COLUMBIA, S.C. – Ten bass, 47 pounds, 4 ounces. It’s an amazing final-round catch in Wal-Mart FLW Tour history and a near record, and it belongs to Prosperity, S.C., pro Anthony Gagliardi, who captured the Chevy Open title on Lake Murray Saturday, winning $200,000.
The single-day weight record of 29 pounds, 6 ounces fell Saturday in this catch-fest when Tim Carroll of Owasso, Okla., placed five bass weighing 30-15 on the scale. If a record were kept for the most 8- and 9-pounders in a single tournament, Carroll would likely own that, too, after weighing bass over 8 pounds on three out of four days. The big bass were not enough to fend off Gagliardi, however, as the hometown favorite placed a 28-pound, 4-ounce limit on the scale Saturday to win his second FLW Tour title.
Lake Murray also owns the tour’s opening round weight record of 49-8, set by Castrol pro Darrel Robertson of Jay, Okla., during the tour’s last stop there in 2003.
Gagliardi started the tournament with a limit weighing 26-14 to place second behind Carroll, who caught a limit weighing 28-1. On day two, Gagliardi added five bass weighing 15 pounds to his opening-round total to advance to the finals as the No. 2 seed with 10 bass weighing 41-14. Once again, he trailed Carroll, who advanced in the No. 1 position with eight bass weighing 44-9.
Day three was Brennan Bosley’s turn to shine, as the Team Wet Ones pro from Benton, Ark., grabbed the lead with five bass weighing 20-15. Once again, Gagliardi finished second with five bass weighing 19 pounds, and Carroll slipped to third with three bass weighing 14-11.
“I really lost this tournament on day three,” said Carroll, a fourth-year pro making his first top-10 appearance in FLW Tour competition. “I had several fish pull off Friday, and any one of those would have been a $200,000 fish. That’s easy to say in hindsight, but going down in the record books for the heaviest one-day weight in history is truly amazing.”
Carroll advanced to the final round using a 3/4-ounce PJ’s football head jig tied to 17-pound-test fluorocarbon. After missing several fish on Friday, however, he switched to a Texas-rigged 8-inch Yamamoto grub in watermelon color to set a new record Saturday. He used a 3/8-ounce weight and worked the grub down a secondary point that dropped dramatically from 17 feet to 30 feet and then from 30 feet to 40 feet. The point was situated off the main lake and was cluttered with stumps and other structure. Despite his record setting performance, Carroll finished the tournament in third and collected $50,000 with a two-day total of eight bass weighing 45-10.
Gagliardi, who has earned five top-10 finishes, including Saturday’s win and a win at the FLW Tour stop on Kentucky Lake in 2004, used a variety of baits, including a Brian’s Bee model B10 crankbait in chartreuse and root beer color, to set the final-round record and come from behind for the biggest win of his career. He also used a black 1/2-ounce All-Terrain jig and a Spot Remover jig tipped with a Reaction Innovations green pumpkin flirt. He ran the crankbait through 9 feet of water on a secondary point and fished the jigs in 18 to 30 feet of water around brush and rock piles.
“Kentucky Lake was my first win, but there is no comparison,” Gagliardi said. “All those big fish coming out of the livewells at the same time today had my nerves worked up. To break the final-round weight record and win the tournament at the same time is an amazing feeling.”
Bosley slipped to second and collected $100,000 with a final-round total of 10 bass weighing 45-12. He caught five bass weighing 24-13 Saturday. His bass came on a Bomber Deep Flat A tied to 10-pound-test fluorocarbon. He was bumping the bait off rocks in 8 to 10 feet of water to trigger reaction bites.
Rounding out the top five pros were Dave Wolak of Warrior Run, Pa. (10 bass, 25-1, $40,000) and Land O’Lakes pro Jeremiah Kindy of Benton, Ark. (eight bass, 21-12, $30,000).
Charles Ward of Greer, S.C., captured the co-angler title and $40,000 Friday with five bass weighing 10 pounds, 6 ounces that he caught behind Bosley. He caught the bass on a 1/4-ounce J & M Custom Lures shaky-head jig rigged with a Zoom green pumpkin finesse worm on 10-pound-test fluorocarbon line.
Rounding out the top five co-anglers were Sondra Rankin of Paducah, Ky. (three bass, 8-6, $20,000); Mark Cummings of Pembroke, Ky. (two bass, 5-13, $10,000); Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, S.C. (one bass, 5-4, $9,000); and Mike Devere of Berea, Ky. (two bass, 4-13, $8,000).
Overall, 42 bass weighing 156 pounds, 13 ounces, including six five-bass limits, were caught Saturday by the 10 pro finalists.
The next FLW Tour stop will be a $900,000 tournament presented by A&W Root Beer on Pickwick Lake in Florence, Ala., March 1-4. The $1.25 million Wal-Mart Open powered by Tyson will visit Beaver Lake in Rogers, Ark., April 5-8, then it’s off to Kentucky Lake May 10-13 for a $900,000 tournament presented by Pedigree. The final regular-season stop, a $900,000 tournament presented by Kellogg’s, runs June 21-24 on Lake Champlain in Plattsburgh, N.Y.
Each tournament takes the world’s best anglers a step closer to the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship and Outdoor Show presented by Castrol, which will be held Aug. 2-5 on Logan Martin Lake in Birmingham, Ala. The prestigious championship hosted by Birmingham, Pell City and St. Clair County features 48 pros, 48 co-anglers and bass fishing’s largest guaranteed cash award – a $500,000 first-place prize for the winning pro. Held in conjunction with the tournament is a world-class outdoor show featuring more than 140 exhibits.
Coverage of the Chevy Open, featuring 400 anglers representing 37 states, Japan, Canada and Australia, will be broadcast to 78 million FSN (Fox Sports Net) subscribers in the United States as part of the “FLW Outdoors” television programs airing March 12 and March 19. “FLW Outdoors” airs Sundays at 11 a.m. Eastern time. “FLW Outdoors” is also broadcast internationally to more than 300 million households in such countries as Germany, China, South Africa, Australia, Malaysia, Russia, Hungary and the United Kingdom, making it the most widely distributed weekly outdoor-sports television show in the world. Additionally, FLW Outdoors is proud to provide tournament coverage to more than 800,000 servicemembers stationed around the world in 177 countries and aboard Navy ships through broadcasts on the American Forces Network.
Named after the legendary founder of Ranger Boats, Forrest L. Wood, FLW Outdoors administers the Wal-Mart FLW Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Series, Stren Series, Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League, Wal-Mart Texas Tournament Trail, Stratos Owners’ Tournament Trail, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Walleye League, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Tour, Wal-Mart FLW Kingfish Series and Wal-Mart FLW Redfish Series. These circuits offer combined purses exceeding $36.9 million through 241 events in 2006.