Final 10 pros now set for Championship Sunday and final-day shootout for $300,000 top prize
SPRINGFIELD, Mo. (April 18, 2026) – Pro Zack Birge of Blanchard, Oklahoma, has elevated his game to a new level during the first half of the 2026 season. Long a consistent force on the Bass Pro Tour, the Oklahoma pro has notched three Top 10s and a win in the first four regular-season events of 2026, plus an NPFL victory.
He’s one more day on Table Rock Lake away from climbing into another stratosphere of stars at Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2026 Presented by Mercury & Lowrance.
Birge added 19 scorable bass for 47 pounds, 4 ounces on Saturday’s second day of qualifying. The second-best day of anyone on the water, that brought his two-day total to 102-6, which topped the leaderboard. Day 1 leader Drew Gill of Mount Carmel, Illinois, finished second with 91-5.
As a result, Birge will lead the Top 10 pros out of Long Creek Marina Sunday morning in the fight for the championship trophy. Weights will zero overnight, then Birge and the rest of an absolutely stacked Top 10 will duke it out in the Championship Round with $300,000 on the line.
Link to Photo Gallery: REDCREST action resumes on Table Rock Lake
Link to Photo Gallery: REDCREST rumble underway on Table Rock Lake
Link to Photo Gallery: REDCREST anglers rally for Championship Round qualification
Link to HD Video – Fish-Catch Highlights of REDCREST 2026 Day 2 on Table Rock Lake
After putting plenty of distance between himself and the Lucas Oil Cut Line on Day 1, Birge estimated he spent 90% of Saturday running new water. In fact, he spent the entire second half of the day in a different area, miles up the lake from where he fished Friday.
“After the forward-facing period, I fished one stretch that I caught some on yesterday, and that was it,” Birge said. “Everything else was new.”
That has Birge excited, not so much because he’s identified areas that he can return to but because he knows what to look for. He plans to spend much of the Championship Round running more new water in search of fresh fish.
“More than anything, just the fact that I can run around and keep fishing new stuff and continue to get bit,” he said of his takeaways from Saturday.
Like much of the field, Birge has been using his one allotted period with forward-facing sonar at the start of each day. During that time, he’s targeting groups of bait-chasing bass with a jighead minnow and a topwater before transitioning to shallower targets in the latter two periods. Predicting it’ll take at least 50 pounds to win, he thinks the biggest key will be finding flurries of scorable bites with his transducers turned off.
“All I have to do is pull into a few places like that where I caught a [3 ½-pounder], another one that was almost 3,” he said. “Little short pockets that you can fish fast and get three or four bites in each one of them is what we’re going to have to have tomorrow to have a shot at it.”
Birge’s game plan will be the same on Sunday. The biggest decision he’ll face is whether to fish in the area where he spent Day 1 or later in the day on Day 2. They’re far enough apart that he thinks running back and forth would waste too much time.
“They’re a long ways apart from each other, and time is crucial in this thing,” he explained. “So, it kind of sucks to have to make a run to get to a different area.”
Birge is no stranger to the Championship Round at REDCREST. This marks the fifth time in six appearances at the event that he’ll finish in the Top 10.
Coming into the event, his goal was simply to make the cut and give himself a shot at hoisting the trophy. Now that he’s cruised through the first two days, he hopes to continue riding the momentum from his stellar season to the biggest win of his career.
“All you can do is get there and then let the chips fall however they will,” he said. “The first order of business is getting to the last day. Once you’re there, you just dial in the best you can and then hope for a good outcome. Maybe this time is mine.”
Like Birge, pro Drew Gill’s reward for dominating the opening day of competition was the ability to spend all of Day 2 searching new water. While he knew he’d need to add a tad more weight to his total to avoid stressing about the cut line, he never revisited any of the areas that produced for him on Friday.
