LIVE BLOG: Edwin Evers Wins the Inaugural REDCREST

LA CROSSE, Wis. – It all comes down to this. Every fish catch, every weigh-in, every penalty has led to this moment: the Championship Round of REDCREST Presented by Venmo. We’ve gone from 30 of the best anglers from the 2019 season to now the final 10. A change for the anglers is in store today as they look to attack Pool 7 on the Upper Mississippi River, the first time they will have put lines in the water on this body of water this week. The weather is perfect, the sun is shining and hopefully, the fish are biting. The battle for $300,000 and a championship is on now.

3:00 p.m. CT – The inevitable is now a reality: Edwin Evers is the 2019 REDCREST Champion with 85 pounds, 6 ounces of bass. He beats out Greg Hackney by more than 44 pounds and caught nearly double the fish. Just a reminder of the magical season for Evers: a Stage Two champion, Points Champion, and now, REDCREST Champion. He now has won $493,600 this season on the Bass Pro Tour. Congratulations to Edwin on a truly historic season.

2:14 p.m. CT – I’m calling it. It’s over. Edwin Evers is going to win REDCREST and $300,000. His MLF Official can’t even put the fish catches in SCORETRACKER® because Edwin is catching them so quickly. In a span of about 15 minutes, he found a spot where he was able to catch one on every single cast. It’s a wrap on Pool 7, folks.

1:26 p.m. CT – Edwin Evers stays in the lead and has jumped out to 16 pounds in front of Greg Hackney. I’m not a betting man, but if I were, Edwin Evers would be my pick to take this thing home. Unless Hackney can find himself a school, and quickly, it will be a perfect ending for Evers’ spectacular year.

12:09 p.m. CT – Evers is flirting with pushing his lead back to 10 pounds. Evers has found something that is working for him over the final 45 minutes of Period 2. Rob Newell said that he is back in an area that they can’t get to, so it remains to be seen if Evers will be able to get out of the area he is fishing.
-Mason Prince

11:37 a.m. CT – Edwin Evers just caught his first scoreable bass in over an hour and a half. It was barely scoreable–weighing in a 1 pound even–but he’ll take it at this point with Hackney closing in. His double-digit lead has been erased as he tries to give himself a little more cushion from Greg Hackney.
-Mason Prince

11:21 a.m. CT – We are close to Hackney and he might as well be at home in Louisiana. This place is not what you think of when you think of the Midwest. He’s making a run at this tournament, too.
-Tyler Brinks

11:03 a.m. CT – Greg Hackney is in hot pursuit of Evers. The Louisiana pro caught a 3-pounder to get cut his weight deficit to single digits. Hackney is now 7-4 behind Evers and we have ourselves a ball game.
-Mason Prince

10:35 a.m. CT – Fred Roumbanis is DEEP in the grass. Matted grass and lily pads everywhere. If you could pick the perfect place to throw a frog, this would be it. We’re also playing hide-and-seek with Hackney. He’s in a vast grass field and when we think we are getting close and he’s moving on.
-Tyler Brinks

10:26 a.m. CT – Brandon Palaniuk has started to slow down after he went on a tear at the end of Period 1. He was fishing matted grass flats with a frog and punching. Those bites stopped at the tail end of Period 1 and he hasn’t had any luck with that strategy in Period 2. The Idaho pro is switching over to a vibrating jig in submerged grass, something that worked well for him this morning as well.
-Jesse Schultz

9:55 a.m. CT – As Period 2 begins we see Edwin Evers set up on the north end of Pool 7 at Third Lake. Greg Hackney is trying to catch up to Evers by fishing some sloughs near Lake Onalaska.
-Mason Prince

9:30 a.m. CT – At the end of Period 1 it’s Edwin Evers’ trophy to lose. The Oklahoma pro is up on Greg Hackney by more than 12 pounds and more than 17 pounds up on Brandon Palaniuk. It would be quite fitting if Evers was able to win the biggest event of the year given his historic season. But Hackney and the rest of the field won’t be giving up that easy.
-Mason Prince

9:06 a.m. CT – We’ve made our way back to a broad grass-flat area near the ramp, where we have an interesting gathering of anglers: Iaconelli is here, as are Palaniuk, Ramoubanis … and now Birge joins the party. We’ll see how this all develops.
–Tyler Brinks

8:55 a.m. CT – Michael Neal has gotten off to a slow start this morning, but is currently working down a bank in the main river, fishing very quickly with a reaction bait. He just dipped into a narrow backwater, so we decided against pursuing him. On to the next guy.
-Tyler Brinks

8:36 a.m. CT – Greg Vinson has been in the same area all morning near a small marina off the main river. He has been working a topwater bait near the docks but wasn’t seeing much success. Vinson turned his focus to some riprap in the same area and was able to catch one on a shaky head. He followed that up by promptly losing a 2-pounder on a topwater and he was not happy about that at all. Frustration seems to be setting in for Vinson.
-Jesse Schultz

8:02 a.m. CT – Finally weaved our way to Birge, who’s fishing the back side of Dresbach Island. He’s caught three today: interesting that they’re all smallmouth.
-Tyler Brinks

7:53 a.m. CT – Here comes Brandon Palaniuk and he’s coming in hot. For the first 40 minutes of the day Palaniuk did not have a bass on the board, but in the last 10 minutes he’s landed five for 10-5. He’s on the chase for Edwin Evers and it looks like he might catch up to him before too long if he keeps catching them like he is.
-Mason Prince

7:40 a.m. CT – It’s going to be a long day of weaving through the shallow sloughs of Pool 7 in search of our final 10. We’re currently trying to navigate the maze to get to Zack Birge. Sounds like the other MLF photo and blogger boats are enjoying the same experience trying to get to Evers, etc. We feel your pain, boys!
-Tyler Brinks

7:18 a.m. CT – Evers is in a little dead-end slough with no current. The slough is located between Third Lake and Round Lake on the north end of Pool 7 as he continues to catch them on his vibrating jig. MLF photographer Jesse Schultz tried to make it back to Evers early this morning but he found it near impossible. We aren’t quite sure how Evers got back in that area, but however he did it might not be easy to get out.
-Mason Prince

7:14 a.m. CT – One thing that the other nine anglers definitely don’t want to hear is that Edwin Evers has figured something out early. The 2019 Points Champion has caught six bass for 7-12, all of which have been largemouth. It was mentioned on the MLF NOW! live stream that Edwin has found some schooling fish in a ditch. He’s been able to catch them all with a white vibrating jig as he is now 4-8 ahead of Zack Birge.
-Mason Prince

7:07 a.m. CT – Zack Birge is out to an early lead with two fish for 3 pounds, 4 ounces. He caught a 1-1 followed by a 2-3 to get out to a head start. Both fish were smallmouth and he used a topwater bait to get those bites. Birge was solid all week long on Pool 8, but we’ll see what kind of luck Pool 7 brings the Oklahoma angler.
-Mason Prince

7:04 a.m. CT – I started my morning following Michael Neal and the Tennessee pro has done some traveling this morning. He started on the south side of the pool then worked his way all the way up to the north side before heading south again. I haven’t been able to talk to him, but it looks like there might have been some of pros in the areas he wanted to start out in.
-Jesse Schultz