Major League Fishing Champion Crowned After 5-Day Competition On Grand Lake

Major League Fishing has crowned a new champion, wrapping up its 5-day REDCREST Championship on Grand Lake.

Bobby Lane from Lakeland, Florida earned Major League Fishing's coveted REDCREST Champion title and the $300,000 prize.

“This whole week has been the biggest defining moment of my whole, entire career,” Lane said, "Nothing has felt sweeter in my life… to win a huge event like this, on this stage in the last nail-biting minutes was awesome."

Lane battled back in the third and final period where he made a big catch to put him closer to the top spot.

"Are you kidding me? On the championship day I can't find a 6-pound 3-ounce bass,” said Lane.

Then with two minutes left in the day, a 2-pound bass put him in the lead.

"I weigh it twice, it didn't weigh… reweighed it for the final and third weigh and it went 2-1 to 2 even and it locked in at 2 pounds and it doesn't get any better than that,” Lane said.

Lane’s wife and three children were watching back in Tulsa and as soon as he found out he’d officially won, he had a message for them from his boat on Grand Lake.

"Madeline, I love you. Kids, your dad is the REDCREST Champion," Lane said throwing his hands in the air.

2019's champion and Oklahoma's Own Edwin Evers finished 7th.

“It's a tough pill to swallow, but I'm super happy for Bobby and hopefully we can have another on here again and we can make amends for it,” said Evers.

The day started strong for Evers. He led much of the second period, but then the fish just stopped biting for him, even though he could see them with his forward-facing sonar.

“The fish I was seeing were big ones. I could see 'em, they'd follow [the bait] out, they'd look at it, so it just kept me thinking, we'll just find the next brush pile and they'll be active and just kept moving,” Evers said. “I’m fiercely competitive and you always second-guess the mistakes that you make and what you could have done differently, and I will be doing that for a while.”

Zack Birge from Blanchard caught most of his weight in the third period where he edged out Evers and finished in the 6th spot.

“I made some bad choices early in the day and finally made a good one in the end, I just felt like I needed another hour,” said Birge. “Obviously, we all want to win, but I’m just happy to be here to be able to fish this event in our home state of Oklahoma, so finishing 6th place, no complaints at all,”

And while it was a tense day on the water, it was nothing but live music, fun and games for the fans in Tulsa. The MLF rolled out the red carpet for fans in its first-ever Outdoor Sports Expo and the fans stopped by in huge numbers with tens of thousands of people checking out the world-class event.

"Love it, love it, absolutely love it," said Terry Griffin from Broken Arrow. “Every day I've been here. Friday, Saturday and Sunday. "

The Oklahoma anglers didn’t walk away empty-handed. Evers won $18,000 and Birge went home with $20,000.