REDCREST 2021 : The “ Mystery Lake ” Concept is Alive and Well at Lake Palestine
By Joel Shangle
ILLUSTRATION BY MICHAEL ALLEN
S omewhere in Mingus , Texas there exists a yellow note pad with the words “ mystery lake ” jotted in the careful script of Hall of Fame angler Gary Klein . On the handwritten list – right below “ live scoring ,” “ catch , weigh , release ” and “ every legal fish counts ,” – the ideal of an unknown fishery was one of the tenets of Major League Fishing when Klein and a small group created the MLF framework in 2009 .
Fast forward to December of 2020 – when MLF announced that REDCREST 2021 ( the championship of the 2020 Bass Pro Tour season ) would move from Grand Lake O ’ the Cherokees , Oklahoma to a virtually unknown lake in east Texas – and it became clear that the mystery-lake concept is still alive and kicking .
Come Feb . 21-25 , when REDCREST is contested and the eventual winner claims a $ 300,000 payday and the secondever silver-and-red REDCREST trophy , the bass world will learn all it ’ ll ever need to know about Lake Palestine . Mysteries revealed .
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