“When you start (the day) practicing, it gives you the ability to catch some practicing, where you never have to touch any of your good stuff,” the ever-strategic Gill explained. “What happens in a situation like this if you try to get comfort fish under you is you catch comfort fish, and then you catch practice fish, and then you caught the comfort fish for no reason.”
While checking out new areas, Gill added another 20-14 on eight scorable bass. More important, he found a new area where he thinks he stack up some weight in a hurry during his period with forward-facing sonar on Championship Sunday.
“I didn’t find anywhere that I’m like, ‘Oh man, this is like a barn-burner, incredible ‘Scope area,’” he said. “But to my existing ‘Scope area, I added another area that is equal to or slightly better than most of the other stuff I have.”
After utilizing forward-facing sonar in Period 1 for the second day in a row, Gill headed to the banks and spent the rest of the day throwing a glide bait. He used the big bait “purely as a search tool” to identify areas with aggressive bass that he can return to with finesse worms.
“Just for drawing power, trying to get some inquisitive bass to show themselves,” Gill said of the glide. “I ended up catching a couple on it unintentionally. Those were just ones that clobbered it so hard and so quickly that I couldn’t do anything about it.”
He found a few more promising spots, although he said the latter two periods will be more like a “milk run of different places and stretches,” whereas he hopes to spend his period with forward-facing sonar hunkered down in one or two areas.
Put those two patterns together, and Gill is optimistic he can hit the 60-pound mark during the Championship Round. Will that be enough to claim his first championship trophy against such a stout field? He’s not sure.
But, if he executes well enough to eclipse 60 pounds, Gill is content to let the chips fall where they may.
“I don’t know what to expect tomorrow,” he said. “I’m just going to go catch what I can catch. And whatever everybody else is catching is not going to determine at all what I do, because I prepared the entire week to fish my tournament in this manner, throwing a Senko down the bank for postspawn largemouth and fishing for spawning smallmouth. That is how I have done it so far, that is how I prepared, and those are the fish I got found and the fish I’m dancing with.”
The top 10 pros that now advance to Championship Sunday at REDCREST 2026 on Table Rock Lake are:
1st: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 43 bass, 102-6
2nd: Drew Gill, Mount Carmel, Ill., 37 bass, 91-5
3rd: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 34 bass, 86-15
4th: Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, 35 bass, 83-4
5th: Jeff Sprague, Wills Point, Texas, 33 bass, 82-10
6th: Mark Daniels Jr., Shorter, Ala., 32 bass, 82-5
7th: Takahiro Omori, Tokyo, Japan, 31 bass, 81-0
8th: Dustin Connell, Clanton, Ala., 34 bass, 80-8
9th: Jacob Wheeler, Birchwood, Tenn., 31 bass, 76-11
10th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., 31 bass, 72-7
Finishing in 11th through 35th place are:
11th: Brody Robison, Dawson, Ala., 29 bass, 72-7, $10,000
12th: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 27 bass, 68-3, $10,000
13th: Wesley Strader, Spring City, Tenn., 26 bass, 66-12, $10,000
14th: Cole Floyd, Leesburg, Ohio, 29 bass, 66-12, $10,000
15th: Matteo Turano, Puryear, Tenn., 27 bass, 66-10, $10,000
16th: Luca Della Ciana, Perugia, Italy, 27 bass, 66-4, $10,000
17th: Justin Cooper, Zwolle, La., 27 bass, 65-10, $10,000
18th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 26 bass, 64-4, $10,000
19th: Nick Hatfield, Afton, Tenn., 26 bass, 62-10, $10,000
20th: John Hunter, Shelbyville, Ky., 26 bass, 62-4, $10,000
21st: Ott DeFoe, Blaine, Tenn., 21 bass, 56-12, $5,000
22nd: Michael Neal, Dayton, Tenn., 22 bass, 53-10, $5,000
23rd: Edwin Evers, Talala, Okla., 22 bass, 53-4, $5,000
24th: Jacob Wall, New Hope, Ala., 20 bass, 52-11, $5,000
25th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., 20 bass, 49-12, $5,000
26th: Todd Faircloth, Jasper, Texas, 21 bass, 48-14, $5,000
27th: Steve Lopez, Oconomowoc, Wis., 18 bass, 46-4, $5,000
28th: Matt Becker, Ten Mile, Tenn., 18 bass, 40-10, $5,000
29th: Adrian Avena, Marmora, N.J., 17 bass, 39-13, $5,000
30th: Marshall Hughes, Hemphill, Texas, 16 bass, 38-7, $5,000
31st: Colby Miller, Elmer, La., 15 bass, 36-8, $5,000
32nd: Mark Davis, Mount Ida, Ark., 16 bass, 35-15, $5,000
33rd: James Elam, Cleveland, Okla., 13 bass, 30-10, $5,000
34th: Roger Fitzpatrick, Eldon, Mo., 12 bass, 30-4, $5,000
35th: Justin Lucas, Guntersville, Ala., 12 bass, 27-12, $5,000
Full results throughout the event will be posted at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
Overall, there were 421 scorable bass weighing 1,044 pounds, 11 ounces caught by the 35 pros on Day 2.
