COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Major League Fishing Bass Pro Tour is set to visit Columbia, S.C., and Lake Murray this week for the third regular-season event of 2025. The tournament will feature 66 professional anglers competing for a $150,000 top prize.
The BPT last visited Lake Murray in 2023, when Anthony Gagliardi added another major victory to his impressive record on his home lake. His success on the fishery includes a 2006 FLW Tour win, a 2014 Forrest Wood Cup title and a runner-up finish at the 2021 Pro Circuit event – a tournament won by fellow BPT competitor Matt Becker.
When asked about the conditions and expectations, Gagliardi shared insights into how he anticipates the tournament unfolding.
"I know that it's fishing good. It always does this time of year," Gagliardi said. "You can catch them on a lot of different things, so I think the guys are going to have fun because they're going to catch fish – big fish – in a variety of ways."
Taking current weather patterns into consideration, Gagliardi said he believes the event will fall squarely in the pre-spawn stage.
"We're kind of in a place where the spawn can really move. Sometimes they spawn in February, sometimes not until April. It depends on the winter and recent weather. We've had some cold spells and a warm week, but I think it's going to be a pre-spawn event. It's just not warm enough to push a lot of fish into the spawn yet."
With multiple ways to target bass, Gagliardi expects a mix of techniques to play a role throughout the tournament.
"There will be fish caught in all depths,” he said. “Some guys will fish shallow with crankbaits, spinnerbaits and flipping jigs around cover. Others will focus on jerkbaits or forward-facing sonar. It’s really going to be a typical pre-spawn deal, with ChatterBaits, crankbaits, dragging a worm and flipping a jig all coming into play. There’s not really a way you could fish this lake right now and not catch one."
As for tournament weights, Gagliardi admits it's difficult to predict.
"I’ve never fished a tournament here in the everything-counts format. Last time, I won under the five-fish limit format. Looking at it that way, you’re going to have mid-20-pound bags, and then who knows how many fish beyond that? Maybe someone cracks 100 pounds. I’d guess that 30 pounds a day would be a solid mark to advance, but we’ll have to see how it plays out."
Despite his history of success on Murray, Gagliardi remains cautious about his chances at another win on his hometown fishery.
"I never feel good about it going in. Even though I’ve done well, I’m always leery,” Gagliardi said. “I honestly don’t fish the lake as much as I should, even though I live here. I know the lake well, but I don’t always know the bite for a given time of year. Every time I’ve won, it’s been doing something different than I expected.
“I’m a little nervous going into it, like I always am before any big tournament, but I enjoy fishing the lake and it’ll be fun. It’s just the lead-up that gets me – figuring out how to practice, when to use forward-facing sonar and how to adapt. That’s what stresses me out the most. But once we hit the water, it’s all about figuring things out fast enough to stay in productive areas."
Lake Murray, SC 02/26/2025 - Major League Fishing (MLF) is set to visit Lake Murray next week March 6-9, for the third regular-season event of the 2025 Bass Pro Tour – the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King. Top anglers in professional bass fishing will be competing for a $150,000 top prize, crucial points in the Fishing Clash Angler of the Year (AOY) race and coveted qualification spots for the Heavy Hitters all-star event and REDCREST 2026.
The four-day event, organized by Capital City/Lake Murray Country, will feature 66 of the world's leading professional anglers, including the defending champion of Lake Murray, local resident Anthony Gagliardi, the current Fishing Clash AOY Jacob Wheeler, and the 2024 REDCREST Champion Dustin Connell. Also participating are notable South Carolina anglers such as Casey Ashley, Andy Montgomery, Britt Myers, along with the father-son fishing team of Marty and Marshall Robinson, all looking to leverage their local knowledge for success.
The tournament will feature the MLF catch, weigh, immediate-release format, in which anglers catch as much weight as they can each day, while also feeling the pressure and intensity of the SCORETRACKER® leaderboard. The tournament is being filmed for broadcast later this year on Discovery. Television coverage of the PowerStop Brakes Stage 3 at Lake Murray Presented by Strike King will air as a two-hour episode starting at 7 a.m. EST, on Saturday, Oct. 4 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering on Sunday, Oct. 5. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel.
Returning Champion - Prosperity Local, Anthony Gagliardi The Bass Pro Tour last visited the Jewel of South Carolina in 2023, where Anthony Gagliardi added another major victory to his impressive record on his home lake. His success on the fishery includes a 2006 FLW Tour win, a 2014 Forrest Wood Cup title and a runner-up finish at the 2021 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event – a tournament won by fellow Bass Pro Tour competitor Matt Becker, underscoring the high level of competition that defines this event.
