GROVE, Okla. (June 21, 2026) – Virtually the entire Championship Round tournament on Grand Lake looked like a duel between Zack Birge and Dustin Connell , with Banks Shaw among the also-rans. Birge and Connell distanced themselves from the rest of the pack early and built an advantage of more than 20 pounds over the rest of their competition entering the third period. The two multi-time Bass Pro Tour winners swapped the top spot as they traded blows, with one of the two leading from the second minute after lines in until 16 minutes before lines out. Then Shaw swooped in and stole the show, the trophy and the $125,000 paycheck that comes with it.
Putting together perhaps the best final period in Bass Pro Tour history, the 22-year-old phenom roared back from a nearly 30-pound deficit to claim his first BPT win going away. Shaw totaled 82 pounds, 15 ounces on 28 scorable bass to top Connell by 8-13. That earned the Tennessee pro his fourth MLF win of 2026 and the biggest triumph of his young career.
Change was the theme throughout this rare summertime visit to Grand. Anglers launched on Day 1 to find the lake more than 3 feet above full pool, and as the water dropped, the current, clarity and fish positioning all fluctuated.
As a result, everything from flipping flooded bushes to winding around water willow to cranking at all depths produced big days. But through it all, Shaw stuck to his gameplan running offshore schools.
Having grown up on Lake Chickamauga and spent hundreds of days on Lake Pickwick while attending the University of North Alabama, fishing for offshore groups during summer is right up Shaw’s alley. So, once he found a school early during practice, he went all-in, spending the rest of the two practice days scanning for more.
“I found one pretty quick into practice and based off how that school looked and what I caught, I knew that was 100% going to be the deal if I found more of them,” Shaw said. “And I just fully committed to it.”
Shaw used his offshore acumen to cruise through the first three days of competition. His bait arsenal included a Rapala DT 20 and a ¾-ounce football jig with a Rapala CrushCity Cleanup Craw as a trailer without forward-facing sonar, then a 3/16-ounce VMC RedLine tungsten ballhead with a medley of minnows (including a 5.25-inch CrushCity Freeloader) with the technology. He racked up 74-15 on Day 1, which gave him time to scout for more schools on Day 2. He then finished second in the Knockout Round, just a few ounces back of Ron Nelson.
Several other anglers who fished offshore started the event strong before ultimately faltering. Shaw believes the fact that he spent his entire practice plus some bonus time he earned himself during the Qualifying Round searching offshore gave him the ammo he needed to withstand the changing conditions.
“It just changed day by day on the places I had,” he explained. “Not saying I found new places each day, but I would catch them off a school one day and there would be a bunch in there, and then I would go back the next day and there wasn’t as many. Then I would go to a school where there wasn’t as many, and there would be more there. It was just kind of one of those deals that I had to fish everything to kind of figure out what areas I needed to focus on.”
Naturally, Sunday morning brought more change in the form of stormy, windy conditions. That hindered Shaw. He cracked 20 pounds by 9 a.m., but once the front arrived, he went more than 2 hours without adding another scorable bass. He mustered just three for 6-14 in Period 2. That put him 28-9 behind Birge – more than twice his weight to that point – entering the final frame.
Yet Shaw stayed positive. While the weather made fishing offshore difficult early in the day, he knew it would keep recreational traffic to a minimum in the afternoon. That would boost his efficiency during Period 3, when he planned to utilize his one period with forward-facing sonar.
Shaw visited a few spots without success to start the period. About 35 minutes in, he finally ignited a school and caught six for more than 16 pounds in the span of 13 minutes.
That trimmed Shaw’s deficit, but Birge and Connell (and Alton Jones Jr., for that matter) all added to their totals, too. Shaw then endured a 55-minute lull in which he caught just one scorable bass. With a little less than an hour before lines out, he still trailed Connell by 16-10.
That’s when he headed for the spot he’d been saving all event.
During practice, Shaw found a point on the lower end of the lake loaded with big bass. They weren’t easy to spot, though, sitting tight to the bottom among big rocks, so he felt confident no one else would pressure them.
“It was just a round point,” Shaw said. “The fish were just glued to the bottom in 25 feet of water, so they were super hard to see. You had to be straight off the bank from them and looking straight in and really close to them to be able to see the fish. That’s why a lot of other anglers missed them. I saw multiple other guys fishing it, and they just didn’t know they were there.”
From the time he found the school during practice, Shaw planned to save them until the Championship Round. He checked each day to make sure the fish were still there but refrained from catching any until Saturday afternoon. When he caught a pair of 4-pounders and saw a gaggle of other big blobs follow them off the bottom, he knew it had potential to be the winning spot.
