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LEVEL 7'0'' M SPINNING ROD

Level 7'0'' M Spinning Rod
Great all round spinning rod that will handle most any technique.  As with all Level spinning rods, this rod features a unique guide system that brings out the most performance from the rod blank. Learn More
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By:Brian Carter COLUMBIA, S.C. (March 27, 2023) – Major League Fishing (MLF) and the Bass Pro Tour, featuring the top anglers in professional bass fishing, is set to visit Columbia, South Carolina, and Lake Murray next week, April 2-7, for the third regular-season event of the 2023 season – the Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury.

The six-day tournament, hosted by Capital City/Lake Murray Country, will showcase 80 of the top professional anglers in the world, including bass-fishing superstars like Kevin VanDam, REDCREST 2023 Champion Bryan Thrift, Jacob Wheeler, Jordan Lee , and local favorite Anthony Gagliardi of Prosperity, South Carolina. They’ll be 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.

“Lake Murray Country is excited to welcome Major League Fishing’s Bass Pro Tour to Lake Murray,” stated Miriam Atria, President and CEO of Capital City/Lake Murray Country. “This event and tournament trail is so popular with bass fishing audiences, and our regional tourism office always loves the community support and television exposure this event provides for our region. Lake Murray is an amazing fishery that offers the professional anglers a competitive experience along with great catches.”

The Jewel of South Carolina has hosted prior MLF Cup events and numerous events with FLW and MLF over the years, but the Bass Pro Tour’s arrival for Stage Three marks the tour’s first trip to the famed lake.

Lake Murray’s most recent professional event was a Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit tournament in 2021. That event, also in April, was won by Bass Pro Tour rookie Matt Becker. Second place in that event was Anthony Gagliardi, who also won the  2014 Forrest Wood Cup  on his home waters.

Gagliardi says that historically, the first week of April is dead center in the bass spawn. 

“There will be fish spawning, but still plenty of fish that are in the prespawn mode and feeding heavily,” Gagliardi said. “It should be a fun event and there will be various ways to catch fish. The lake is in good shape and full of 3- to 5-pound fish.”

While the lake is known for the blueback herring and the nomadic bass that chase them in open water, Gagliardi believes the event’s timing will make them less of a factor. 

“It’s awful early for them to be on the bluebacks,” Gagliardi said. “Anything could happen if we get a milder winter and warmer spring, but I believe most of the bass will be on the bank. You should be able to target the prespawn fish or also try to catch spawners.”

Anglers will launch each day at 7:30 a.m. ET each day from Dreher Island State Park, located at 3677 State Park Road in Prosperity. Each day’s General Tire Takeout will be held at the launch locations, beginning at 4 p.m. Fans are welcome to attend all launch and takeout events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.

On Championship Friday, April 7, from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. MLF will welcome fans of all ages to visit Dreher Island State Park and celebrate the top 10 and crown the Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Champion at the Watch Party and Trophy Presentation. The final 10 Championship Round Bass Pro Tour anglers will be on hand at the trophy celebration to meet and greet fans, sign autographs, and take selfies.

The Fox Rent A Car Stage Three at Lake Murray Presented by Mercury will feature 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 2023 MLF Bass Pro Tour features a field of 80 of the top professional anglers in the world competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, fishing for millions of dollars and valuable points to qualify for the annual General Tire Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2024, the Bass Pro Tour championship, held March 13-17, 2024, on Lay Lake in Birmingham, Alabama.  

The 40 Anglers in Group A compete in their two-day qualifying round on Sunday and Tuesday – the 40 anglers in Group B on Monday and Wednesday. After each two-day qualifying round is complete, the top 20 anglers from each group advance to Thursday’s Knockout Round. In the Knockout Round, weights are zeroed, and the remaining 40 anglers compete to finish in the top 10 to advance to the Championship Round. In Friday’s final day Championship Round, weight carries over from the Knockout Round and the angler with the heaviest two-day total wins the top prize of $100,000.