When asked about the conditions and expectations, Gagliardi shared insights into how he anticipates the tournament unfolding. "I know that it's fishing good. It always does this time of year," Gagliardi said. "You can catch bass on a lot of different things, so I think the guys are going to have fun because they're going to catch fish – big fish – in a variety of ways."
San Antonio, Texas – Anthony Gagliardi recently joined Livingston Lures’ Pro Staff team. Livingston Lures is the industry innovator in EBS Technology™ and the only brand utilizing actual biological baitfish sounds to attract predators.
A native of Prosperity, South Carolina, Gagliardi is one of a select few anglers to have won both the Forrest Wood Cup (2014) and the FLW Tour Angler of the Year title (2006). With a career spanning more than two decades, he has secured three FLW Tour victories (2003, 2006, 2009) and, most recently, captured Stage Three of the 2023 Bass Pro Tour on Lake Murray — his third major triumph on his home waters.
Renowned for his precision, strategic mindset, and deep understanding of the sport, Gagliardi is not only a dominant competitor but also a respected ambassador within the fishing community.
“We are thrilled to welcome Anthony Gagliardi to the Livingston Lures family,” said Erick Arnoldson, VP of Operations at Livingston Lures. “His exceptional skill, experience, and passion for fishing perfectly align with our mission to push the boundaries of innovation and performance. Anthony’s insights and expertise will be invaluable as we continue developing cutting-edge solutions for anglers worldwide.”
As a Livingston Lures Pro Staff member, Gagliardi will play a key role in product development, serve as a brand ambassador at tournaments and industry events, and contribute to educational content designed to help anglers elevate their skills.
“I’m honored to join Livingston Lures as a Pro Staff member,” Gagliardi said. “I’ve long admired their commitment to quality and performance, and I’m excited to help showcase how their products can truly enhance an angler’s experience on the water. Together, we’ll inspire anglers of all skill levels to push their limits and achieve more.”
With Gagliardi on board, Livingston Lures further solidifies its commitment to equipping anglers with the tools, technology, and knowledge needed to excel in both competition and recreational fishing.
For more information about Livingston Lures and its partnership with Anthony Gagliardi, visit livingstonlures.com or follow Livingston Lures on Facebook, Instagram or X.
ERIE, Pa. – Arkansas pro Stephen Browning hailed his team’s chances during pregame interviews the night before he and teammate Anthony Gagliardi took to the water for the second day of Elimination Round competition at the General Tire Team Series Presented by Bass Pro Shops.
“Anthony is a great finesse fisherman, I’m a power fisherman, I think we’re going to be a pretty good team,” Browning said.
Yes, pretty good – to the tune of 110 pounds, 11 ounces on 76 scorable bass, which easily topped the other three teams fishing Monday in the second day of Elimination competition in the B&W Trailer Hitches Challenge Cup Presented by Toyota. Representing Team U.S. Air Force, the Browning/Gagliardi tandem easily earned a spot in the Knockout Round, where they’ll be joined by Matt Becker and Spencer Shuffield of Team B&W Trailer Hitches who advanced with 88-0 on 50 bass.
Team Builders FirstSource (Michael Neal and Dean Rojas) and Team 7 Brew Coffee (Adrian Avena and Mark Daniels Jr.) were eliminated.
Fishing primarily a 1-2 punch of a vibrating jig and drop-shot or shaky head, Browning and Gagliardi stacked 40-6 on SCORETRACKER® in a cloudy, rainy first period. They followed it up with 38-2 in the second period and 32-3 in the final period to stay comfortably ahead of Becker and Shuffield for the majority of the day.
Although each caught more than 20 pounds in the first 90 minutes, it took a little time for them to zero in on the Presque Isle Bay bite.
“We got to an area and caught two back-to-back, so we settled in there,” Browning said. “We started off throwing the little Z-Man ChatterBait MiniMax. We had some clouds, some rain and a little bit of wind this morning, and that bait really showed out in those conditions. We pretty much just let the ChatterBait and the weather conditions dictate the first period.
“I think with the clouds and everything this morning, the fish were probably a little bit more active on moving baits, We were able to catch quite a few during the rain, and that got us clued in on an area, which was really key for us.”
