Anthony Gagliardi overcame a lot to win the recent Chevy Open (Murray FLW). The Prosperity, S.C. angler fished in front of a hometown crowd – but didn't buckle under the pressure. And he didn't succumb to the home-lake jinx – the "I caught fish here before" trap. And he persevered through a severe weather change that delivered rain, snow and sub-freezing temperatures.
He hunted the lead spot from 2nd place for the first 3 days, then delivered a mind-bending, record-
setting 28-04 limit to the scales on day 4. His 47-04, 2-day total was 1-08 better than 2nd-place finisher Brennan Bosley, and was the heaviest "final-round weight" in FLW Tour history.
The win was his second on the FLW Tour. Here's how he did it.
Practice
It would be easy to assume that Gagliardi, ranked No. 7 in the BassFan World Rankings, had a local advantage at Murray. He grew up there, and knows the lake well. But remember that Murray was 12 feet below full-pool and most of his good spots were dry. So he started from scratch.
But he did scout the water well before his practice began. "The only local advantage I had was I had the opportunity to go out there and spend some time in the off-season," he said. "I looked around a lot, and put some brush in.
"Other than that, I didn't really have anything from the past to rely on. The lake was down 12 feet, and I didn't know the lake at this level. So I had to go out and relearn it. That was probably the one thing that helped me – I didn't really rely on the places I used to catch them."
His practice was "weird," mostly because he did so well. "I quit fishing the Friday before the tournament," he said. "I didn't practice the last 3 or 4 days. I knew fish were capable of being caught in the places I was fishing, but I didn't know what was there. If I knew I had a good place that would produce, I never made a cast there until the tournament.
"It was hard for me to gauge what I could catch because I didn't stick any fish," he added. "But I knew I had some good places."
He entered the tournament with a milk-run set up - a mix of spots that included rocks, brush and drop-offs.
Competition
> Day 1: 5, 26-14
> Day 2: 5, 15-00 (10, 41-14)
> Day 3: 5, 19-00
> Day 4: 5, 28-04 (10, 47-04)
Each of the 4 tournament days, Gagliardi worked his milk-run. And each day he'd add another stop or two, and revisit some of his old stops.
"Each day I caught a fish off places I didn't fish the day before, so I never had to worry about running out of fish," he said. "And I never had time to go to all of them – there were some spots I never even fished."
Gagliardi said his best spots had fish moving both ways – first in, then out.
He noted his spots needed just one of the three cover elements – rocks, brush or a dropoff – but if two elements were in combination, it was gold.
"If you had a good drop at the mouth of a creek or something, you didn't need brush or rock – they'd relate to that drop. But if you were fishing a straight bank, it had to have some kind of rock or brush.
"Up until the final day, rocks were key. It wasn't until day 4 that I really fished much brush." About his rocks, he said: "I was fishing some big rocks, some natural rockpiles, some places that had big boulders, and some places with a chunk bottom, where you'd drag a jig and it was real, real hangy."
He also noted he targeted clear-water areas in the mid- to lower lake. "I was fishing the lower half of the lake. All of my jig-fish came from 15 to 30 feet (deep). Where I caught my big ones on day 3 and 4, I was fishing a crank in 9 to 12 feet of water."
Most of the field was fishing rocks, but he said his key was location. "I wasn't doing anything different (technique-wise) than the rest of the guys. I was just fishing where the big females were."
He also said his spots were replenishing. "I looked for places like secondary points in creeks, or a drop at the mouth of a creek. So I felt like I had fish coming both ways.
"When it was warm the week before (the tournament), the fish were moving in from deep water – setting up to move into the creeks. And when it got colder, the fish were pulling out and stopping on the same places. They were coming both ways on some of my spots."
Winning Gear
> Jig gear: 7'11" extra-heavy Kistler rod, unnamed casting reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce and 1-ounce All-Terrain jigs (black) with a Zoom Super Chunk trailer (black).
> Crankbait gear: 7' medium-heavy Kistler rod, unnamed casting reel, 10-pound Gamma Edge, Brian's Bees B10 crankbait (chartreuse/root-beer).
Notable
> Main factor in his success – "The fact that I dedicated my whole practice to two techniques – both in deep water. I didn't waste time fishing shallow and I was able to put something together to carry me through 4 days of fishing in untested water. A lot of guys burned their fish, but I had new stuff to fish. I'd never felt comfortable doing that before."
> He's now running a Team Evinrude E-Tec wrapped boat. "I have a great relationship with (Evinrude)," he said. "I'm proud to represent them, and have the support of who I feel has the best product and new technology on the water. I'm an engineer – that's what I went to school for – so I can appreciate a lot of the tech that goes into that motor. It's truly amazing what they've done with that engine."
