Anthony Gagliardi: Joe to Pro

By Paul Strege

“2006 FLW Tour Angler of the Year. (Photo courtesy of FLW Outdoors.)”

Every Angler has a story… for Folger’s Pro Anthony Gagliardi, it started with “just one more season”.

Fishing, competition and travel have been a part of Anthony’s life since his youth. As a son of a salesman, the self-motivation and drive required to make a living was inherent. When Anthony’s father was required to make sales calls, the family would often travel together. His father also set aside ample time to fish with Anthony when not on the road.

Where’s Your Bag?

Anthony was raised in Gaffney, South Carolina, within an hour drive of Lake Wylie. In addition, the Gagliardi family spent many weekends on nearby Lake Murray. The two recreation destinations were ideal venues for learning how to fish and were loaded with bass. By the age of twelve, Anthony had entered his first tournament.

Anthony recalls, “It was a father - son tournament, and we didn’t do too good. I think we caught one fish. When we got into the weigh-in, my dad parked the boat, and we tried to figure out what to do next. I didn’t know what a tournament bag was at the time, so I just grabbed the fish out of the livewell and carried it up to the scale. I got a lot of strange looks from the other competitors. That whole experience was pretty embarrassing to say the least, but I did catch one fish in my first tournament.”

Prepared with a weigh-in bag the following season, Gagliardi entered several more tournaments with a group of neighborhood anglers.

“Our neighborhood was like a community of bass fisherman. It wasn’t organized or affiliated like the Federation. It was just a group of friends that got together to fish. I ended up spending a lot of time with one fisherman who was pretty successful in the Red Man tournaments. That’s where I really started to learn how to bass fish. Instead of just going out on a lake and fishing all over, I learned how to pattern fish. We ended up fishing some team tournaments and made some money. That is when my tournament fishing really started to take off.”

Engineering a Career

Although Anthony found some success at the local level, he was not mentally comfortable with jumping into a full-time fishing career. While his father supported his fishing, he also reinforced the importance of earning a college degree.

“A lot of guys say that they knew from the start that they wanted to be a Bass Pro and that it was destiny. But I wasn’t like that. I’ve always wanted to feel secure with what the future holds. I knew what a long-shot professional fishing was. I saw it on television. Realistically, you don’t know if you’re good enough to compete at the highest level. On top of that, there are so many variables that you don’t know if you will be successful or not. That’s why I decided to go to college.”

Outside of fishing, Anthony’s interest was in mechanical engineering. He chose a degree program he could be successful at and one that provided a stable career upon graduation. Throughout college he was hopeful that if his aspirations to become a professional fisherman failed to materialize, he could land a position as an engineer in the marine industry. By 2000, he had earned his degree and was prepared to try fishing on the FLW Tour.

In his first season fishing as a co-angler in the FLW, Anthony quickly became a student of the game. He learned the lakes, lifestyles and strategies of the professional tour. In addition, he picked-up on many of the intangibles: the subtleties of adapting to changing conditions, patterning tournament-winning creels of bass, and the versatility required to be consistent on all types of water. That same year, as a boater on the Wal-Mart Bass Fishing League trail, he won his first “big” tournament on Lake Wateree. He would continue as an FLW co-angler for the next two years until he felt prepared to run his own boat in competition.

“Anthony Gagliardi: Clemson Tigers Fan and BFL Victor. 2001. (Photo courtesy of FLW Outdoors.)”

Just One More Season

Anthony approached his rookie year as an FLW Pro with cautious optimism. That mindset translated into a 57^th Place finish and a check worth $1800 in his very first event. Although he followed that tournament with two other money finishes, he still was not “in the black” of his tournament ledger. And with a bottom-half finish in his third event, he became more disheartened.

“That’s when I started wondering, ‘I come down here, spend all the money, and don’t come back with anything. How can I do this?’ I also started questioning if I could really compete with the guys on tour. When I had two bad tournaments that year, it really bothered me - much more so than it even does now.”

Anthony’s father traveled and practiced with him his first years on the tour, and prevented Anthony from dwelling on the low performances. His father encouraged him to put the previous tournaments in the past and move on to the next. That outlook allowed Anthony to get through the season-lows, cover the majority of his expenses, and provided enough incentive to fish “just one more season”.