When the Air Force duo caught its third fish in the same spot, Gagliardi knew they were onto something that would translate into a drop-shot bite to supplement the ChatterBait.
“I knew if they were biting that ChatterBait, they’d bite a worm, so I picked up a worm and started throwing it, hoping I could get bites on it while Browning was throwing the ChatterBait, and we’d have two different things going on,” he said.
As the day went on, the ChatterBait bite died out, so Browning ditched the moving bait and picked up a worm as well.
“We threw that worm every which way – wacky worm, put it on a jighead, shaky style – it really didn’t matter how we rigged it, it was just a matter of getting it around them today,” Browning said. “There are a couple thousand acres out there to try to cover, and thankfully we guessed right in the beginning and got in an area that we felt like might have some water moving through it.”
Team Air Force primarily fished a large grass mat in 8 to 12 foot of water, right in the middle of Presque Isle Bay.
“What we found was a giant grass clump, but the water’s deep on either side of it,” Browning said. “It’s got some cover and a little bit of current – evidently it has a ton of bait – and if you can get all three of those in one area, that’s a good indicator that there’s going to be some good fish there.”
And there were – around 60 scorable largemouth, to be exact.
“We were really just fishing slow around the edges of a big grass mat, not really covering much water,” Gagliardi said. “But it seemed like every 50 to 100 yards, we’d run into another fresh group of fish and get some bites. Those fresh fish helped us maintain the lead that we had over second all day long.”
It’s no secret there’s a lot of grass in Presque Isle Bay, and although there have been fish caught in other cover around the bay, Browning and Gagliardi believe they’ve found the winning pattern if the Challenge Cup returns to Presque Isle Bay for the Knockout Round.
“There’s a lot of milfoil and eelgrass in here, so whatever we could throw in this dense grass, and keep it clean, seemed to be the deal,” Browning said.” The grass is really the ticket out there right now. The rock walls with grass lines are definitely holding some bass, but they must have been hit hard yesterday. Out on these big, expansive areas of grass, there’s a lot of real estate – not only for the bass, but for the bluegill and gobies and other baitfish that these bass are feeding on.”
The U.S. Air force team said they spent the day fishing along those grass lines until they caught one, then hunkered down in that area and waited for more.
“That was the key,” Browning said. “They really came in flurries throughout the day, so once you caught one, you could almost count on catching at least three or four more with it. Sometimes we’d catch seven or eight with it. I found a few with the [Lowrance] Active Target, but the majority of the ones we caught were pretty much just from casting blind.
“The fish seemed like they were high in the water column and aggressive in the morning, but once the sun poked out later on in the day, the brighter conditions moved them down to the bottom and that’s where the worm really shone. It was just kind of a one-two punch and it worked out for us.”
The 2024 Santee Cooper Open Team Tournament (SCOTT) was held last Saturday at the John C. Land, III Sports Fishing Facility. Food trucks and a Striped Bass Festival t- shirt table kept spectators busy until the 3 p.m. weigh-in.
The local - pro duo of Wayne Frierson and Anthony Gagliardi combined for 28.03 lbs of bass and a first place prize of $5,000. Their limit included a 7.58 lb kicker that just missed Big Fish for the event. Second place went to Craig McFadden and Mike Watson, who combined for 25.48 lbs. Mark and Michael Hutson came in third with 25.2 lbs. combined. The Big Fish for this year’s SCOTT was reeled in by William Holmes and Michael Craven and weighed 8.07 lbs.
Photo bt P Moore
LONGVIEW, Texas – Team Star brite won Elimination Match 1 of the Builders FirstSource Qualifier Presented by Berkley by a margin of 6 pounds, 14 ounces over Team Ferguson.
Alton Jones, Dave Lefebre and Brent Chapman of Team Star brite combined to catch 51 bass for a total weight of 77 pounds, 4 ounces. Hot on their heels was Stephen Browning, Anthony Gagliardi and Keith Poche of Team Ferguson, who posted 43 bass for a combined weight of 70-7. Meanwhile, Alton Jones Jr., Britt Myers, and Nick LeBrun of Team Kubota missed the elimination line with 34 bass weighing 55-14.
Check out some of the day’s highlights in this video, and watch the General Tire Team Series Builders FirstSource Qualifier Presented by Berkley action unfold on Outdoor Channel as six two-hour original episodes each Saturday from 2-4 p.m. EDT. The full television schedule can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com/tv-schedule.