HUDDLESTON, Va. (March 11, 2024) – Boater Broderick Luckey of Lynchburg, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 24 pounds, 7 ounces, Saturday to win the MLF Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Smith Mountain Lake. Luckey earned $3,505 for his victory. The Smith Mountain Lake tournament came on the heels of a week of consistently warm weather.
“The entire week before it was in the 70s,” Luckey said, “and it jumped the water up 7 or 8 degrees, which is very significant. I noticed that a lot of the fish were hesitant to move up because it was such a drastic change. A lot of the fish were in transition areas.”
Luckey didn’t exactly dial in a pattern, so much as he uncovered two key areas located at the mouth of a creek and midway back. Bass were moving in and out of these areas, so timing was critical, and throughout the day Luckey made sure to rest his best spots and then return later. This turned out to be a key move at the end of the day.
But first, his morning started quickly.
“I had 18 pounds in the first 30 minutes,” Luckey recalled. “I caught a 7-pounder real quick as well as a couple 3s.”
On his second spot, Luckey caught three fish that weighed more than 4 pounds each and culled up to about 22 pounds by 11 a.m.
“I was using a lot of my forward-facing sonar to locate fish,” Luckey said. “They were actively working bait. I threw a mix of a jerkbait and a swimbait at them and that seemed to work.
“I flat tried to run ’em down,” he added. “I had the trolling motor on high and just looked and look and looked. When I’d find fish, I’d make circles in the area, and when there weren’t fish I’d keep on moving.”
While he was resting his best spots, Luckey covered water with a crankbait. He caught several 3-pound-class fish, though they didn’t help his limit. Later, when he came back to his second area again at the end of the day, Luckey’s rest-and-return strategy paid off. He culled out two 4-pounders, bringing his total to 24 pounds, 7 ounces and sealing the win.
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Broderick Luckey, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 24-7, $3,505
2nd: Justin Hicks, Roanoke, Va., five bass, 20-4, $1,753
3rd: Adam Lester, Huddleston, Va., five bass, 19-7, $1,169
4th: Dennis Stump, Madison Heights, Va., five bass, 19-6, $818
5th: Christopher Atkins II, Goode, Va., five bass, 19-3, $701
6th: Matthew Strykul, Richmond, Va., five bass, 18-11, $643
7th: Michael Toney, Blacksburg, Va., five bass, 18-3, $584
8th: Jonathan Bailey, Peterstown, W.Va., five bass, 17-15, $526
9th: Grant Vest, Hopewell, Va., five bass, 17-6, $467
10th: Zach Peaslee, Dublin, Va., five bass, 17-3, $409
Complete results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Shawn Keene of Jacksonville, North Carolina, caught a bass that weighed 7 pounds, 5 ounces, and earned the Big Bass Boater award of $440. Matt Russell of Elkton, Maryland, won the co-angler division and $2,373 Saturday, after bringing five bass to the scale that totaled 16 pounds.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Matt Russell, five bass, 16-0, $2,373
2nd: Chad Liptrap, three bass, 12-10, $876
3rd: Scott Howard, five bass, 12-9, $585
4th: Josh Hall, four bass, 11-12, $409
5th: Cody Howard, four bass, 10-14, $501
6th: David Williams, four bass, 10-12, $321
7th: Sean Tobatto, four bass, 10-4, $292
8th: Brandon Miskell, four bass, 9-8, $263
9th: Matthew Foreman, three bass, 8-7, $234
10th: Mekye Barnes, three bass, 7-11, $204
Russell earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $220, catching a bass that weighed in at 5 pounds, 6 ounces – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
https://dev.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-smith-mountain-31124.html
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