Gagliardi rocks the ‘Rock'

Lucky Craft pro Anthony Gagliardi wins FLW Tour event on Table Rock; Ehrler takes 6th

Just weeks after Skeet Reese won the Bassmaster Classic on a Lucky Craft Redemption spinnerbait, the Lucky Craft pro staff is striking again, this time on the FLW Tour.

Pro staffer Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, S.C., won the second FLW Tour event on Table Rock Lake in Missouri using a variety of Lucky Craft jerkbaits including a Pointer 78, Pointer 100 and Pointer 100 DD.

The weather at the Rock was some of the coldest the FLW Tour had ever experienced. On the first day of the event, pros endured highs in the mid 30s with snow flurries.

Amazingly, the brutal weather only seemed to spur on Table Rock's largemouth bass population. The first day of the event, six limits over 20 pounds crossed the stage and many of those limits were made up of largemouths.

Gagliardi's week, ironically, did not get off to such a fast start. He weighed in 15-11 on day one and lingered in 41st place. In fact, on day two, Gagliardi really began to struggle. He had just two keepers in his well at noon and was starting to wonder if he was even going to cash a check.

"I couldn't believe it when I won," Gagliardi said. "Mainly because on day two I was just scratching and clawing to get a bite. I had forgotten about winning - I was in survival mode trying to get a $10,000 check - and then boom, it all clicked."

What clicked for Gagliardi was a key move he made late on day two. It was not a big move either; he simply moved his boat out off the bank.

"I had been fishing up shallower in that 5-to 15-foot range," he explained. "I was throwing the shallower jerkbaits - the Pointer 78 and 100 on channel swing points. But late that second day I decided to back way off one of my best points - like out into 50 or 60 feet of water. Then I switched to the Pointer 100 DD with the bigger lip to get the bait down farther."

With the boat out off the bank, Gagliardi's casts were now landing where his boat had been sitting and that turned into the clutch move as he went from catching nothing to loading the boat with 18 pounds of bass.

"When that happened I realized the fish were still relating to the same points, they had just moved out and suspended over the ends of the points in about 30 feet instead of 10 feet."

The scenario felt familiar to Gagliardi as he had seen this happen several times during the frigid pre-spawn on his home waters of Clarks Hill and Hartwell in South Carolina.

"This happens back home, too," he said. "The fish still relate to the same channel swing points, they just back way out and suspend over the very ends of the points in the channel rather over the very point itself."

When Gagliardi figured out what happened late on day two, he was fishing in the James River. But he had a distinct hunch that this newly discovered pattern would work on some of his best water in the Whiter River as well - and he was right

"When I started getting those bites on that point in the James River on day two, I recalled all the points up in the White River that were set up the same way," he described. "They were channel swing points - not bluff points that dropped straight off - but more gradual sloping points that tapered slowly into the channel with a little rock or something on the very tips for the fish to suspend over. In fact, those points up in the White River fit the bill a lot better than the ones in the James. Once I realized I might have missed the bite up the White by not backing out far enough off the bank, I decided to go up there on day three, and sure enough, those fish were set up the same exact way - it was pretty incredible."

Once Gagliardi moved out deep, he went to Lucky Craft's Pointer 100 DD, which did most of the damage on the final two days. The 100 DD would go down some 8 to 9 feet over the 30-foot points and entice suspended fish from 10 to 12 feet of water.

His key colors included Chartreuse Shad, and he fished the lures on 8-pound line.

Over the final two days, Gagliardi hauled in consistent limits of 14-6 and 14-8, respectively, for a two-day total of 28-14 to take the win.

This $125,000 victory marked Gagliardi's third FLW Tour win and now puts him in fourth place for the 2009 FLW Tour Angler of the Year Tour race.

Brent Ehrler of Redlands, Calif., joined fellow pro staff member Anthony Gagliardi in making the top 10 at Table Rock, eventually finishing 6th to collect $19,000.

