-

Hometown Favorite Anthony Gagliardi Wins Fox Rent A Car Stage Three on Lake Murray Presented by Mercury

Prosperity, South Carolina Pro Catches Five-Bass Limit Weighing 26-13 to Win by 4-Pound 11-Ounce Margin, Earn First Tour-Level Win Since 2014 and $100,000 Top Prize

COLUMBIA, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Lake Murray has been good to professional angler Anthony Gagliardi. Coming into the event, the Prosperity, South Carolina pro had two major national wins – including the prestigious 2014 FLW Cup – and banked nearly a half of a million dollars in career tournament winnings from Lake Murray, alone. On Friday, Gagliardi added another big trophy and another $100,000 in earnings from his hometown fishery. Gagliardi caught 16 scorable bass, with his best five weighing 26 pounds, 13 ounces, to win the top prize of $100,000 at the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury.

Link to Hi-Res Photo of Fox Rent A Car Stage Three Champion Anthony Gagliardi
Link to HD Video – Fish-Catch Highlights of Championship Round on Lake Murray
Link to Photo Gallery of Championship Round Afternoon Highlights on Lake Murray

Gagliardi’s two-day total of 10 bass weighing 47 pounds, 12 ounces, earned him the win by a 4-pound, 11-ounce margin over second-place finisher Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, who weighed in 10 bass totaling 43-1.

“There is something about this lake, I don’t know what it is, but this lake just suits me,” Gagliardi said. “I don’t even fish it all that much – I honestly don’t – but this lake is just incredible, and I am so proud to be from here. Lake Murray showed out for everybody this week.”

“If you’d have told me that I was going to be able to catch that kind of weight doing the things I was doing today, I wouldn’t have believed you,” Gagliardi continued. “I started the day out thinking I was going to fish conservatively and just try to get to 18 pounds and see what happens after that. But I caught a 5-12 early, and then the 8-pounder – just a huge, huge fish. Then it was on. This has just been a blessed day all around.”

Gagliardi spent his week targeting fish that were feeding on the blueback herring, but he did it in an unorthodox way – with a drop-shot rig keying on schools of striped bass.

“This is not how I envisioned this tournament playing out,” Gagliardi said. “The herring bite is usually the deal this time of year, and I practiced that way. But I just didn’t find the places that I felt like had big enough fish. And then I figured out the other deal, and just went with what I had.”

“I was fishing points that had herring, and I was specifically looking for points that had stripers on them,” Gagliardi continued. “I slowed down and used that drop-shot so I wouldn’t have to worry about catching the stripers. A lot of times I’d throw into groups that I knew were stripers and I’d watch the drop-shot go down through them. The stripers would swim around and act real crazy, but it would get down and if there was a largemouth in that group of stripers he would bite the drop-shot.”

“I was also seeing some fish on the Garmin LiveScope – individual fish, and I caught a lot that way as well, but I never thought I would have been fishing like I was today.”

Gagliardi had an extremely disappointing start to his 2023 Bass Pro Tour season, finishing tied for 79th place at the first event of the year at Stage One on Lake Toho. Now, after a 17th-place showing at Stage Two on Cherokee & Douglas Lakes and the win on Lake Murray, Gagliardi finds himself back inside the REDCREST qualification line at 27th place in the Bally Bet Angler of the Year race.

“I was really nervous about this one, from the standpoint of doing well,” Gagliardi said. “I knew the lake was going to fish really good, but this time of year, with the fish spawning, I didn’t think any local advantage was going to come into play. So I just wanted to have a good tournament and not bomb on my home lake.”

“But as the tournament progressed I was able to stay consistent, and the farther into the tournament I advanced I started to devote more time to the drop-shot deal when I figured out I could get a good quality bite. And that’s what I stuck with the entire day, today.”

“It’s been my time a couple of times on this lake,” Gagliardi went on to say. “That’s three major wins on this lake, and another second-place finish as well. She’s been good to me over the years, and this is just such an awesome feeling. I love this lake.”

The final 10 pros from the Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury finished:

1st: Anthony Gagliardi, Prosperity, S.C., 10 bass, 47-12, $100,000
2nd: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 10 bass, 43-1, $45,000
3rd: Brent Chapman, Lake Quivira, Kan., 10 bass, 41-6, $38,000
4th: Chris Lane, Guntersville, Ala., 10 bass, 40-15, $32,000
5th: Jonathon VanDam, Kalamazoo, Mich., 10 bass, 40-6, $30,000
6th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 10 bass, 40-0, $26,000
7th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 10 bass, 37-3, $23,000
8th: Bryan Thrift, Shelby, N.C, 10 bass, 36-13, $21,000
9th: Andy Montgomery, Blacksburg, S.C., 10 bass, 36-0, $19,000
10th: James Watson, Lampe, Mo., nine bass, 31-11, $16,000

Full results for the entire field can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

Overall, there were 106 scorable bass weighing 317 pounds, 1 ounce caught by the final 10 pros Friday.

Gagliardi also earned Friday’s Championship Round $1,000 Berkley Big Bass award with his 8-pounder on the drop-shot rig in Period 2. Fellow South Carolina pro, Andy Montgomery of Blacksburg, earned the $3,000 Berkley Big Bass award for the overall largest bass of the event with his monster 8-pound, 8-ounce largemouth that he weighed on Day 3 of competition.

