Berkley Expands Pro Roster for 2019
Pioneering fishing brand Berkley has announced that it has expanded its professional roster for 2019, adding 11 new anglers to the team. The new pros will represent Berkley throughout the 2019 Season on various tournament trails including the Bassmaster Elite Series, Fishing League Worldwide Tour (FLW), and the Major League Fishing (MLF) Bass Pro Tour.
These anglers will be sponsored by Berkley for the 2019 season and will represent combinations of the brand's hard and soft baits, line, and hooks. They will also test and evaluate products and appear at trade shows and events throughout the year.
"This year will be an exciting one for Berkley as we've been investing heavily in the brand. In the last few months we have added 226 colors across 54 shapes in the legendary PowerBait range, as well as an outstanding assortment of new topwater baits. Our pro staff loves the new baits and we're excited to see them do well on the tournament trail," said Jon Schlosser, VP Marketing for Berkley.
AFTCO adds nine anglers
California-based apparel manufacturer AFTCO announced that it's added nine anglers to its freshwater pro staff.
Josh Bertrand, Jeff Kriet and Wesley Strader will compete on the newly formed MLF Bass Pro Tour, while Clifford Pirch, Garrett Paquette, Drew Cook, Micah Frazier and Greg Dipalma will represent the company on the Bassmaster Elite Series tour. Veteran Walleye pro Dean Arnoldussen will also join the AFTCO freshwater pro team.
“Last year, for the first time in 60 years, AFTCO entered the freshwater market," said VP of sales and marketing Casey Shedd. "From testing and tweaking our outerwear to add bass-specific features to building the AFTCO Bass Bus live-release boat, we made some real progress toward our goal of improving our freshwater fisheries.
"As we head into our second year in the freshwater market, AFTCO is thrilled to be adding nine new anglers who represent the ethos of our company. It’s not just about explaining the technical aspects of how a SpeedVent hood works, or why UPF is important. More importantly, each pro also acts and advocates for the message we are hoping to spread to the broader fishing community: ‘If you like to fish, fishing conservation is not an option, it’s critical to the longevity of our passion’ The AFTCO team gets that and really has been excited about helping us champion that cause.”
The new members join a staff that includes Jason Christie, Dustin Connell, Todd Faircloth, Shin Fukae, Anthony Gagliardi, Russ Lane, Jared Lintner, Scott Martin and Michael Neal.
Timing Was Key When Hitting Topwater Spots
Anthony Gagliardi didn’t anticipate the cane pile bite being as dominant as it was. He’s put plenty of them in the lake in the past, but didn’t fish them as much as he should’ve in hindsight.
“It all started on Hartwell,” he said when asked to recount the origin of the vertical pieces of bamboo chutes that area stuffed into buckets before being sank on or next to points.
“We started seeing similarities in how suspended fish were being caught here so I put some in pockets in 2006 (before the FLW Tour event), but I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just trying to catch jerkbait fish then.”
He put more of them in the lake before the 2014 Cup, but never caught anything on those spots. This year, he believes the cooler water is what triggered the fish to congregate around them more.
“The fish then didn’t know how to use it,” he said. “It’s like when grass shows up in a lake and they don’t know how to use that cover. Maybe it takes a couple generations, but that’s where it came from – the herring lakes up state – and the more this lake has started to fish that way it became a factor.” Read more