HUNTSVILLE — This was a weekend of “thirds” for the Bass Pro Shops Redcrest presented by MillerTech on Lake Guntersville.
It was the third time Major League Fishing’s championship event has been held in the bass-fishing mecca of Alabama.
For the third time, pro Dustin Connell of Clanton is keeping the trophy in his home state.
On the event’s third day, Championship Sunday, Connell ran away from the field -figuratively and literally.
After making a roughly 70-mile trek away from the history- and largemouth-rich waters of lower Lake Guntersville to the tailrace below the Nickajack Dam, Connell stacked up 87 pounds, 11 ounces on 27 scorable bass.
It was the best single-day total of any angler at the event (despite a 65-minute delay due to weather), that was enough to hold off a late charge from Wesley Strader by 8-5.
“I just wasn’t catching them,” Connell said during Sunday’s awards ceremony at Huntsville’s Von Braun Center. “The wind was blowing again, and there was pollen everywhere. It just was not the deal.
“I get to the dam, and I caught 20-something pounds at the dam late in the day. So, I said, screw this; I’m fishing the whole tournament up there, good, bad or ugly.”
Connell earned $300,000 for the win and further cemented himself as the best big-event performer going. The only angler to win Redcrest multiple times, he’s claimed the title in back-to-back years and three times total – he previously won on Lake Eufaula in 2021 and Lay Lake in 2024.
He’s just the third angler ever with three tour championship titles. Only Bass Fishing Hall of Famers Kevin VanDam and Rick Clunn have won more with four apiece.
Connell started Day 1 trying to target spawning largemouth at the lower end of the fishery. Pre-tournament chatter suggested that would be the dominant pattern, but Connell caught just one scorable bass during the opening period of the event.
He ran to Nickajack in Period 2, but strong winds made for a long trip. He only added one more fish during that period, and at the end of it, he sat in 47th place out of 50 anglers.
After spending most of the day throwing a 2.5-inch CrushCity The Mayor swimbait, he switched to a CrushCity Mooch Minnow. Even without the aid of forward-facing sonar (he didn’t catch a bass all week that he first saw on his screen), he was able to shake it in the current breaks along the dam’s concrete walls and trigger bites.
“The sun was out, and they kind of quit biting,” Connell said. “I was initially catching them on a Mayor, and I was winding it down the walls. … Well, late in the day, I picked that rod up with a Mooch Minnow on there. And I made like three casts with it, and I caught two back-to-back. And I figured out the bait that they were really wanting, and the action of it.”
Even though he’s been there plenty of times before, Connell called this win extra special. In the moments after lines out, he sat on his front deck, and tears began to flow. He said he was “more shook up with this one” than any of his previous wins.
Connell admitted the start to his 2025 season on the Bass Pro Tour hadn’t been up to his standards. He finished 55th at the Harris Chain of Lakes and 36th at Lake Murray, and that wore on him. To not only bounce back but do so with his wife, Victoria, and nearly-one-year-old son, Trent, on hand to celebrate with him for the first time after one of his victories made this one particularly sweet. A dozen or so family members joined him on stage as he lifted the trophy.
“Lately, it ain’t been easy on me,” Connell said. “The last three tournaments, two tournaments I’ve had have been absolutely brutal. I go to Lake Murray, and it’s just a brutal tournament. Florida was brutal. And you’ve got all these people just hating on you and saying, ‘Oh, you can’t catch them without this and that,’ and it just weighs on you.
“I try to surround myself with positive people, and my family, my wife, my little boy – he was here last year, but he wasn’t where I could hold him. And to win this tournament with him and my family here, oh my gosh. I can’t believe it.”
The top 10 pro finishers:
- Dustin Connell, Clanton, 27 bass, 87-11, $300,000
- Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 29 bass, 79-6, $50,000
- Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 17 bass, 44-12, $40,000
- Paul Marks Jr., Cumming, Ga., 15 bass, 43-5, $28,000
- Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 15 bass, 38-10, $25,000
- Chris Lane, Guntersville, 16 bass, 38-10, $20,000
- Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 14 bass, 37-12, $18,000
- David Dudley, Lynchburg, Va., 10 bass, 33-8, $16,000
- Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., six bass, 15-2, $14,500
- Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., three bass, 8-5, $12,500
A complete list of results can be found at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 152 scorable bass weighing 427 pounds, 1 ounce caught by the final 10 pros on Sunday. Throughout the entire four-day event, the 50 competitors in REDCREST 2025 caught a total of 1,614 scorable bass weighing 4,456 pounds, 4 ounces.
Pro Brent Ehrler earned Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award with a 5-pound, 6-ounce largemouth bass that he caught in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
Bass Pro Shops Redcrest 2025 Presented by MillerTech Energy at Lake Guntersville was hosted by the Huntsville/Madison County Convention & Visitors Bureau, the Alabama Mountain Lakes Tourist Association, and the Madison County Commission and showcased the top 50 MLF anglers from 2024.
Television coverage of the event will premiere as a two-hour episode at 6 a.m. CT, July 5 on Discovery, with the Championship Round premiering July 19. New MLF episodes premiere each Saturday morning on Discovery, with re-airings on Outdoor Channel and Vice TV.
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