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REDCREST 2025 kicks off tomorrow morning on iconic Lake Guntersville in Alabama, which may arguably be the tournament fishing capital of the world.  Fifty of the world’s best bass anglers qualified to be here and one of them will take home Major League Fishing’s top prize and $300K by Sunday afternoon.

Nearly every angler competing in the Bass Pro Shops REDCREST presented by MillerTech has history with Guntersville in some capacity, as it is one of the premier tournament lakes in the country and is hallowed water for bass fishermen.

But with the unique format of the Bass Pro Tour including every-fish-counting towards an anglers’ total weight, competitors only being afforded use of forward-facing sonar (FFS) during one period each competition day, and a live leaderboard in play it makes this event on a familiar fishery feel brand-new.

We caught up with two Toyota Bonus Bucks members and REDCREST veterans, Justin Lucas and Ott DeFoe, to pick their brains on Guntersville before competition begins for the biggest tournament of their season.

Q – What are three lures or techniques you think will play a major factor this week?

Lucas – “Soft plastics will play a huge role in this event in my opinion. Texas-rigs, Carolina rigs, and dropshots will all catch fish. I know I’ll be giving a Berkley MaxScent General a workout. A vibrating jig, especially in the wind, could be a good power fishing bet. Lastly a swimbait, if you can effectively work it through the eelgrass.”

DeFoe – “Sight fishing will definitely play a role in some capacity. I don’t know how big a factor it (sight fishing) will be, but there are some fish up spawning. Given the wind in the forecast, I think a crankbait will play a big role. I’m hoping for that anyway. And then you know they are going to catch them scoping with a jighead minnow somewhere or another. These guys are too good, they’ve proven FFS always will be a factor.”

 

Q – What is your goal weight each competition day? What is the target weight to make the Knockout Round?

Lucas – “I would love to have 45-lbs per day, for the first three days, and then I think you’d need 60 to 80-lbs to win it on Sunday. I think closer to 80-lbs for the first two days would qualify you to fish the Knockout Round, but I’m shooting for 90-lbs to be safe.”

DeFoe – “I would love to catch 40-lbs per day. I think 80-lbs for the first two days will have you safely in the Knockout Round. Maybe even closer to 72-75-lbs could qualify you to fish on Saturday. I hope I’m high on that, but these guys always catch ‘em.”

 

Q – Do you remember the first time you came to the famed Lake Guntersville? What has been the biggest change in the fishery since then?

Lucas – “I’ll never forget the first time I came to Guntersville. It was February of 2009, and I came with Stetson Blaylock as a co-angler on the FLW Tour. We came over the mountain here in Huntsville and drove down to the lake around Honeycomb creek and I just fell in love with it. I told him before we ever fished, if the fishing was good, I was going to move here from California. Well, the fishing was phenomenal, and I moved not long after.

“The biggest change is the presence and distribution of eelgrass in the lake. It’s everywhere now which just didn’t use to be the case.”

DeFoe – “The first time I ever fished a tournament on Guntersville I was 17 years old and I fished a BFL in March. I caught like 13-lbs cranking riprap, but my biggest one came on a lipless crankbait out of grass. It was the first check I ever cut in a BFL… I remember it like it was yesterday.

“Honestly, I don’t think the lake has changed that much. It was full of grass then, just like it is now, and it has always gotten hammered with fishing pressure. It’s still Guntersville and big ones have always lived here!”

 

Q – Toyota Bonus Bucks upped their payouts for REDCREST 2025 to $10,000 to the highest finisher, $5,000 for the second highest placing Toyota driver, and $3,000 to the third highest. If you were to collect the $10,000 Bonus Bucks check from Toyota this week, what will you spend that money on?

Lucas – “My seven-year-old son really wants a pet scorpion. One of the big ones, like a 6-incher. I made a deal with him that if I get a top 10, I’ll get him his scorpion, so that’s what I’d spend the Bonus Bucks on…. He’s already made the terrarium for it and everything, with an extra, heavy rock for the lid because that thing is not coming out of that tank around me.”

DeFoe – “If I get to take that Bonus Bucks check home I’ll take my wife Jennie on a vacation. That’s always a good way to spend some money and keep momma happy.”