FLORENCE, Ala. – When Michael Luckey from Lynchburg, Virginia, stepped onto the weigh-in stage Friday on the final day of the Toyota Series Presented by Phoenix Boats Central Division tournament at Pickwick Lake, the number of fish in his bag (one) was a far cry from the hefty five-fish, 22-pound limit he had weighed in the day before. Fortunately for Luckey, that single fish was the right one.
At 5 pounds, 14 ounces, Luckey’s lone Day 3 largemouth was enough to propel him to a win in the Strike King co-angler division, which sent him on his 10-hour journey home with a certificate in his pocket for a Phoenix Boats 518 Pro with a 115-horsepower outboard (a package worth $33,500).
That fish, which pushed Luckey’s three-day total to 31-7 (a near 4-pound win), was a stroke of good fortune that put an exclamation point on a memorable tournament for the 59-year-old co-angler.
A family pursuit
Luckey had never fished Pickwick prior to practice for the season’s first Central Division tournament. He and son Broderick (Brody) Luckey (who finished sixth in the event on the pro side) committed to fish all of the Central Division tournaments in 2025, and had arrived in Florence before the event with two boats in tow: one for each to practice out of and download as much information as possible about Pickwick.
“I won’t lie, I felt a little intimidated by (Pickwick),” Luckey admitted. “It’s such a vast lake; it felt really big to me.”
The Luckeys have fished Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia together for “as long as Brody was old enough to fish,” and have competed together in the Phoenix Bass Fishing League Piedmont and Shenandoah divisions (Brody won a 2024 BFL on Smith Mountain). They also fished Toyota Series events on the Potomac River and Lake Chickamauga and traveled together for all three Central Division tournaments in 2024. With the end goal of both qualifying for the 2025 Toyota Series Championship, the Luckeys had high hopes as the tournament started on Pickwick.
Day 1 learnings, Day 2 bonanza
Michael saw limited success on Day 1, though. Throwing a shakey head with a Zoom Mag Finesse Worm with a Colorado blade on the tail, he caught only one fish for 3-6, which put him in 45th place (18-7 behind leader Johnny Surrat, who blasted 21-13 on the day). Brody, meanwhile, loaded up 26-8, which put him in the Top 5.
“Day 1 was really tough for me as a co-angler,” Michael said. “I hadn’t practiced as a co-angler; I practiced for the front of the boat. That was probably a mistake, but I started to learn more about how the lake set up from my boater.”
Michael drew North Carolina pro Caz Anderson on Day 2, on the heels of a warming trend in Northern Alabama that had shaken Pickwick’s fish out of their winter haunts and sent them rushing to the bank. That turned out to be a banner day for Anderson, and the most productive tournament day in Luckey’s life.
Anderson started the day with a 6-pounder on his first cast and a 4 1/2-pounder on his second cast, and had 19 pounds in the livewell after the first pass down one stretch of bank.
“Fish were just pulling up to the bank in waves,” said Anderson, who weighed in 28-4 that day. “I’ve never seen a day like that. We just had fish coming to us all day long.”
Luckey hadn’t fared as well on that first run, though, going fishless on a vibrating jig. But then Luckey’s fortunes changed: Anderson decided to run the same bank a second time, which sent Luckey rummaging around in his tackle bag for a different bait option.
“I found on old, beat-up, white War Eagle spinnerbait that barely had a skirt on it,” Luckey said. “I tied that thing on and it was fish after fish after fish from that moment on. Caz was just so dialed in on that bite. It was just one of those sunshiny days where the boater was in the right spot and I had the right bait. We released multiple 20-pound bags over the course of the day trying to cull up. We came to weigh-in with over 50 pounds of fish in the livewell between us. It was insane, and just so cool.”
Luckey weighed in 22-3, which boosted his total to 25-9 and catapulted him from 45th to second behind Rodney Keel, who weighed in 22-13 on the day, boosted by the big bass of the tournament (a 9-13).
Lucky? No, Luckey
Luckey headed out on the final day trailing Keel by 1-9 and sharing the boat with Tennessee River sharpie Jake Lawrence. Lawrence put on a run-and-gun clinic that day, rounding up 24-3 but forcing the co-angler to scramble to keep up with a breakneck pace that saw Lawrence making limited casts to specific pieces of cover before rolling to the next spot with his trolling motor on high.
“I had a tremendous amount of ground to cover,” Lawrence said. “I felt bad for (Luckey) that I had to fish that fast, but there weren’t a tremendous amount of fish and very few of the bigger ones I needed. I’d pull up to a brushpile, make eight or 10 casts to it and just start taking off to the next one if I couldn’t get a fish to bite.”
That small window would leave Luckey enough time to make a couple of casts to a piece of cover that he knew held fish, but heading into the final hour, Luckey hadn’t connected on a single bite throwing an Alabama rig with Keitech swimmers. With 45 minutes of fishing time left, and with Lawrence already motoring to the next spot, Luckey hung up his A-rig in a brush pile. Instead of asking Lawrence to change course to help him dislodge the A-rig, Luckey just thumbed his spool and let Lawrence cruise, planning to either straighten the hooks or break off.
“I didn’t even tell him I was snagged,” Luckey said. “I knew he needed to find a few more fish if he was going to have a chance to win. He had already been kind enough to help me get unsnagged a few times, I didn’t want to slow him down again.”
Luckey’s A-rig, however, didn’t break off. As Lawrence continued to motor and Luckey’s line continued to stretch, the bait popped off – and a 5-14 largemouth popped on.
“I guarantee that fish was in the brush pile staring at that A-rig, looking at all those swimmers dangling down – as soon as that bait broke loose and those swimmers moved, that fish absolutely clobbered it,” Lawrence said. “He had two swimbaits in his mouth, I mean he clobbered it. It was a cool bite. I didn’t want to tell (Luckey) at the time, but I had a feeling (he might win). I’ve seen too many tournaments where a co-anglers wins it on one big fish.”
It turned out that Lawrence was right. Keel didn’t weigh a fish on Day 3, and Day 1 leader Surrat had zeroed on Day 2 and wound up with 27-10 – nearly 4 pounds behind Luckey.
“I’ve never had anything like that happen,” Luckey said. “I don’t even know what kind of A-rig it was; I just went to the local tackle shop, bought their A-rig and put some Keitech swimbaits on it. I don’t have any other way to explain it than ‘It was meant to be,’ I guess.”
The Luckeys will next compete at the March 18-20 Central Division tournament on Lake Chickamauga, Tennessee.