The MLF NOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee, Marty Stone and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on all six days of competition from 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET. MLF NOW!®  will be live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app.

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 FacebookTwitter,  Instagram, and  YouTube.

Anthony Gagliardi

Photo by Phoenix Moore. - It’s the fall and the kids are back in school. It’s also a great time to get out fishing because the bass are also in school. They’re ganged up heavy as they binge on baitfish, and when you find one bass, you’ll likely find many more with them.

Fishing for schooling bass is one of my all-time favorite ways to catch them and having success all comes down to finding the right areas and paying attention to baitfish – specifically how big they are – so you can select the right lure.

Where to Look

The schooling bite starts going off in late summer and really gets going during the fall. It’s something you can bank on all fall until the water temperatures get too cold as winter begins to set in. The calendar dates will vary based on where you live, but the basic principle is the same no matter where you’re fishing.

In the warmer months, most baitfish will be close to deep water and tend to relate more to river channels. As it cools in the fall, those baitfish will begin to move toward the creeks. I like to fish the channels, humps, and points closest to deep water inside these creeks. These are your high percentage areas to see schooling fish on the surface, or to find them with your electronics.

Once the water gets cooler, you’ll start to see the baitfish migration further into the backs of creeks, and the bass will be right behind them. It’s something that happens every year like clockwork.

How I Catch ‘Em

When the bite is on and the fish are in a frenzy, it’s hard to pick something the bass won’t eat. 

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Major League Fishing (MLF) is set to return to Summerton and Clarendon County, South Carolina, for a tournament next week, April 7-9, with the Toyota Series Presented by A.R.E. at Santee Cooper. The three-day tournament, hosted by the Clarendon County Chamber of Commerce, is the second event of the season for the Toyota Series Southern Division.

The tournament will feature the region’s best bass-fishing pros and Strike King co-anglers casting for a top prize package of up to $75,000 in the pro division and a new Phoenix 518 pro boat with a 115-horsepower Mercury outboard motor, in the co-angler division.

“This is going to be a fun event to follow,” said Bass Pro Tour angler Anthony Gagliardi, who resides in Prosperity, South Carolina. “Santee is always a little bit ahead of Lake Murray when it comes to the spawn, but I expect we’ll see fish in all three phases. Whether or not the postspawn fish play– meaning targeting the shad spawn – will likely depend on the weather. But it’s a really good fishery and they’re going to catch a lot of big fish down there next week.”

Gagliardi said that although there are certain areas of the lake that are historically good, he expects the majority of the field to be pretty spread out.

“With the two lakes in play – and each are really big – there is a lot of fishable water for sure,” Gagliardi said. “I think we’ll see guys get back into the backwater ponds and some swampy areas up the river, but some will target the big flats on the lower end. The fish also are known to get out into those stump fields as well. Guys are really going to have a lot of options available to them.”

When asked what baits he would be throwing if he was competing in this event, Gagliardi offered a trio of options that he expects to play a role for competitors.

“I’d definitely have a spinnerbait tied on, that’s really good here this time of year. I’d have a frog or some sort of topwater bait, and I’d have a wacky-rig ready to go – something for bed fishing, because there are definitely going to be some spawners caught in this one.”

CULLMAN, Ala. – Boasting more than $2.3 million in career earnings, Anthony Gagliardi knows a thing or two when it comes to successfully competing and cashing checks. Watch as the South Carolina pro shares what drives him to compete, what he loves most about the sport, and what challenges he faces as a professional angler.

Watch Video

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The soft-plastic jerkbait has had proven staying power as it’s been fooling bass for decades and catches them just as well in current times. They are a staple for bass anglers everywhere and one of Anthony Gagliardi’s top weapons well into the fall.

It was his primary weapon when he won the 2014 Forrest Wood Cup; three years later, he finished fifth in that same event on his home lake of Lake Murray, South Carolina, and he’s still throwing the soft-plastic jerkbait, both solo and on a double rig.

