Banks Shaw Wins MLF BPT Stage Six - Grand Lake
Shop Shaw's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Shaw turned in one of the greatest last-minute rallies in Bass Pro Tour history to secure his first win in his rookie year. The noted offshore expert was all in on that approach from the first day of practice and spent all his time scanning and looking for schools. He caught fish with traditional offshore baits like deep crankbaits, football jigs and a Carolina rig, but the jighead minnow was also very important, especially on the final day. Banks started off during the week catching them on a Rapala DT 20 in disco shad, as the schools got more pressured, he went with a 3/4-ounce football jig with a CrushCity Cleanup Craw on the back and used that same bait on a Carolina rig.
He saved his forward-facing sonar for the final period each day. Then he went with a host of minnow baits, including a 5.25-inch CrushCity Freeloader, and fished them on a 3/16-ounce VMC RedLine Tungsten Swimbait ballhead.
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MLF Bass Pro Tour - Stage 6 - Top 10
2nd Place - Dustin Connell - 74lb - 2oz (28) - $45,000
If not for Shaw's last-minute heroics, Dustin Connell would have another trophy to take home to Alabama. Like others in the field, he mixed things up in both shallow and deep water depending on the day and other factors.
Dustin caught some key fish flipping with the new CrushCity creature bait called the Knuckle Bug that's coming out at ICAST. He went shallow the final day, and was able to catch them quick on a white, 3/8-ounce VMC Heavy Duty Swim Jig with a CrushCity Cleanup Craw on the back.
When fishing offshore earlier in the week, he went with a crankbait - both a Rapala DT6 and D10 - and caught several on a soon-to-be-released urchin bait from CrushCity called the CEO.
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3rd Place - Zack Birge - 64lb - 5oz (21) - $35,000
Fishing in his home state, Zack Birge stayed red hot, making his fifth Top 10 of the season in six events. His approach to Grand Lake was simple - fishing shallow because of the higher water levels.
Birge caught fish flipping a creature bait while also mixing in a 3/8-ounce Hag's Hurricane bladed jig in sexy shad and a Hag's Jive Talker rattling popping frog in bone. He flipped and frogged with an Alpha Angler Zilla rod, a high-speed reel and 30-pound Yo-Zuri SuperBraid. For his vibrating jig, he opted for an Alpha Angler Mag-Rebound, a high-speed reel and 20-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon line.
4th Place - Alton Jones Jr - 55lb - 5oz (20) - $30,000
It was a split week for Texas pro Alton Jones Jr., as he spent each morning shallow up the lake and then ran down toward the dam and fished offshore during the latter part of each day. Both strategies were key to him securing his best finish of 2026.
The first half of the day, Alton went shallow and primarily threw a white, 1/2-ounce Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer ChatterBait, with a Geecrack Bellows Vibe on the back. He also caught a couple of fish every day flipping using a Geecrack Bellows Shad, both white and green pumpkin depending on the time of day.
After moving locations and going deeper, a variety of baits produced - a big crankbait and a Carolina rig with a Bellows Shad, Jones also caught quite a few during his 'Scope period with a minnow each day.
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Z-Man Evergreen Chatterbait Jack Hammer
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5th Place - Bobby Lane - 46lb - 2oz (18) - $25,000
Making his first trip to Grand Lake since his REDCREST win in 2022, Bobby Lane was able to secure another great finish and spoke highly of the fishing this week.
Bobby kept it simple this week with a few fish on a spinnerbait, a handful on a Berkley Swamp Lord frog, but everything else was flipping a Berkley PowerBait Pit Boss with a 1/2-ounce Epic Tungsten weight.
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Berkley Power Blade Double Willow Spinnerbaits
White Chart DBL Wil Slv/Gld 3/8
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6th Place - Jake Lawrence - 31lb - 4oz (11) - $23,000
After a slow start to the season by Jake Lawrence's standards, he was able to get his first regular-season Top 10 of the year. He started strong on Grand Lake and topped SCORETRACKER through two days, earning the automatic bid to the Championship Round.
Lawrence used a Carolina rig with a creature bait and a 6-inch Yamamoto Hinge Minnow in green gizzard shad on a jighead.
7th Place - Spencer Shuffield - 28lb -1oz (10) - $22,000
Spencer Shuffield continued his solid success this year, catching them in a variety of ways on Grand. Everything from flipping and frogging the bushes to deep cranking and Carolina rigs played a role in his finish. He also caught fish with a jighead minnow using forward-facing sonar.
Spencer caught about half of his fish on a Carolina rig with a 3/4-ounce Ark Tungsten cylinder weight and a Z-Man Gremlin creature bait in green pumpkin, using 20-pound Yo-Zuri T7 fluorocarbon. He also caught quite a few fish in the bushes and willow trees flipping and throwing a frog.
On the second day, during his 'Scope period, Shuffield used a 6-inch Z-Man Jerk ShadZ in smelt. Then, during the Knockout Round, he got onto a flurry at the very end of the day with a Yo-Zuri 3DB Series deep crankbait in matte gizzard, helping he get into the Championship Round.
8th Place - Ron Nelson - 27lb - 8oz (10) - $21,000
Ron Nelson also mixed it up, utilizing both a shallow water flipping approach and hitting an offshore point with moving baits. It paid off as he won the Knockout Round, but things changed on the final day with a wind shift hurting his deeper fish.
Ron started out each day flipping a Reaction Innovations Sweet Beaver around the bushes in Wolf Creek. He use any dark color he had, using a 3/8- or 1/2-ounce weight, depending on how much wind there was, Nelson bumped up to 30-pound Sunline Shooter because he felt like that was his best chance to land the fish in the bushes.
When fishing for schooling fish on what he described as a flat point, Nelson caught fish on a host of baits, including a Carolina rig, a crankbait, a vibrating jig and an urchin-style bait.
9th Place - Keith Carson - 24lb - 7oz (8) - $20,500
Florida's Keith Carson notched his second Top 10 finish of the season, and he did it by staying within sight of the Wolf Creek boat ramp.
The first day, Keith started off flipping bushes with a Berkley PowerBait MaxScent Stank Bug in black and blue, but then the water dropped, and he had to switch it up.
With the lowering water levels, Carson stuck to the same areas but focused slightly deeper and went with a crankbait to make the Knockout and Championship rounds. His bait of choice was a Berkley Frittside 5 in black chartreuse.
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10th Place - Brent Ehrler - 20lb - 11oz (8) - $20,000
Brent Ehrler notched yet another Top 10 on the Bass Pro Tour, and he did it all shallow even though he did his best to find deeper schools of fish. He gave the deep bite a fair shot the first day before pulling the plug.
After trying to catch them deep, Ehrler ran back up the lake and started flipping with a Yamamoto Flappin' Hog and Yamamoto Senko.
Among his best lures in the later days of the event were a frog, a Lucky Craft 1.5 squarebill and a Lucky Craft BDS3. But a 1/2-ounce, white Z-Man Evergreen Jack Hammer ChatterBait with a Yamamoto Zako on the back was his top performer.
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Z-Man Evergreen Chatterbait Jack Hammer
White 1/2oz
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