5 Keys: How Lucas and Gill Tamed Texas

Both survived Ivie, then thrived at Brownwood

April 03, 2026 By Todd Ceisner

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Evidently, Justin Lucas likes events with multiple lakes just as much as a single venue. His runner-up finish at the recent Lake O.H. Ivie/Lake Brownwood Bass Pro Tour was his second straight top-10 showing in a dual-lake event – in Texas, no less.

He snuck into the Knockout Round after finishing the two-day Qualifying Round at O.H. Ivie in 24th place. When the scene shifted to Brownwood for the Knockout Round, he blistered the field by running more than 64 pounds on 19 scoreable bass. The following day wasn’t as fruitful, but he managed to keep the pressure on eventual winner Jacob Wheeler much of the day. They were the only finalists to eclipse the 30-pound mark in the Championship Round.

Lucas is now up to fourth in Bass Pro Tour Angler of the Year points after four events. Here’s some additional insight from the veteran pro about how things came together in Texas again:

Key takeaway

“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to fish the weekend and finished 2nd. I didn’t catch a fish in the third period on day 2 and finished 24th somehow. I could’ve missed cut. I was just thankful to be fishing the weekend. It was quite the turn of events from Friday to Saturday.”

Key discovery in practice

O.H. Ivie: “I tried to stay away from bottom end of the lake. And that got me in a little trouble. That’s where the majority of people catch them there. I was mid-lake and up lake and there seemed to be a lot fewer scoreable bass in that area. I didn’t have to compete for spots, but I barely got by with what I had.”

Brownwood: “I’ve had decent success there. The water was down from when we were there (in 2024). I’d heard it was dingier and that told me there wasn’t any grass so I didn’t have to worry about that. The fish were related to hard cover so at least I was ready for that.”

Key decision in tournament

O.H. Ivie: “On the morning of day 2, I picked up a Berkley Swamp Lord before the front blew in right around the middle of the first period and caught four on that thing and that saved my event. That gave me confidence to do a couple other things.”

Brownwood: “They were completely different days, but I’d say two things here. Number one starting by takeoff and noticing the shad spawn before lines in. That clued me into a shad spawn going on on Saturday. On Sunday, that let me start on the shad spawn no matter what because Saturday was so good. Within 20 minutes, I knew it wasn’t happening. Then I moved to the bank and started fishing bluffy rocky banks with dice style baits. I caught 29 (pounds) in the first period, then one fish the rest of the day. I didn’t want to go down in flames trying to force the shad spawn, but I never had a nibble.”

Key pattern

O.H. Ivie: “I scoped isolated trees that came up to 5 to 10 feet below surface over 30 feet with dice style baits and flipping shallow bushes with a Berkley Power Hawg.”

Brownwood: “I focused on bluffy, rocky banks that had docks on them – the cracks of the rocks and the dock walkways. It didn’t matter as long as there was a good mix of chunk and bluff rock going on.”

Key gear

O.H. Ivie

Like Lucas, Drew Gill completed the Texas Twin Top-10 Challenge, adding a third-place finish to the 5th-place effort he had at Lake Whitney/Lake Waco in early March. It’s his third top-5 result in four events and moved him up to third in the AOY points, his customary lofty position. Gill navigated Ivie to a 13th-place finish in the Qualifying Round before trailing only Lucas in the Knockout round at Brownwood.

Here are a few of Gill’s reflections on what went down in central Texas.

Key takeaway

“That not everything is as it appears. Ivie has some ginormous fish in it, but that’s the tip of the iceberg. I’d never been on it before, but that place is so overwhelming in terms of the environment. It’s like grass was replaced with sticks and it exists out to 20 feet of water. It’s just such an overwhelming environment and it’s not a great place to go get bit consistently. It was a little bit of a shock to me. I thought there would be a population of fish that was repeatable given the giant fish emphasis. The environment made it impossible to rapidly acquire bites. Brownwood was awesome. That place is great. The Knockout Round showed how good it was. I thought Sunday was going to be insane. It turned out it wasn’t.”

photo of angler holding up bass caught in tournament — Drew Gill gathered his third top-10 finish of the Bass Pro Tour season at Lake O.H. Ivie and Lake Brownwood. (Photo: MLF/Phoenix Moore)

Key discovery in practice

“My main regret from the week was in how I practiced. Going into Ivie, I knew it wouldn’t be insane but I figured it would be respectable. I figured there was something I was missing out on, so I skipped going to Brownwood. I was thinking it would be 55 to 60 pounds to make the Knockout Round. I overestimated how much it would take. It was only a pound more than our (2024) Lake Eufaula event. I committed to Ivie when I didn’t need to.”

Key decision in tournament

O.H. Ivie: “After day 1 ended, I looked back and saw I caught one scorable bass in my (live sonar) period. I needed to have a better day 2 to have a cushion and there was room to improve in my live sonar period. I sat down at my graphs and looked at spots where I’d found some fry guarders but most were not scoreable. Instead of trolling around over endless minnow fish, I wanted to focus on fry guarders. They were on flat stuff where there were bushes for hundreds of yards. When I did that, I found two in the ride around. I started with the scope and caught a 3 1/2 and a 4. That was my best decision. I knew if I found enough it would get me out of it.”

Brownwood: “Not using (live sonar) of the first period of the Knockout Round. After the ride around, I didn’t have a finger on the pulse of what was going on. I just wanted to fish around and get a lead on what they were doing. After the first, I caught a 5 1/2, a 3 and a 2 – I did that on docks near channel swing banks. I threw a swim jig and urchin bait and got a bunch of bites. I had a strong feeling on where they were and what to chase.”

Key pattern(s)

O.H. Ivie: “Fry guarders in the more isolated sticks among the endless flats of bushes in 5 to 8 feet of water.”

Brownwood: “Channel swing docks, especially big channel swings. The docks with a couple slips and a big platform were key. They were on the back floats and inside slips. They were not on the end or outside of the docks. They were in the dead core of the dock. It was best in the morning, and they were high in the water column. As the sun got up the bite got worse, which isn’t typical. I was mainly in the mid-section of the lake. That’s where the channel swing fell just right.”

Key gear

O.H. Ivie

Urchin bait: 7’1” heavy-action Phenix Bass Recon Elite casting rod, Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Platinum Signature casting reel (8.3:1 ratio), 20-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, unnamed 1/8-ounce nail weight, 1/0 Owner Cover Shot worm hook, unnamed urchin bait (green pumpkin.

Dropshot: 7’2” light-action Phenix M1 spinning rod, Bass Pro Shops Johnny Morris Platinum Signature sprinning reel (3000 size), unnamed 22-pound braided line, 15-pound Seaguar JDM Grand Max fluorocarbon leader, 1/0 Roboworm Rebarb hook, 7" Big Bite Baits Drew Gill Nekorama worm (green pumpkin), unnamed 3/16-ounce dropshot weight.

Brownwood

Swim jig: 7-3 heavy-action Phenix Rods K2 casting rod, same reel as urchin bait, 25-pound Seaguar Tatsu fluorocarbon line, 3/8-ounce Buckeye Lures Brush Panda Heavy Cover swim jig (white), unnamed craw trailer (white).

Urchin: Same everything from O.H. Ivie.

Neko rig: 7’2” medium-light Phenix Rods M1 spinning rod, same reel, line, hook, bait as dropshot, unnamed 1/16-ounce weight.