BFL Recon
Think Deep Limit, Shallow Kicker At Murray

Photo: FLW Outdoors/Brett Carlson FLW Tour pro Anthony Gagliardi recommends a deep limit first, then the search for a shallow kicker – although he noted the tournament could be won shallow.

For one, he lives on the lake and is right on top of what's happening. And two, the intel for this weekend's Murray BFL pretty much mirrors the Murray intel he provided to Bass Recon a few months ago.

In other words, there'll be two bites happening this weekend – one for limit fish, the other for kickers.

Deep First?

BFLs are a 1-day event where a limit can go a long way, so Gagliardi recommends that anglers spend at least some portion of their practice time out deep. That's the easiest way to a limit right now.

"The water temp as of Sunday was in the low-50s, and you could find mid- to upper-50s at the end of the day when the sun was shining," he noted. "That's got these fish moving up, and a lot of fish are starting to move shallow.

"A couple of tournaments this past weekend were just like last fall though, because there are still a lot of fish out deep right now. It's just a matter of what somebody wants to do. You can really come here and catch them just about any way you want to."

Again, though, he'd start deep to box a 12- to 15-pound limit – that's about the ceiling of what he's seen deep. Then, with a full well and a higher, warmer sun, he'd go hunting kickers up shallow.

The deep bite, he added, is about what you'd expect: Lots of action on humps and points with plastic rigs, dropshots and jigs. They key though is the structure should be near deeper water. "If you have that, it really doesn't matter what you're fishing. Being near pretty deep water is key."

Shallow Hunt

Gagliardi said there are plenty of big fish up shallow, where they're relating to typical pre-spawn cover like stumps, brush and docks. And yes, there are some docks that are fishable.

He also noted there's the potential to catch a tournament-winning sack fishing shallow water exclusively, but it'll take some fortunate bites.

"I always like to play it safe and go get five in a 1-day tournament, but somebody who wanted to come in and dedicate a whole day to fishing shallow could easily do that. The fish are moving into the backs of shallow pockets. They're cruising around real shallow – you can see a lot of them swimming around."

For a shallow attack, he said bait choice depends on water color, which varies across the lake. There's still a flipping bite happening (jigs), and crankbaits are on. And in off-color water, the spinnerbait's in play.

Notable

> He hesitated to make a spot-on prediction, but feels it'll take more than 20 pounds to win this weekend.

> The jig he's been throwing the past few weeks, both deep and shallow, is the new Tabu Open Water Series. He's also been throwing the Buckeye Spot Remover.

> To read Gagliardi's Murray Recon from last December, click here.