EUFAULA, Okla. – Starting the final day of Stop 5 Presented by K&N Filters in third place, Banks Shaw looked like the odds-on favorite to win. While Cal Lane and Drew Boggs had the edge by weight and place, environmental factors well outside their control didn’t look good. The deluge of rain on Day 2 affected all the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Presented by MillerTech pros, but Lane and Boggs were fishing shallow, well up a creek that rose higher and flowed faster by the minute.
On the main lake and fishing for more stable fish, Shaw didn’t have those same concerns. After sacking up 20 pounds, 6 ounces to jump into contention on Day 2, he followed up with an even 18 pounds on Day 3 for a 52-10 total and the win. Also walloping them on Day 3, Dylan Nutt moved up to finish second with 51-12 for the second event in a row, and Lane and Boggs fell to third and fourth, respectively.
For the win, which was his second Pro Circuit win of the season, Shaw pocketed $100,000. He also moved into the lead for 7 Brew Angler of the Year; and with a 13-point edge over Ryan Lachniet, he’ll look to go back-to-back. The winner of the Invitationals Angler of the Year in 2025, Shaw stands a great chance to close it out when the Pro Circuit regular season finishes up at Lake Champlain in July.
Shaw better every time out
In 2025, it was possible to find chinks in Shaw’s armor if you used a magnifying glass, and this year on the Bass Pro Tour he’s looked mortal several times. But fishing for five, especially when the fish are headed toward a summer pattern, Shaw is very hard to handle. This week at Eufaula (a lake he’d never fished before), he showed off all his skills yet again.
Shaw weighed two fish without the aid of forward-facing sonar: one on Day 1 and one big one on Day 3. He buoyed his weights with a shad spawn.
“I committed the entire (morning) to a shad spawn,” he said. “I was catching some good ones off a gizzard spawn. I committed to a Z-Man ChatterBait JackHammer Baby Jack in golden shiner, with a 4.25 Rapala CrushCity Freeloader in gizzard shad.
“It was isolated rockpiles; it seemed like if I could find rock in an area where there wasn’t a lot of rock, it was a guarantee,” he said. “I didn’t realize it was a gizzard shad spawn until the first day of the tournament – I caught them there really good the last day of practice. Then, the first day, gizzards were following me to the boat and bumping my ChatterBait pretty much every cast.”
Shaw and a lot of the other top anglers who ran a sonar-heavy game plan saved their three hours until later in the morning, or even the afternoon in some cases. It was the right strategy for the week, but it was also a little nerve-racking if the morning wasn’t going well.
“It was definitely a key player,” Shaw said. “I was able to catch a few fish each day to settle me down. This place changes so much; you can stumble and not catch a limit even when you’re around them.”
Once Shaw fired up his sonar, he fished brush in Longtown and near the dam, staying pretty deep on brush and using a 3/16-ounce VMC Redline Tungsten Swimbait Jighead with a 5 3/4-inch Rapala CrushCity Freeloader in green shad. He threw his minnow on a 6-foot, 10-inch, medium-light 13 Fishing Myth, with 8-pound-test Sufix 832 braid and a 14-pound-test Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon leader.
“I stayed out a little deeper than most guys,” Shaw said. “I caught some fish in 15 foot, but a lot of them were out in 20 foot – they weren’t even there in practice. I weighed eight fish over the last two days running new water.
“You could pull up to a brush pile and most people would see all the crappie and everything and not really see the bass. But if you slowed down and dissected everything, the bass would be sitting somewhere around them.”
Using his forward-facing sonar time later in the day was key for Shaw, but he also was able to gamble a little more effectively than some. All three days, he fished both Longtown and the Porum area during his sonar period.
“After fishing the BPT, a 20-minute run doesn’t bother me much anymore,” he said. “That’s what I did at Wheeler. I’ll take a gamble. A lot of guys think they need to stay in the same area, because three hours isn’t a lot. After fishing the BPT, having to catch so many in two and a half hours, if I know I could run a good ways and get around fish that are biting or not going to be pressured, I’m going to do it.”
Going for it all at Champlain
With three major wins under his belt already this year and three Top 10s on the BPT, he’s in the midst of another incredible year. In this one, after a tough Day 1, Shaw never laid up and got the win because of it.
“I feel a lot better now than I was feeling after the first day,” he said. “I made the call today to make a 20-minute run during my forward-facing period, and it definitely worked out. I ran way down the lake and I caught 4-pounder and a 3-pounder and definitely sealed the deal.”
He’s also pretty excited about what is next, and he’s already contemplating a pre-practice run up to Champlain.
“To be going into the next event in the lead for AOY with two wins under my belt already, the pressure is going to be on these guys,” he said. “They’re going to have to run me down. I’m going to be as consistent as I can be, and I love it up there. I couldn’t describe the feeling to go back-to-back for Angler of the Year, and to win two tournaments – it’d be pretty special.”
Top 10 pros
1. Banks Shaw – 52 – 10 (15) – $100,000
2. Dylan Nutt – 51 – 12 (15) – $23,000
3. Cal Lane – 51 – 7 (15) – $18,700
4. Drew Boggs – 50 – 10 (15) – $17,000
5. Drew Gill – 50 – 9 (15) – $16,100
6. Tripp Berlinsky – 49 – 7 (15) – $15,200
7. Ryan Lachniet – 48 – 14 (15) – $14,400
8. Riley Nielsen – 47 – 13 (15) – $13,500
9. Connor Jacob – 46 – 0 (15) – $12,600
10. Austin Pemberton – 45 – 12 (15) – $11,800