Dustin Connell Wins REDCREST 2021!

Connell claims his 1st REDCREST

MLF PRESS RELEASE

Jerkbait and Live Sonar key to $300 000 victory.
(Photo: MLF)  

Some days out on the water, it’s like you can do no wrong. Googan Baits pro Dustin Connell had himself one of those days Friday.  Connell, of Clanton, Alabama, caught 12 fish weighing 36 pounds, 15 ounces, to win REDCREST 2021, the Bass Pro Tour championship and earn the top prize of $300,000 at Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Alabama. Connell grabbed the lead in the second period and never looked back, winning by a 5-pound, 11-ounce margin over second-place pro Michael Neal of Dayton, Tennessee, who caught 10 bass totaling 31 pounds, 4 ounces, good for $60,000.

“I still can’t believe this, I really can’t,” said an emotional Connell while on stage after being awarded the REDCREST trophy. “This is truly what dreams are made of. I look around and I see guys like Jacob (Wheeler), (Bryan) Thrift, Ott (DeFoe), and I am just so blessed to be fishing against these guys. It’s an honor just to be here and compete. To come out of here with a win, this is a dream come true.”

Connell’s quest to get to Championship Friday was not easy. On Monday, the first day of competition, Connell caught five bass totaling 15 pounds, 5 ounces to finish the day comfortably in 12th place. Tuesday, Connell only managed two bass and squeaked into the top 20 cut in 19th place to barely advance.

Bradley Dortch Wins 2017 Walmart FLW Tour Harris Chain with 72-09lbs!

JT Kenney 2nd with mega limit
by Rob Newell

FLW PRESS RELEASE

Rookie FLW Tour pro Bradley Dortch of Atmore, Ala., seems to have a knack for the postspawn time of year when bass are retreating off beds and headed “out” to their late spring haunts. Last May, Dortch won his first Costa FLW Series event on Lake Wheeler by putting himself in front of bass that were leaving beds due to rising temperatures and falling water.

Dortch surpasses Cox and Kenney with rattle bait.
(Photo: FLW)

Dortch used that same postspawn strategy during the FLW Tour event presented by Ranger on the Harris Chain to take home his first Tour win Sunday with a five-bass final day limit of 22 pounds, 2 ounces that pushed his four-day total to 73 pounds, 9 ounces, good for a 1-pound, 13-ounce margin of victory over runner-up JT Kenney.

“I don’t know what to say, this is crazy,” Dortch says. “This is something I’ve been dreaming and working toward for years. It’s a dream come true – I can’t even believe I won it.”

After an unseasonably warm winter where Harris Chain bass got a head start on the reproductive process, the FLW Tour arrived just in time to catch the tail end of the spawn. While others took the headlines early in the event by sight-fishing, Dortch bet that the postspawn train would be coming down the track if he just waited them out at stations located on the outsides.