Justin Lucas had not won a national event since 2020. He had four runner-up finishes and 18 top-10s since. On Sunday at Sandusky, Ohio, he ended it in the least ambiguous way available - 98 pounds, 11 ounces on 25 scorable bass in a single Championship Round, and a 19-pound, 6-ounce margin over the best angler in the world.
"I feel like I've been in a dream for the last hour and a half," Lucas said after lines out at Suzuki Marine Stage 7. "Just big ones, just biting."
The symmetry was almost absurd. The last time an MLF national trail visited Lake Erie was the 2020 Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Super Tournament, where Lucas edged Jacob Wheeler by one ounce. Six years later the final standings read the same: Lucas first, Wheeler second.
The two men went in with genuinely different reads on the lake. Wheeler, who won Saturday's Knockout Round with 70-11, expected the winner to need a mixed bag.
"I still have a few places lined up, and sort of mixed it up between largemouth and smallmouth, which I think is what it'll take to win this tournament," Wheeler said. "I feel like the smallmouth weigh more and even though the largemouth also group up, I don't know if they'll be big enough to win with them alone."
Lucas never entertained the largemouth question. He was all-in on smallmouth from the first day of practice, on a drop-shot with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Flat Worm - the same setup that won on Erie in 2020.
"I think the main thing is that I love throwing a drop-shot and they love eating it," he said. "When I put my boat in the water, I am very confident that if I pick up a drop-shot, I should be able to find some smallmouth bass."
The most notable detail of the win is what Lucas did not use. Wheeler conserved his forward-facing sonar for the final period and closed to within eight pounds early in Period 3. Lucas answered with 38-4 on nine smallmouth in that same period, working two channel markers, and caught his best five - a staggering 28-7 - without forward-facing sonar at all. He landed all six of the field's 5-pound-plus bass.
Wheeler's prediction that it might take 90 to 100 pounds turned out to be almost exactly right. He simply was not the one who got there.
"When you're going up against Wheeler, you need everything going in your favor," Lucas said. "And the fact that I was on better quality - he is incredible at fishing, but he is even more incredible at our format and just catching fish. So, I knew in my mind, today, I was going to have to catch 20 to 30 fish to have a chance. I kind of bet on a 4-pound average on that offshore stuff."
Lucas admitted to being "a little bit stressed" in the second period, when the bite slowed and both Wheeler and Cole Floyd pulled within 15 pounds. He held his nerve on the theory that his channel markers would fire again in the afternoon, as they had all week.
"The first day, one of them saved me in the afternoon, and then the second day, I found the other one in the afternoon," he said. "So, I knew that there was an afternoon bite on them."
There is a fisheries story buried in the result. Erie has never carried the reputation of Lake Ontario or Mille Lacs among smallmouth destinations, and its bass populations have moved in cycles. Lucas thinks that assessment is now out of date.
"It's not known to be the best Great Lake for smallmouth fishing," he said. "It's gone in cycles. From what I saw this week, I was more than impressed. I feel like Lake Erie is back."
The win paid $125,000 and lifted Lucas to third in the final Fishing Clash Angler of the Year standings, behind champion Zack Birge and Wheeler. Birge, who clinched AOY a day earlier in heavy waves, finished 10th in the Championship Round with 20-12.
For Lucas, the number that mattered was the six-year gap.
"It's the longest I've gone without a win in my professional career," he said. "And you start wondering, like, 'Man, could that have been my last one six years ago?' You never know. So, it definitely means a ton. And to do it on Erie two different times, that's pretty special."
Sources: Major League Fishing reports by Mitchell Forde and Tyler Brinks, Stage 7 official results.
