2 .
ROUNDING OUT THE REDCREST TOP 10
MICHAEL NEAL
DAYTON , TN
CHAMPIONSHIP WEIGHT 31-4
PHOTO BY GARRICK DIXON PHOTO BY PHOENIX MOORE PHOTO BY JOSH GASSMANN
For most of the competition week at REDCREST 2021 , it was hard to shake the feeling that Michael Neal was the Silky Sullivan of the 40-man field . Neal pulled off come-from-behind flurries in the waning minutes of both the Qualifying Round and the Knockout Round to work his way into his second REDCREST Championship Round in two tries ( he finished 10th at the championship event in 2019 ).
The Tennessee pro landed a 3-pound , 4-ounce largemouth as time expired on Day 2 , propelling him from 23rd to 20th and bouncing Fletcher Shryock from the tournament . He repeated those heroics in the Knockout Round , landing a 3-11 as time expired to catapult him into the final round .
And it looked like Neal might do it again on the final day as he strung together a 12-pound flurry in the final 90 minutes to make Dustin Connell sweat before finally finishing second .
3 .
If you were allowed to choose your All-Star team for Lake Eufaula , you ’ d be a fool not to choose Jacob Wheeler as one of your starters . Not only is Wheeler the undisputed No . 1 angler in the world – he ’ s owned the top spot in the Bassfan World Rankings for two years now – but he put on a brushpile-fishing clinic when the Bass Pro Tour arrived on Eufaula for the first tournament of the 2020 season . Wheeler won that event going away , besting Bryan Thrift by more than 28 pounds .
Wheeler lurked in the weeds the first two days of REDCREST , finishing the qualifying rounds in 15th place with 26-4 , alternating between a jig and a jerkbait . He slipped easily into the Championship Round with 15-2 in the Knockout Round , and then jockeyed for the lead throughout the morning on the final day ( thanks partly to a 5-pounder ). He would eventually finish the day out in third place – he ’ s finished in the top 10 an astounding six times in his last eight tour-level tournaments .
4 .
JACOB WHEELER
HARRISON , TN
CHAMPIONSHIP WEIGHT 25-6
ZACK BIRGE
BLANCHARD , OK
CHAMPIONSHIP WEIGHT 24-1
Zack Birge made no bones about his disappointment that REDCREST 2021 was originally moved from his home waters in Grand Lake , Oklahoma . He was further put out when a late-winter deep freeze shifted the venue again to Lake Eufaula . But Birge handled the move just fine , notching his second REDCRET top 10 in two tries .
The Lowrance pro was on the ActiveTarget train from the get-go , spending the entirety of his tournament throwing a 3 / 4-ounce spinnerbait and swim jig around isolated brushpiles on the lower end of Eufaula . Birge homed in on fish that were positioned above the brushpiles – “ Those were the most willing to bite ,” he said – and hovered in the top three all week ( comfortably winning his group ’ s Knockout Round with eight fish for 25-14 ).
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