The sixth edition of Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by MillerTech is quickly approaching and will be held on Alabama’s Lake Guntersville, which should be a fitting venue to crown the winner. While the event is still in its formative years, it’s established enough to look at its history and dig deeper into the competitors and how they’ve fared at REDCREST.
It will be the first time competing for several anglers, but a handful have qualified for every REDCREST. Several anglers have only missed one or two; others have qualified every chance they’ve had since joining the Bass Pro Tour, but only seven have fished all of them to date. Those names shouldn’t surprise bass fishing fans: Dustin Connell, Ott DeFoe, Brent Ehrler, Edwin Evers, Michael Neal, Andy Morgan, and Jacob Wheeler, who each have impressive resumes in professional championship-level events.
Dustin Connell
As a two-time REDCREST winner, Connell has already won 40% of them and can make it 50% with another win on Guntersville. Interestingly, his other two wins came in his home state of Alabama (Lake Eufaula in 2021 and Lay Lake in 2024), and he’ll have the chance to win again not far from home this year. Connell is no stranger to the winner’s circle and seems to have a knack for taking it to the next level when a championship is on the line. His other finishes in REDCREST haven’t been too shabby either, with a fourth, seventh, and 22nd on his ledger.
Ott DeFoe
Tennessee pro Ott DeFoe has been steady and consistently good for years, no matter what circuit he’s fished. The 2019 Bassmaster Classic winner has plenty of championship experience with four straight Forrest Wood Cup appearances (2007-2010), followed by eight straight Bassmaster Classics (2012-2019) in addition to his current REDCREST streak. His history at REDCREST includes two Top-10 finishes, but the rest have been middle-of-the-pack showings. DeFoe has been a little hit or miss, but nobody would be shocked if he won this event.
Brent Ehrler
Ehrler won the big one on his first try, securing the 2006 Forrest Wood Cup win on Alabama’s Logan Martin Lake. That’s been nearly 20 years, but Ehrler has continued to show up in championships, and he’s been very close to another win several times. He fished nine Forrest Wood Cups, and in addition to his win, he has a third, fourth, and seventh-place finish. Ehrler also fished four straight Bassmaster Classics between 2016 and 2019 and logged second- and third-place finishes. He shows up for the big game but hasn’t had the same results in REDCREST, with just one Top 10. Ehrler’s long overdue for his first Bass Pro Tour win, and this could be the year.
Edwin Evers
Evers, the winner of the inaugural REDCREST in 2019, also has a Bassmaster Classic and is still the only angler who can claim that. No stranger to winning tournaments, his REDCREST record has been excellent. Aside from a 48th-place showing last year, his other finishes besides the win were third, seventh, and 11th. His Bassmaster Classic record is just as impressive, with half of his 18 appearances resulting in an 11th or better. He appears to thrive in the big moment and looks to join Connell as the only other two-time REDCREST champion.
Michael Neal
In eight Forrest Wood Cup appearances and five REDCREST qualifications, Michael Neal has come very close to pulling off the win. He has a runner-up finish in both championships, to go with other solid finishes. He’s as consistent and versatile as they come, and Lake Guntersville shares some similarities to his home waters of Lake Chickamauga, which could be enough to propel him to the biggest win of his career.
Andy Morgan
Steady and consistently excellent are two easy ways to describe Morgan’s career. His lengthy career with FLW and now Major League Fishing includes too many accolades to name, but he’s always there in the points race at the end of the season. Take the Forrest Wood Cup, for instance; the event began in 1996, and Morgan was there. His last was in 2018; in between, Morgan competed in 20 of them, including 16 straight between 2003 and 2018. He’s picked up where he left off with the Bass Pro Tour and hasn’t missed a REDCREST. The only thing he hasn’t done is win a major championship, but this could be the year.
Jacob Wheeler
Since arriving at the professional level, Wheeler has been stellar. He was dominant on the FLW Tour and then the Bassmaster Elite Series during his time there before taking it to the next level on the Bass Pro Tour. Wheeler won a Forrest Wood Cup title in 2012 (the youngest ever to do it at 21 years old), but hasn’t won another championship since, though his finishes at these events have been remarkable.
He has five Top-10 finishes and a 12th in six Forrest Wood Cups. In just three Bassmaster Classic showings, he has a second, seventh, and 14th, and his REDCREST finishes have been just as eye-popping, with two third-place finishes, a fourth and a sixth, and a 19th. He’s a legitimate threat to win every event, and this year’s REDCREST is no exception.