On day one, Ehrler caught 17-11 to begin the event in 17th place. On day two he brought in another solid limit for 16-8 to qualify for the top 10 in 6th place with a two-day total of 34-3.

Things got much tougher on Ehrler during the final two days. He scratched out four bass on day three for 9-8 to hold his 6th place spot, then mustered just two bass for 4-13 on the final day to hold onto 6th.

Similar to some of the other top-10 pros, Ehrler fished far up the James River during the event.

He relied on a one-two punch that included Lucky Craft's Fat CB GDS Mini DR crankbait and a Pointer 100, as well as a Pointer 112.

The crankbait colors included Japan Craw and Watermelon Craw while the jerkbaits were Pearl Wakasagi and Chartreuse Shad.

"I was cranking secondary points inside pockets," Ehrler said. "Most pockets up the river had a transition break about half-way back where the bluff bank suddenly turned flatter and shallower. The bank would go from 10 to 12 feet to 6 to 8 feet about half-way back - that was the key spot where fish were positioned."

As for the jerkbait, he fished it over the tops of submerged cedar trees.

"I really only used the jerkbait on days one and two, especially day two - I caught everything I weighed in on it," Ehrler said. "The final two days I decided to stick with the crankbait because I could cover so much more water with it. The jerkbait was too slow for the amount of new water I wanted to cover."

Once Ehrler made the top 10, he figured the amount of boat traffic up the James River would diminish, but he was wrong.

"I didn't really factor in the local weekend traffic up there," he said. "I thought with 140 boats out of the tournament it would have opened up a lot of water in the James, but there were actually more local boats up there over the weekend and it kind of hindered running a pattern. Every pocket I went in already had a boat or two in it and I felt like I was fishing behind somebody all day."

Ehrler fished both the crankbaits and the jerkbaits on 10-pound test Sunline fluorocarbon and tied them to a Lucky Craft Pointer rod.

"The Pointer rod is the perfect size (6-feet, 10-inches) and action for jerkbaits and small crankbaits," he added. "It has a lot of give in the tip for fish that are barely hooked, which was the case on a few of my fish the first two days."

As a side note, Ehrler now sits in second place for the 2009 FLW Tour Angler of the Year title after two events. He finished second in the Angler of the Year race in 2008 and now he is off to a fantastic start again.

Joe Thomas made good on the day-one feeding frenzy at Table Rock with a limit weighing 13-13 and brought three bass for 6-9 on day two to finish the event in 84th place with a two-day total of 20-6.

Thomas' main pattern at Table Rock was fishing main lake and secondary points with a Lucky Craft Slender Pointer 112 in Chartreuse Shad up the White River.

"I was keeping my boat in about 20 to 30 feet of water and fishing the Pointer over about 10 feet," Thomas said. "The first day they were coming up good to get the bait and I caught a lot of fish. I was using light line - 8-pound fluorocarbon - to get the bait down."

"After the front passed on day two, the fish kind of stop coming up for the jerkbait," he added. "I did catch two on it in the morning, but then my areas went dead. I picked up a crankbait at the end of the day and caught one more and that was it."

Gabe Bolivar endured a difficult tournament at Table Rock Lake due to being hamstrung by mechanical issues both days of the event.

He weighed in one bass on day one for 2-11 and four bass on day two for 9-9 for a two-day total of 12 pounds, 4 ounces to finish 126th place.

"Man, what a rough tournament," Bolivar lamented after day two. "I had mechanical problems both days of the event and never made it up to the water I really wanted to fish either day. Actually, I probably only got to fish five hours during the whole tournament."

When he was fishing, Bolivar threw a mixture of Lucky Craft jerkbaits and a shaky head.

"What fish I did weigh in came on a Pointer 100 and a Slender Pointer 112 in Table Rock Shad and Ghost Chartreuse Shad," he said. "Because of where I fished, I had to make the best of it. But I'm going to shake this one off and have a great event at Norman in April."