HUDDLESTON, Va. (March 31, 2025) – Boater Broderick Luckey of Lynchburg, Virginia, caught a five-bass limit weighing 21 pounds, 14 ounces, Saturday to win the Bass Fishing League (BFL) tournament on Smith Mountain Lake. The tournament was the first event of the season for the BFL Shenandoah Division. Luckey earned $5,683 for his victory.
Saturday’s tournament was the start of a huge weekend for Luckey. On Sunday, he went back-to-back, getting the win in a Piedmont Division tournament that was also held on Smith Mountain Lake. Here’s what’s even wilder: In March 2024, Luckey fished a Piedmont Division derby on Smith Mountain, and he won that one too. He’s three-for-three in his last three Smith Mountain Lake BFL events. On Saturday, his Shenandoah Division win was all about timing the prespawn transition.
“In practice, I kind of saw that fish were moving,” said Luckey. “Fish were transitioning. So I knew that I needed to try to fish ahead of them instead of trying to find where they were currently and trying to catch them where they were currently. So I found areas where they were, and I tried to take my best guess as to where they were going. That ended up working out really well.”
Luckey started off going to the backs of pockets and working his way back out toward the main lake, hoping to intercept the fish along the way. Eventually, he was able to find fish on docks, wood and other areas. The key was covering a lot of water.
“The fish are really spread out,” he said. “There’s not a lot of fish in one place. I covered miles and miles today both scoping and fishing shallow, just trying to get a read on what the fish are doing. The majority of my better fish came shallow, but my good limit fillers came scoping.”
Luckey caught his winning fish on a minnow bait, a big swimbait and a Yamamoto Senko. A key moment for him happened right at the end of the day, when he landed the 7-pound, 14-ounce bass that won him the Berkley Big Bass award of $745 on the boater side. With 17 pounds in the livewell, Luckey skipped his swimbait up under a dock and that big girl followed it out. He spotted her coming and gave his swimbait a couple twitches, which triggered her to bite.
“She crushed it right about 2 feet from the boat, and I led her around to the net with about 15 minutes to go,” Luckey said. “It was the best fish catch that I have ever had as far as excitement and an unbelievable event.”
The top 10 boaters finished the tournament:
1st: Broderick Luckey, Lynchburg, Va., five bass, 21-14, $5,683
2nd: Billy Kohls, Huddleston, Va., five bass, 20-6, $2,719
3rd: Chad Green, Moneta, Va., five bass, 20-2, $1,646
4th: Matt McCluskey, Ashburn, Va., five bass, 18-0, $1,152
5th: Greg Stallings, Dry Fork, Va., five bass, 17-14, $988
6th: Ron Rousseau, Raleigh, N.C., five bass, 17-10, $864
6th: Stefan Ward, Wirtz, Va., five bass, 17-10, $864
8th: Eric Johnson, Partlow, Va., five bass, 16-14, $741
9th: Ben Reynolds, Callands, Va., five bass, 16-13, $658
10th: Marvin Reese, Randallstown, Md., five bass, 16-12, $576
Joe Dixon of Bel Alton, Maryland, won the co-angler division and $2,453 Saturday, after bringing three bass to the scale that totaled 12 pounds, 1 ounce.
The top 10 co-anglers finished:
1st: Joe Dixon, Bel Alton, Md., three bass, 12-1, $2,453
2nd: Johnnie Hopkins, Greensboro, N.C., three bass, 10-10, $1,226
3rd: Robert Wedding, Welcome, Md., three bass, 10-8, $816
4th: David Deciucis, Chester, Va., three bass, 9-14, $572
5th: James Dehart, Roanoke, Va., two bass, 9-12, $861
6th: Brandon Miskell, Vienna, Va., three bass, 8-11, $450
7th: Jason Hinger, Timberlake, N.C., three bass, 7-12, $509
8th: Mike Coleman, S. Chesterfield, Va., three bass, 7-6, $368
9th: Phillip Ragland Jr., Rustburg, Va., three bass, 7-5, $327
10th: Dan Garner, Littleton, N.C., three bass, 7-2, $286
James Dehart of Roanoke, Virginia, earned the Berkley Big Bass co-angler award of $370, catching a bass that weighed in at 8 pounds – the largest co-angler catch of the day.
In addition to winning the event, Broderick Luckey of Lynchburg, Virginia, has the early lead in the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Angler of the Year (AOY) race with 250 points, while Joe Dixon of Bel Alton, Maryland, leads the Fishing Clash Shenandoah Division Co-Angler of the Year race with 250 points.
The next event for BFL Shenandoah Division anglers will be held April 19, at Kerr Lake in Henderson, North Carolina.
https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bfl-smith-mountain-33125.html
Bass Fishing League (BFL) News