Questions Answered

After his rookie season, Anthony started each successive year with renewed hopes of a breakthrough performance. In 2003, the stage was finally set with a 76^th Place finish on Kentucky Lake. He had great success with deep water cranking and off shore fishing during practice, but missed several opportunities in the tournament.

“Even though I did not have a great tournament, I still went home with a feeling that I had really ‘learned something’ about the lake. I caught a bunch of fish, but did not land any of the big fish that I had on in that tournament. I left knowing that we were returning the next year, and that if I would apply what I learned, I might have a shot at winning. I just had that feeling.”

The next season, Anthony built upon his previous practice experience. By the start of the tournament, he was confident of a good finish. The first three days of the tournament, however, would test his mental resolve. In lieu of 20-pound creels, he averaged around 15 pounds per day. The consistency, however, maintained his top-five standing going into the last day, with an outside shot of winning.

“I guess you can say that I saw a sign that final day. On my fourth or fifth cast in the morning, I caught two fish on the same crankbait. Only one was a keeper, but it was a pretty good one. I kicked a marker buoy over the side and fished there the rest of the day. I had been fishing a ledge pattern the previous days where I would catch one here or one there, but it would always take me some time to find the school. On the final day, though, I found the school right away. Every one of my fish that I weighed-in came off of that small ledge spot.”

The next few weeks following the victory were a relief for Anthony. The pressure was off. His career path was secure. He could finally trade-in his scientific calculator for an electronic culling system.

“I no longer had to make those tough decisions year after year. Was I going to go to work? Was I going to try and fish again? All those questions were answered. I knew that I was going to fish and there was no question about it. Everything was clear from that point forward.”

Sponsorship and Patience

While the Kentucky Lake brought with it the accolades of a victory, Anthony notes that the sponsors did not immediately start knocking on his door. As it would turn out, lingering sponsorship interest would allow him to align only with those companies he believed in, as positions became available. It was not until 2006, two years after his first victory that he inked a deal with the Folgers’ Fishing Team.

“The way it worked out, winning that tournament before I really had any big sponsors allowed me to take the process a little slower and not rush into just any deal.”

Later that year, Anthony joined forces with other prominent tour professionals to create TABU (Tournament Approved By Us) Tackle. The company is in its infancy, but shares Anthony’s patient demeanor with lure development - a natural fit for the Prosperity, South Carolina Pro.

“Being associated with a tackle company like TABU is really special. To be a part of a company from when it starts and to contribute to its growth is an opportunity that very few anglers get. It is really neat to be involved with every detail from the preliminary lure designs to the final packaging.”

The Longest Tournament

Anthony’s patience was also evident in his Angler of the Year run in 2006. The tour that year was slated to stop at two venues of his liking: Lake Murray and Kentucky Lake. He took advantage of the opportunity early in the season with a victory on his home waters of Lake Murray. From that point forward, he led the Angler of the Year race. Anthony likened the season to one long, continuous tournament with both highs and lows. Ironically, the low point of the season would occur at Kentucky Lake. After an eight-pound first day, Anthony found himself in a seemingly insurmountable deficit at 148^th Place.

“That was the day I thought I lost the title. I was so far down in the standings, I figured that I just blew it right there. But the second day, I went out and caught over 19 pounds. That was just an incredible feeling to have a big comeback like that. I think it just made me focus that much more in the following tournaments that season.”

“The Sack that Saved the Season. 2006 FLW Tour, Kentucky Lake. (Photo courtesy of FLW Outdoors.)”

Anthony’s reversal of fortunes catapulted him to 27^th place and propelled him the FLW Angler of the Year title. With two tour-level victories and an Angler of the Year title to his credit, his transformation from average Joe to accomplished Pro was now complete.

So, what is next for Anthony Gagliardi? He’s eying the Forest Wood Cup. In the last four years, he has accumulated a remarkable four Top-10s in the most lucrative championship in professional fishing. And with the patience of a meticulous engineer, it is well within his reach.