Newest Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inductee Takahiro Omori of Tokyo, Japan, won the Day 2 $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award on Saturday with a 4-pound, 15-ounce largemouth bass that he caught on a bladed swimjig in Period 1. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day of the tournament.
The full field of 35 anglers competed in the two-day Qualifying Round on Friday and Saturday. Now with the Qualifying Round complete, the top 10 pros – based on two-day cumulative weight – advance to Sunday’s Championship Round. In the final-day Championship Round, weights are zeroed, and the highest one-day total wins the top prize of $300,000.
The final 10 anglers will launch Sunday from Long Creek Marina, located at 1368 Long Creek Road in Ridgedale, Missouri, at 7:15 a.m. Fans are invited to attend all launch events and also encouraged to follow the event online throughout the day on the MLF NOW!® live stream and SCORETRACKER® coverage at MajorLeagueFishing.com.
The free, family-friendly MLF Outdoor Sports Expo will also take place throughout the weekend, April 17–19, at Bass Pro Shops, located at 1 Bass Pro Drive in Springfield, offering something for fans of all ages. Attendees can shop the latest in fishing, boating and outdoor gear, enjoy live seminars, meet Bass Pro Tour anglers and Bass Fishing Hall of Famers like Kevin VanDam, Skeet Reese, Gary Klein and Jimmy Houston, and snap photos with special guests Skye and Marshall from Paw Patrol. Kids 14 and under can score a free Shakespeare rod and reel presented by KY3 (first 200 each day, Saturday and Sunday), while MLF members can access exclusive giveaways, including autograph cards and free lures for the first 50 members daily. With hourly prizes and daily $500 Bass Pro Shops shopping sprees presented by KTTS, the Expo delivers nonstop action all weekend long.
The three-day event showcases the top 35 MLF anglers from 2025 – including the top 30 anglers from the Bass Pro Tour – competing for the prestigious REDCREST Championship and a total prize pool for more than $700,000.
The 2025 Bass Pro Tour featured a field of 66 of the top professional anglers in the world, competing across seven regular-season tournaments around the country, for millions of dollars and valuable points to finish in the top 30 and qualify for Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2026 Presented by Mercury and Lowrance. The field also features the 2025 Tackle Warehouse Invitationals Champion, 2025 Toyota Series Pro Division Champion and International Division Champion, 2025 All-American Boater Champion and the highest finishing member of the 2025 College Fishing National Championship team from the Toyota Series Championship.
The MLFNOW!® broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on Championship Sunday from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. CT. MLFNOW!®is livestreamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com, the MyOutdoorTV (MOTV) app and Rumble.
Television coverage of MLF’s Bass Pro Shops REDCREST 2026 Presented by Mercury and Lowrance at Table Rock Lake will premiere as a one-hour episode in December on CBS, immediately following an NFL game.