After three events in the Bass Pro Tour regular season, pro Ott DeFoe of Blaine, Tennessee, is the leader in the 2023 Bass Pro Tour Bally Bet Angler of the Year (AOY) standings with 231 points. Pro Chris Lane of Guntersville, Alabama, sits in second place with 218 points, while pro Andy Morgan of Dayton, Tennessee, rounds out the top three with 202 points. Bally Bet will award $100,000 to the 2023 Bass Pro Tour Bally Bet Angler of the Year winner.

The next event for qualified Bass Pro Tour anglers will be the General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event on Caney Creek Reservoir and Bussey Brake, April 24-29, in Monroe, Louisiana. The next regular season Bass Pro Tour event will take place next month – the Toro Stage Four Presented by Bass Cat Boats, May 16-21, at Lake Guntersville in Guntersville, Alabama.

The Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury featured pros competing using the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, with each angler’s five (5) heaviest bass per day tallied as their day’s weight. Anglers strive to catch their heaviest five fish each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the live scoring SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. Minimum weights are determined individually for each competition waters that the Bass Pro Tour visits, based on the productivity, bass population and anticipated average size of fish in each fishery.

The six-day bass-fishing event, hosted by Capital City/Lake Murray Country, showcased 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing for a purse of more than $805,000, including a top payout of $100,000 and valuable Angler of the Year (AOY) points in hopes of qualifying for the General Tire Heavy Hitters All-Star event and REDCREST 2024, the Bass Pro Tour championship.

Television coverage of the Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury will air as two, two-hour episodes starting at 7 a.m. ET, on Saturday, Sept. 30 and Saturday, Oct. 7 on the Discovery Channel. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on the Outdoor Channel.

Proud sponsors of the 2023 MLF Bass Pro Tour include: 13 Fishing, Abu Garcia, Ark Fishing, ATG + Wrangler, B&W Trailer Hitches, Bally Bet, Bass Cat Boats, Bass Pro Shops, Berkley, Black Rifle Coffee, Daiwa, Epic Baits, Favorite Fishing, Ferguson, Fox Rent A Car, General Tire, Grundéns, Humminbird, Lowrance, Minn Kota, Mercury, Mossy Oak, Onyx, Power-Pole, Rapala, Star tron, T-H Marine, TORO, Toyota, U.S. Air Force, Yellowstone Bourbon, Yo-Zuri and Zoom Baits.

For complete details and updated information on Major League Fishing and the Bass Pro Tour, visit MajorLeagueFishing.com. For regular updates, photos, tournament news and more, follow MLF’s social media outlets at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

About Major League Fishing

Major League Fishing (MLF) is the world’s largest tournament-fishing organization, producing more than 250 events annually at some of the most prestigious fisheries in the world, while broadcasting to America’s living rooms on CBS, the Discovery Channel, the Outdoor Channel, CBS Sports Network, the World Fishing Network and on-demand on MyOutdoorTV (MOTV). Headquartered in Benton, Kentucky, the MLF roster of bass anglers includes the world’s top pros and more than 30,000 competitors in all 50 states and 13 countries. Since its founding in 2011, MLF has advanced the sport of competitive fishing through its premier television broadcasts and livestreams and is dedicated to improving the quality of life for bass through research, education, fisheries enhancement and fish care.

Major League Fishing – WE ARE Bass Fishing™

Contacts

JOE OPAGER
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
p: 218.434.0748
e: joe.opager@majorleaguefishing.com
www.majorleaguefishing.com

Major League Fishing


Release Versions

Contacts

JOE OPAGER
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
p: 218.434.0748
e: joe.opager@majorleaguefishing.com
www.majorleaguefishing.com

Social Media Profiles
More News From Major League Fishing

Jake Lawrence Earns First MLF Bass Pro Tour Win at O’Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Thirty hours of competition across four days at the Major League Fishing (MLF) O’Reilly Auto Parts Stage 4 Presented by OPTIMA Batteries boiled down to the final 20 seconds. Separated on SCORETRACKER® by just 6 ounces, Jake Lawrence and Jacob Wheeler both set the hook. Wheeler and Lawrence had long since distanced themselves from the rest of the field during Sunday’s Championship Round on Nickajack Lake. The latter half of the day morphed into a one-on-one p...

D.C. for Three! Alabama’s Dustin Connell Claims Third Championship Title at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2025 Presented by MillerTech Energy at Lake Guntersville

HUNTSVILLE, Ala.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The 2025 iteration of Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by MillerTech on Lake Guntersville marked the third time Major League Fishing’s championship event has been held in the bass-fishing mecca of Alabama. For the third time, pro Dustin Connell of Clanton, Alabama, is keeping the trophy in his home state. Connell ran away from the field on Championship Sunday, both figuratively and literally. After making a roughly 70-mile trek away from the history- and larg...

Drew Gill Wins MLF Bass Pro Tour PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 Presented by Strike King at Lake Murray

COLUMBIA, S.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Championship Round of PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 Presented by Strike King at Lake Murray quickly turned into a microcosm of the past two years on the Bass Pro Tour (BPT): a one-on-one battle between Drew Gill and Jacob Wheeler for the top spot. Gill and Wheeler have been arguably the two most dominant pros not just on the BPT but in all of professional bass fishing over the past two years, when Gill arrived on Major League Fishing’s top tour. Both have multipl...
Back to Newsroom