MLF Day 4, Kissimmee 2019: Pro Anglers Play the Numbers Game at Kissimmee

Feb 02, 2019

Anthony Gagliardi added an impressive 29 pounds, 10 ounces to his Day 1 catch, finishing as the daily leader with a total of 71-8 over the two competition days. Like many of the leaders, he’s concentrating on lots of smaller fish offshore.

Florida is noted for producing huge bass—in fact, hatchery-reared Florida-strain largemouth have been introduced in other states across the southeast and all the way to California to produce larger fish. But the secret to staying in the hunt at the MLF Bass Pro Tour on the Kissimmee Chain thus far has been to seek lots of smaller fish, rather than a few lunkers.

South Carolina angler Anthony Gagliardi carried his roll from the Shotgun Round into Friday’s second Elimination Round, adding 29 pounds, 10 ounces to his previous 41-14, finishing as the Daily Leader with 71-8 over two days. Gagliardi is no stranger to the top of the standings in high-pressure tournaments—he’s a former Forrest Wood Cup winner and FLW Angler of the Year. And not surprisingly, well-known pro’s Marty Robinson, Jacob Powroznik, Greg Hackney, Fletcher Shryock and Jason Christie also stayed in the Top 10.

(SEE BELOW)

Virginia angler Jacob Powroznik proved there are some larger bass biting on the Kissimmee Chain with this 6-2, but for most anglers fish this size were rare . . . or non-existent . . . in yesterday’s round.

But the storylines that intrigue the most are playing out a little deeper inside the SCORETRACKER numbers.

Still Waiting on the Weather

The biggest X-factor of the week has been the mercurial central Florida weather, which has kept the Kissimmee Chain’s pre-spawn females—all giant bass are female-- locked down and unwilling to bite. Water temperatures have slowly – too slowly, if you ask the anglers – crept up into the high 50s through the first four days of competition, but they’re still shy of that magical 63-plus-degree mark that will make the shallows of Toho, Kissimmee and Cypress a big-fish fest.

“We’re still a few degrees off,” admitted Bobby Lane, who was the final man into the Knockout Round with 33-9 (he squeezed past Todd Faircloth by 1-8 in the final 30 minutes of competition). “We just haven’t had enough consistently warm, sunny days to get those females to move. It’s coming, but we’re not there yet.”

Practice Time and the Numbers Game

That said, most of the anglers who entered the morning in the Top 10 and comfortably above the elimination line spent the majority of the day looking for new spots (as did their Elimination Round 1 counterparts). But regardless, many of the anglers who advanced out of both Elimination Rounds are surviving just fine by playing the numbers game on aggressive schools of smaller offshore fish.

Terry Scroggins, who has one of the field’s most prolific big-fish histories on the Kissimmee Chain, racked up 21 fish for 41-7 today. Gagliardi switched up from a jerkbait to a small Berkley Power Swimmer, a soft plastic with a swimmer-tail designed to imitate a shad or other baitfish, adding 20 more fish to his SCORETRACKER total.

No Holding Back Today

“I don’t know who else from Group A might be fishing in the area I’ve been fishing, but there are more than enough fish to go around,” Gagliardi said. “I know that nobody is going to hold anything back tomorrow – we’ll see everybody’s best (spots).”

Idaho pro Brandon Palaniuk concentrated on the abundant maiden-cane surrounding the shallow lakes of the Kissimmee Chain for an impressive catch of largemouths well above the average size reported by other competitors.

Palaniuk Swings for the Fences

Brandon Palaniuk was the clear exception to the numbers game. The Idaho pro – known for sleeping in his truck as he climbed the ladder to bass tour success a few years back -- connected with only six scorable largemouth today, but they were the right size: five of Palaniuk’s six fish were 3 pounds or better (3-5, 3-9, 3-10, 3-11 and 3-14). Palaniuk junk-fished his way around the upper end of Lake Toho for most of the day, but finished in a spot that he hopes will kick-start his Knockout Round.

“I found one little deal in the third period that I’ll probably start on tomorrow,” Palaniuk said. “I caught the 3-11 and 3-14 on it, and I feel like it just has good fish in it. And I think it’s a place that could reload with more fish.”

Knockout Format

Weights zero for the Knockout Round, which means that Saturday is a single-day shootout to make it into the Top 10. The Championship Round will move to Lake Garcia, which was one of the venues for the 2018 World Championship.

Looking for New Patterns

The Kissimmee Chain is virtually Bobby Lane’s home turf—he grew up in Lakeland just an hour away—but so far he’s had a difficult event. That could change rapidly if the big spawners move up to the shallows today—bed fishing is one of Lane’s strengths.

Anglers struggling to make the cut, including Bobby Lane (20th/33-9), will be looking for new patterns in today’s fish-off.

“I have to go somewhere new tomorrow and try something new. I’m going to go back to my old stomping grounds and have fun down there on the south end of Kissimmee. I think I beat up every fish in that little 2-mile stretch I fished the past two days,” Lane said.

Alabama angler Gerald Swindle struggled to find a consistent pattern, but managed to make the cut and jump into the Saturday competition round. He’s shown here weighing in a fish on the tournament’s automatic scoring system—all bass are released immediately after weigh-in, rather than dragged around all day in the livewell.

Gerald Swindle (19th/33-12), is also trying to puzzle out new patterns in this changing fishery.

“It seems like this was the worst fishing day we had. We had a warmer night last night and I figured it would be a better day all around today. It warmed up good, but I just struggled all day. I never could get any momentum, couldn’t get a pattern going. There’s going to be some learning to compete in this format, it’s just a different strategy. I’m going to work on not having those long dead times, those are key. You can’t go dormant for three hours, you have to stay in the game,” Swindle said.

Where & How to Watch

Live, official scoring via SCORETRACKER begins Saturday morning with lines in at 7:30 a.m. EST. The MLF NOW! live stream begins at 10 a.m., continuing through the day until lines out at 3:30 p.m. The Berkley Postgame Show starts at 5 p.m. daily.

All of the above can be viewed on MajorLeagueFishing.com and on the MLF app on your smart device.

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