Alabama pro Justin Lucas is coming off his best-ever year on the Bass Pro Tour, where he finished the season in fifth place in the Angler of the Year points standings. As a result, he qualified for his second career REDCREST and will be fishing Grand Lake on March 23rd through the 27th as he tries to win the first championship event of his career. He's going into this event with a simple approach and limiting his bait selection to the basics and things that he has the most confidence in.
Mixed Results on Grand
Lucas and Grand Lake have crossed paths a handful of times through his career, and he has mixed results there. He's never been at this exact time of year, but he believes that he has a feel for how the event will unfold this time around.
"I've never been there at the end of March but did well there one time in June," he said. "The time I was there in February, I got my butt kicked. I believe this event will be full on pre-spawn, but further along than the February event that I fished."
He believes the fishing should be good overall and plans to keep his focus on the middle section of the lake, the region that's been the best for him over the years.
"I always do better in the middle section and every time I try to go somewhere else, I struggle," he admitted. "There are a bunch of docks on Grand Lake, and I love fishing docks. I'll be looking for the right docks, rock transitions, secondary points, and places that are close to where the bass spawn first."
Sticking with Confidence Baits
Lucas says that just four baits will make up his arsenal for this event and that he's narrowed it down in an effort to simplify things.
"I'm thinking of going simple and fishing what I have confidence in: a jerkbait, crankbait, shaky head, and a Texas-rig," he said. "If I look back at all of my best tournaments, I kept it basic and all of my wins included soft plastics."
He will rig up a shaky head with a 6.25" Berkley PowerBait Bottom Hopper and a 4.5" Berkley Powerbait Power Tube for the soft baits.
"The tube is a little bit bigger sized and great for flipping and pitching," he began. "I'll flip that in the backs of pockets and on steeper banks and work it back real slow. It has minimal action, which is good when it's cold, and I'll fish it slowly like a jig. I'll fish the shaky head around docks and shallow cover."
Lucas plans to use two moving baits: the Berkley Stunna 112 jerkbait and Frittside 5 crankbait, two tried and true pre-spawn lures anywhere in the country.
"I started using the Stunna this year and have been really impressed with the action and how well it casts, even into the wind," he said. "People are catching fish with it all over the country. It was one of my best baits this year on Lake Fork, and I was able to get a top ten finish with it."
Lucas doesn't see himself as a crankbait fisherman but says the Frittside has changed his mind a little bit.
"I'm not a good cranker," he said. "I like this bait because of how easy it is to cast and it has a nice feeling during the retrieve. Plus, it catches them and has a great action that entices the fish and you are seeing it get even more popular after more people have started using it."
Predictions
Lucas doesn't know how the tournament will unfold, nobody does, but he has some goals and thoughts on what it will take to do well
"I'd say catching ten or fifteen bass a day would be a great day," he said. "If you can catch over ten bass in a day on our tour, you always do well because it's hard to do with our minimum weights. It's not easy anywhere to catch that many bass over the variable minimum weight, which is two pounds for this tournament."
When asked what he believes it will take to win on the final day after weights are zeroed, he said it's a tricky question to answer.
"Your guess is as good as mine," he said. "It's so hard to predict, but I am guessing someone will have around fifteen bass and a total of around 45-pounds."
As REDCREST gets underway, Justin Lucas and 40 other anglers will be forced to figure out a Grand Lake fishery with excellent potential for producing big numbers of quality bass. This year, his approach is to keep things basic, fish his confidence lures, and focus on finding the best concentrations of pre-spawn Oklahoma bass.
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