A Versatile Weapon

Gagliardi loves soft-plastic jerkbaits like the Berkley PowerBait Jerk Shad because of the diversity of places he can fish them, adjusting the action and rigging based on the season and circumstances.

“They are excellent this time of year around where I live and the fish are feeding on herring,” he said. “But, whether it’s herring or shad, they mimic baitfish very well. I like them because I can fish them fast or slow and high or low in the water column.”

While much of how he rigs and fishes them fits the bass chasing nomadic herring, he’s had success with soft-plastic jerkbaits for clear water largemouth, spotted bass, and during the inaugural Bass Pro Tour event on Lake Toho in 2019.

“In that very first BPT event, I caught them in open water with a double rig,” he said of the event where he won his round and eventually finished fourth. “I would never have thought that would be the way to do well in Florida in January, but it shows how versatile a soft plastic jerkbait can be.”

Since he often fishes them quickly, Gagliardi prefers weighted hooks with a screw lock keeper and pays close attention to the placement of the molded weight on the extra-wide gap style hooks.

“I use them that are 4/0 and 5/0 hooks and weighted versions around 3/32 to 1/8 ounce,” he said. “The weighted hook aids with casting distance to reach schoolers and lets me fish it faster and keep it right under the surface. I like the weighted hooks with the weight closer to the belly of the hook for cooler water for a more horizontal fall and when it’s warmer, I like the weight closer to the eye of the hook because it keeps the bait nose down when fishing it faster.”

Single Soft-Plastic Jerkbaits

Most of the time, Gagliardi is fishing a single bait during the fall, when he’s primarily looking for schooling bass. He fishes fast with a unique retrieve and to generate bites and simulate schooling activity.

“I sweep my rod quickly and then reel up the slack; that’s how I always start fishing it because it’s a good way to call up fish that are not schooling,” he said. “It’s just as effective as twitching it near the surface, and it’s not as hard on you. Most of the time, when you catch one, you’ll sweep, reel, and then he’ll be on there when you go to sweep again.”

Gagliardi will employ his sweeping technique when calling suspended fish from the depths, but if he can visibly see busting bait, he changes his tune.

“The schooling bite is a different deal, and I want to work my rod tip and let the jerkbait come across the fish,” he said. “I want to see my bait when they are busting on the surface and work it as fast as I can to keep it on top. The faster you can move something, the more it gets their attention.”

To be most effective, he prefers a high-speed Abu Garcia Revo reel spooled with 12-pound fluorocarbon and matched with a 7-2 medium heavy Level rod.

“The faster reel takes up a lot of line quickly and that’s important if you are out of position and need to get a good hook in them,” Gagliardi said. “It’s also what you need if you see fish schooling and need to get your bait back in to make a cast somewhere else.”

Doubling Down

Mixing in his single Berkley Powerbait Jerk Shad, Gagliardi will also rig two at a time with what is sometimes called the “Donkey Rig” with two baits on different hooks.

First, he’ll place his line through the eye of a swivel and tie a second swivel. Then he’ll connect a leader line of approximately 18 to 20 inches the swivel in line with his mainline. The second, free-swinging swivel, is where he will tie on another leader that’s half the length of the longer leader before connecting weighted hooks to each leader.

“Casting a double rig is hard because one bait goes one way and the other goes the other way, so I use a bobber stop in front of the top swivel to keep it in place,” Gagliardi said. “That makes it easier to cast and will still let it separate and slide up if you hook two at a time, which happens often.”

He fishes the double rig on a longer 7-10 medium heavy Level rod, fast reel and beefs up his line.

“You’d be surprised how far you can cast it with that longer rod,” Gagliardi advised. “Plus, you have that much more power with a bigger rod. I go up to 14-pound line because you run the risk of breaking your line if you catch two at once.”

For deciding between one or two jerkbaits, Gagliardi looks for clues around him.

“The single is the best option when fish are schooling because it’s easier to cast farther and more accurately,” he said. “It’s also more versatile, but if you start seeing fish follow fish you have hooked, it’s time to throw the double rig. Usually, the one following is going to be the bigger one.”