Bass Pro Shops REDCREST Presented by MillerTech is nearly here, and the good news for Phoenix Fantasy Fishing players (and the anglers vying for the $300,000 top prize) is there are fewer anglers in the field than a regular-season tournament. Only 50 will take the waters of Lake Guntersville for MLF’s championship event.
The bad news? Those 50 names include some of the hottest, most accomplished anglers in the professional ranks, not to mention at least a dozen competitors who either live on Guntersville or have won there before. While that should make for a hotly contested title, whittling a Fantasy Fishing squad down to just 10 won’t be easy.
That, of course, is where we come in. Here’s everything you need to know to assemble a winning REDCREST roster.
Start with the studs
It doesn’t matter how good the competition is, a few anglers are simply operating on a higher level than their peers right now. Headlining that list are Jacob Wheeler and Drew Gill. Wheeler and Gill finished first and second, respectively, in the 2024 Fishing Clash Angler of the Year race on the Bass Pro Tour, and they’re back in those same positions through three events in 2025. Wheeler has made the Championship Round in all three BPT tournaments to start the season, while Gill hasn’t finished worse than 11th. In fact, Gill has been in the top 11 of all seven MLF events he’s fished so far in 2025 across BPT, Tackle Warehouse Invitationals and Toyota Series competition – plus he just edged Wheeler for a win on Lake Murray. Both anglers are looking for their first championship trophy, and I expect both to be firmly in the mix.
Also worthy of inclusion in this group are Dustin Connell and Alton Jones Jr., not only for their sustained Bass Pro Tour success but their track records at REDCREST. Connell is the defending champion and has won two of the five previous iterations of the event. Both of those victories came in his home state of Alabama, where the 2025 tournament will take place. Jones, meanwhile, has finished as the runner-up two years in a row. With 11 Top 10s since the start of the 2023 season, he’s a safe bet to be in contention again this time.
Another home-lake winner?
Each of the past two years, the REDCREST winner has been an angler competing on his home lake. With six members of the field residing on Guntersville and several more who live nearby, there’s a decent chance that trend continues.
Three Bass Pro Tour anglers who qualified for this event live on the lake (although, interestingly, all three originally lived elsewhere before moving to Guntersville) – Chris Lane, Justin Lucas and Jacob Wall. Lane has a Toyota Series win on the fishery to his credit, while Wall finished second when the BPT visited in 2023.
Additionally, three of the seven non-Bass Pro Tour anglers who qualified via the MLF5 ranks also happen to live nearby in Hayden Marbut, Andrew Nordbye and Jacob Walker. Marbut could be especially dangerous. The former Auburn standout won both a full-field Toyota Series event on Guntersville in February of 2024 as well as the Toyota Series Championship on Wheeler Lake (one lake down from Guntersville on the Tennessee River) last fall.
History on their side
Normally, we can run through just about every angler who has notched a Top-10 finish on a given fishery in this space. That’s virtually impossible for Guntersville, as the legendary lake has hosted 143 previous tournaments in MLF/FLW competition alone. Thus, the REDCREST field includes no shortage of anglers who have fared well on Guntersville.
Wheeler won the last Bass Pro Tour visit to the fishery in May 2023. Nick LeBrun won a Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit event the May prior. Skeet Reese has notched two Bassmaster Elite Series victories on Guntersville during his legendary career, one of which came in mid-April. Andy Morgan won a B.A.S.S. Open on Guntersville in 2005 in addition to Toyota Series and BFL victories on the fishery. Michael Neal has a pair of BFL triumphs there as well.
Other names to know
As the luck of alphabetization would have it, Flight 1 is insanely loaded – 12 of the 14 anglers mentioned so far in this piece are among those 25 anglers. So, here are a few more options to consider in Flight 2:
- Mark Davis: The 62-year-old has gotten off to an impressive start in 2025, finishing second at the Harris Chain and making the Knockout Round on Lake Murray. He’s currently fifth in the AOY standings. If this turns into a full-on spawn event with anglers pitching wacky worms and light Texas rigs around the shallows, it could suit his strengths perfectly.
- Jake Lawrence: There might not be anyone better at catching Tennessee River bass than Lawrence – and with two Top 10s in his first three BPT events, he’s proven he can catch them everywhere else, too. The timing of this event may not align perfectly with Lawrence’s electronics-based wheelhouse, but the Kentucky Lake native has surely spent plenty of time targeting largemouth on or near beds in his lifetime.
- Ron Nelson: Nelson is known as one of the best sight-fishermen in the game, and while he probably won’t be able to visually see the bedding bass on Guntersville, his knowledge of how to fool spawners could come in handy. He also finished third at REDCREST last year, so he won’t be afraid of the moment.