How Justin Lucas won the Lake Erie MLF Bass Pro Tour – again!

Justin Lucas is 2 for 2 on Bass Pro Tour tournaments on Erie. First win was in 2020, and he had to wait 6 years to get back to one of his sweet spots: dropshotting a Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm for smallmouth. Here’s how he got it done this time.

Going in and practice

> “I knew that where I won before…did not have a population of fish…to compete in this format. So I started my practice at the mouth of the Detroit River. I felt like that would be the best chance to be around a bigger population.

> “The 1st day of pracitce went well enough that I decided to commit to that area. The 2nd day…I found some more stuff up there, and later that day I made my way out to the navigable channel marker that I found [his main spot in the tournament].

> “I’ve fished buoys and stuff, but not that [before]. I didn’t even know it was there. I had to drive out there a little ways…30′ of water. I rolled up and right away caught a couple nice ones, better quality than up shallower.

> Why he thinks it had ’em: “It’s the only structure out there in the middle of nowhere, and it’s got hard bottom around it.

> “From what I saw on side imaging, they probably dropped a bunch of gravel before they put [the markers in] to make sure they were on hard bottom.

> “And there’s not much contour on that section of that lake so there’s not a lot of hard bottom anywhere and no structure: no big rocks, no hard drops or anything like that. So it’s…the only thing for miles.

> “It’s like fishing an oil rig in the Gulf [of America 😁], which I’ve done.

> “…28-30′, gravel on the bottom, vertical structures. They had a little base around them that was 10′ deep and came off around them 7′. I’d throw on top of the ledge, drag my dropshot to where as soon as it would fall off I’d open my bail to let it fall straight down tight against the base.”

Tournament

> “I knew that thing was pretty special. I didn’t want to burn it up too fast. I hit it on the morning of day 1, my 2nd spot, and caught 2 big ones off it, That was all I got to bite.

> “I left and went into the mouth of the river…a community area everybody was else was on: 20-25 boats were in there. Basically I was trying to burn up as much as I could in there because it was getting pressured, to help me get through the cut.

> “At about 2:00 or so…I was starting to fall down the standings, so I ran back out to the channel marker and 7 drops in a row I caught like 27 lbs. That shot me way up….

> “I knew at that point…I didn’t have to burn up any more fish on that. I could probably catch enough on the community stuff [on day 2] to make the cut. So that’s what I did….

> “At that point I was thinking it’d be really nice if I could find another one of those [nav] markers somewhere. [Near the end of day 2] I was looking at my map [and] leading into Maumee River in Toledo, OH, it looked like there was potentially another one out there.

> “I had to run about 17-18 miles, and when I got 4-5 miles away I could start to see the silhouette of something that looked like…the same type of marker leading into entrance of that channel.

> “…it had more hard bottom all the way around it. And as soon as I rolled up, 3 drops in a row I caught 3 4-lbers and my 2D screen absolutely went nuts. I have not seen that many fish on 2D below my boat in a long time. Now I had that new one to add into my rotation.

> “Day 3 [he knew he] had already hit the [first can] one morning and I wasn’t very good…more of an afternoon spot. So I started on the Toledo one…and I think I caught 12 fish off of it for 48 lbs in an hour and 15 minutes.

> “So I was like, alright this one is loaded in the morning, I know the other one is on in the afternoon. …I need to leave this one and not catch anything else off it…I’m probably going to make the cut with this weight.

> “The last day I started on the Toledo one because I knew it was the better morning spot. I blasted them…had maybe 50 lbs in the 1st period. Then I ran to the other one in the 1st period and never got a bite.

> “I just started hopping around, trying to catch some stuff in my Scope period. It was real slow, nothing special. Everybody was catching up to my weight, and I knew that if I was going to win…I had to go back to those [cans] when the sun changed direction and put the fish on the opposite side of them.

> “It rotated the fish around, and I think when it does that they re-set up and feed again.

> “…the 3rd period, I think Wheeler got within 7-8 lbs. I roll out to the [nav can] at the mouth of the Detroit River and start whacking ’em on it. I think, Okay, this might actually happen. I’m catching them here now, and if I can go to the other one and get a few, it could happen.

> “I caught about 18 lbs off the Detroit River one…ran 10 miles to the other one…caught 3 5-lbers in a row.

> “I think it’s important to note that I caught all those fish off those [cans] without Scope.  My Scoping period was the worst for me every single day.”

Baits

> 3.6 Berkley MaxScent Flat Worm – “black in the mornings, gp the majority of the time unless it was really calm and clear when I used ‘smoke purple’. I just always stick to [those 3 colors]. They’ve been my colors since that bait came out. I don’t really feel like the smallmouth care a whole lot….”

> Why the Flat Worm is all that: “I think the profile is just right. It’s the perfect profile, but I also…fully believe in the MaxScent, and the matte color to ’em is different from what most people are throwing too.”

> #1 dropshot hook, nose-hooked “anytime I’m fishing more vertical”, 1/4- to 1/2-oz weight depending on wind and depth, 8-lb Berkley X5 Braid (flame green) to 10-lb Berkley GinClear Fluoro, Abu Garcia Zenon X Spin Reel (3000), 7′ M Abu Fantasista X Spin Rods and 7′ 1′ M Abu Zenon Spin Rods (he had 11 dropshots rigged up).

Electronics

> “I don’t really feel like they were important for my win, but I used a mixture of Humminbird XPLOREs and Lowrance HDS Pros.”