REDCREST Qualifying Round Day 1

How to Watch REDCREST 2025 Live

The MLFNOW! broadcast team of Chad McKee and J.T. Kenney will break down the extended action live on each day of competition (April 3-6) from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

MLFNOW! is live streamed on MajorLeagueFishing.com
For tournament weights and leaderboard check out SCORETRACKER

REDCREST Qualifying Day 1 Takeoff

The smell of boat gas and lake water. The kind of morning where your breath hangs just a second longer in the air, like it knows what’s coming. Day 1 of REDCREST at Lake Guntersville and you could feel it before the first cast the calm before the storm, the hum before the punch. Fifty of the best anglers on Earth pulling into Park like gladiators in wrapped fiberglass chariots. The mountain behind them catches fire with the sunrise. It’s beautiful. It’s deadly.

The forecast says twenty-mile-an-hour winds from the south. But not yet. Right now, there’s just a whisper on the surface. The water is stained in pollen Southern springtime confetti. Shallows are glassy. The temps are climbing past 64. Everything about the lake says it’s about to explode. And it does.

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REDCREST Qualifying Day 1 Period 2: Guntersville Has Teeth

It’s spawn season in Alabama, and the bass don’t know if they’re coming or going. Some are laid up in the beds like hungover saints. Others are roaming angry, aggressive, pre-spawn gluttons. It’s the kind of setup that turns good mornings into bloodbaths.

Justin Cooper comes out swinging. Thirteen bass. Thirty-seven pounds and four ounces. By 9:30 in the morning, he’s already got an 8-pound cushion over Jacob Walker, who’s hustling hard with nine fish for 28-07.

Guntersville doesn’t hand you anything you take it. And with 41 minutes left in the period, Walker goes full predator under a bridge. Two casts. Two fish. Bang, bang. The lead shrinks. It’s a knife fight now.

The sun’s a little higher. The lake’s heating up. The scoreboard’s bleeding numbers. This isn’t just fishing. It’s war in slow motion cast by cast.

And we’re only in Period One.

Qualifying – Day 1 - Period 1 Top 10

Qualifying – Day 1 – Period 2: The Midday Mayhem

Midway through Period 2, the SCORETRACKER is lit up like a switchboard during a prison riot. The numbers keep flipping, ticking, reminding every angler just how damn real this is. With an hour and forty-five left in the round, Justin Cooper’s still holding court with 14 fish for 40 pounds, 3 ounces. Right behind him, Jacob Walker’s breathing down his neck with 35-11 on 11 bass. Anthony Gagliardi’s in third with 30-08, and his 8 bass aren’t just numbers, they’re warnings.

This isn’t finesse fishing. This is jazz with treble hooks. The top ten are all riffing in different directions. Jigs. Worms. Rattletraps. Jerkbaits. Jighead minnows. Nothing’s dominating. No bait is gospel. The bass are picky little bastards today. Power fishing isn’t hitting like it should. Bladed jigs are getting the cold shoulder.

Some guys are leaning into the eelgrass, milking every edge and shadow. Others are chasing ghosts on offshore rock, tracking suspended fish that play hard to get. Everyone’s looking for rhythm in the chaos.

Justin Cooper? He’s grinning behind a crankbait and grinding through the grind. “I’m such a chuck-and-wind kind of guy,” he says, like he’s explaining a religion. And today, it’s working. The man’s not talking theory, he’s stacking weight. One cast at a time. One wakeup call for everyone chasing him.

REDCREST DAY 1 Period 2 Standings

Qualifying – Day 1 - Period 2 Top 10

Qualifying Day 1 Period 3: Chaos on the Clock

You could feel it in your gut before the numbers even flipped. The kind of madness that brews slow and silent, then kicks the door in with a grin.

SCORETRACKER? Lit up like a fuse box in a thunderstorm. With 41 minutes left, Jacob Walker goes full beast mode. Cast after cast, no hesitation. Nineteen scoreable bass. Fifty-eight pounds, thirteen ounces. The guy’s not fishing — he’s detonating.

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Right behind him, Ron Nelson makes his move. Out of the smoke and into second with 57-12 on seventeen bass. Calculated. Precise. Like a scalpel in a knife fight.

And then there’s Justin Cooper. The early king, riding high all morning. He came out swinging in Periods 1 and 2, looked untouchable. Fourteen fish in the first two frames. Nineteen total now. Fifty-four pounds, twelve ounces. Still deadly. Still swinging. But the crown’s slipping.

Guntersville doesn’t care who led the parade. She saves her best for the last dance. And in Period 3, the music got loud.

This isn’t sport. It’s combat with rod and reel.

Qualifying Day 1 Final Result

REDCREST Qualifying – Day 1 Top 10