evinrude, he also represents Kistler rods, Gamma Line and Folgers coffee. The Gamma and Folgers deals came together prior to the start of this season.
"This was definitely worth waiting for," he noted of Lucky Craft. "I'm glad I did kind of take it slow when it came to sponsorship. The past couple of years, I've done pretty well and I haven't been in dire need of sponsors. That afforded me the time to sit back and wait for something really good to come along."
Notable is that his first win – the 2004 Kentucky Lake FLW Tour – came on a Lucky Craft Flat CB D-20. "They're baits I do throw," he said. "And I threw them a lot this year. I caught all my fish at Pickwick on a Pointer 78. So they're baits I already have confidence in. It's just a win-win situation."
