By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Bobby Lane's official margin of victory at the REDCREST Championship was a pound and 3 ounces. He really won by just a single ounce, though, and he had to endure some serious angst to get it.

The veteran pro flipped up a fish from a dock on Oklahoma's Grand Lake with 3 minutes remaining in the final period to take over the lead from Jacob Wheeler, the No. 1 angler in the BassFan World Rankings. It initially weighed 1-15 – an ounce shy of being scorable – and registered the same number on the first of two permissible re-weighs.

It hit the magic 2-00 mark the third time it was clipped to the boat official's portable scale, however, and a couple of minutes later, the affable Floridian, who turned 48 earlier this month, had the biggest victory of his career and $300,000 payday.

He joined his younger brother Chris, winner of the 2012 Bassmaster Classic, as a major championship titlist.

"I feel the best I've ever felt in my life for winning an event," he said a couple of hours later. "This is the big dog – it's no (MLF) Cup or (Bassmaster) Open or Toyota Series. This is the real deal and it further solidifies the Lane name in the sport."

He finished with 29-14 on 10 fish. Luke Clausen, who also surpassed Wheeler in the closing minutes, ended up second with 28-11 on eight scorables. Clausen, the 2004 Forrest Wood Cup champion and '06 Bassmaster Classic winner, was bidding to become the first angler with championship victories on three different tour-level circuits.

Wheeler also caught eight fish to finish 3rd with 28-04 – his eighth straight Top-10 finish in Bass Pro Tour competition. His good pal and 2021 REDCREST winner Dustin Connell was 4th with 25-14 (10 fish) and Andy Montgomery was 5th with 24-02 on just 6 legal catches.

The bottom half of the Top 10 consisted of Zack Birge with 21-09 (8 fish), Edwin Evers with 16-13 (4), Jordan Lee with 16-12 (6), Bryan Thrift with 15-06 (6) and Michael Neal with 12-05 (5).

Lane caught two fish in the first 2 1/2-hour period on the Berkley Frittside crankbait in the HD brown craw color that had been his mainstay throughout the tournament and added two more in the second after he'd switched to a flipping program with a jig and a Berkley PowerBait Meaty Chunk trailer. He was 11 pounds out of the lead when the final period got under way.

He caught six fish for 19-08 in the closing period, including a 6-03 bruiser that took big-bass honors for the day. However, it was the final fish – less than one-third that weight – that pushed him to the top of the leaderboard.

The moments when that fish was being weighed – and coming up short twice – were agonizing for him.

"I was thinking that it wasn't meant to be," he said. "I was gonna be an ounce shy again. When the scale finally went to 2 pounds, that meant it was Bobby Lane's turn to win."

His most recent significant victory was the 2017 MLF World Championship in Nacogdoches, Texas, when the league was still just a 24-angler affair staging made-for-TV, delayed-broadcast competitions. Prior to that, his lone tour-level triumph was in a 2009 Bassmaster Elite Series event at Kentucky Lake.

He had a strong two-tour campaign in 2021, finishing 10th in the final BPT points standings and 16th on the MLF Pro Circuit. This year hadn't been quite as good, as he sits in 59th and 39th, respectively.

The defeat was stinging for Clausen, but he was quick to point out that Lane had helped him win the '06 Classic, showing him many of the intricacies of Florida's Lake Toho during pre-practice.

"He was instrumental for me back then and I couldn't be more happy for him," Clausen said. "Maybe this was a little bit of karmic justice."

He thought he'd taken the lead when he caught a 4-02 in the final 2 minutes, but Lane's final catch had not yet registered on ScoreTracker and he was unaware that he had another 2 pounds to make up.

"It still hurts a lot," he said, referencing his chance for a third major title on different circuits. "It's going to be hard for anybody to ever do that again and it was a big opportunity to do something that hasn't been done."

Wheeler also came up one bite short of his second major victory – he won the 2012 FLW Cup at Lake Lanier.

"I did everything I could," he said. "On the last cast, I could see a 3-pounder following my jerkbait (on his depthfinder). If that fish bites, that's the game.

"When I took the lead with an hour left, I felt like I needed two more fish or a 5-pounder. It turned out that I only needed one. I lost a couple of good ones and caught a couple of good ones during the day.

"At the end of the day, you've got to take the good with the bad."



Championship Round

(Figure at far right indicates weight of angler's heaviest fish for the round)

1. Bobby Lane -- 29-14 (10) -- 6-03 -- $300,000

2. Luke Clausen -- 28-11 (8) -- 5-15 - $50,000

3. Jacob Wheeler -- 28-04 (8) -- 5-02 -- $40,000

4. Dustin Connell -- 25-14 (10) -- 3-08 -- $28,000

5. Andy Montgomery -- 24-02 (6) -- 4-14 -- $25,000

6. Zack Birge -- 21-09 (8) -- 3-10 -- $20,000

7. Edwin Evers -- 16-13 (4) -- 5-12 -- $18,000

8. Jordan Lee -- 16-12 (6) -- 3-09 -- $16,000

9. Bryan Thrift -- 15-05 (6) -- 3-07 -- $14,500

10. Michael Neal -- 12-05 (5) -- 2-14 -- $12,500