“I knew what lived there and how it could go if it worked in my favor,” he said. “Each day, I kind of pulled up and checked on them to see if they were there still and just making sure that it was like it was in practice, and yesterday I pulled up because I kind of needed to, and I caught two 4s back to back, and there was still like 30 of them down there. I was like, ‘Yeah, this is a pretty good little spot.’”
The fireworks started quietly. Shaw boated a 2-7, then followed it with a 3-6. A cast or two later, he got the bite that took his comeback from “keep an eye on him” to “look out” – a 6-15 giant. That behemoth not only earned Berkley Big Bass honors for the day, it was the biggest caught all event by 12 ounces. It also vaulted Shaw past Birge into second place and cut his deficit to Connell in half – from 13-11 to 6-12.
Next came a 3-15. Then a 5-10 that finally gave him the lead he’d never relinquish. Then a 3-14 and a 2-2 in quick succession. At that point, Shaw let himself believe he’d actually pulled off the comeback.
“I still didn’t even think I could do it whenever I caught my 5-10 and took the lead,” he said. “Once I caught the 4 right after that, I had like a 5-pound lead, and I thought I had a really good chance.”
The only thing that stopped Shaw’s frenzy was the clock – he landed another 2-2 on his last cast, 10 seconds before lines out. In all, his winning flurry accounted for 30-7 in 37 minutes. His Period 3 total: 55-10 on 17 scorable bass.
Even as a 22-year-old BPT rookie, winning isn’t a new feeling for Shaw. His stats since taking his career national in 2025 are mind-boggling.
He’s won two Pro Circuit events and a Tackle Warehouse Invitationals event (including just a few weeks ago on Oklahoma’s Lake Eufaula). He also won a Toyota Series event at Lake Okeechobee in January. He won the Angler of the Year title on the Invitationals circuit in record fashion last year, and he leads the points on Pro Circuit with one event left. Excluding college events (where he competed with a partner), Shaw has fished 28 MLF events since the start of the 2025 season and finished in the Top 10 in 23 of them.
But amid all that success, this win stands out.
For one thing, it’s rare for any angler to pull off a clutch comeback like Shaw’s, especially with $125,000 on the line. He couldn’t think of a similar experience from his young career. Knowing where he stood in real time made the rally unlike anything else he’s experienced on the water.
“It felt different than any other win I’ve had, being out there on the water and it being that intense,” he said. “Like, the five-fish tournaments, a lot of them, I’ll think I won’t have it won, then I do. And I’m just kind of shocked when I get (to weigh-in). But it’s not as special as it is out there on the water, whenever you do it right then and there and you know. It’s pretty crazy.”
The caliber of anglers he beat made the win even more special. Shaw ran down the current Fishing Clash Angler of the Year leader (Birge) and the angler who had been, to this point, the best closer on tour with three REDCREST titles and seven Bass Pro Tour wins to show for it (Connell).
That earned him the red trophy that, even though Shaw had only fished five prior BPT events, he felt like he’d been overdue to hoist. Were it not for a boat fire that derailed his forward-facing sonar period at Stage 1 on Lake Guntersville, he might have been able to pull off a similar rally and run down winner Drew Gill . He also held the lead on the final day at Lake Hartwell and finished third at Beaver Lake.
“This is something that I’ve been thinking about all season since I’ve been so close,” he said. “I felt like it was going to happen a lot sooner, and for it to finally happen, it’s pretty special.”
While Birge fell just short of claiming his second career Bass Pro Tour victory in his home state, his third-place finish could loom large in the Angler of the Year race.
Birge arrived at Grand leading Jacob Wheeler by a single point, and he extended that advantage to 12 points entering the final event of the season. As a result, if Birge makes the Championship Round at Stage 7 on Lake Erie, he’s assured of dethroning Wheeler and winning his first career tour-level AOY crown.
The top 10 pros at Zenni Stage 6 at Grand Lake Presented by Toyota finished:
1st: Banks Shaw, Harrison, Tenn., 28 bass, 82-15, $125,000
2nd: Dustin Connell, Deatsville, Ala., 28 bass, 74-2, $45,000
3rd: Zack Birge, Blanchard, Okla., 21 bass, 64-5, $35,000
4th: Alton Jones Jr., Lorena, Texas, 20 bass, 55-5, $30,000
5th: Bobby Lane, Lakeland, Fla., 18 bass, 46-2, $25,000
6th: Jake Lawrence, Paris, Tenn., 11 bass, 31-4, $23,000
7th: Spencer Shuffield, Hot Springs, Ark., 10 bass, 28-1, $22,000
8th: Ron Nelson, Berrien Springs, Mich., 10 bass, 27-8, $21,000
9th: Keith Carson, DeBary, Fla., eight bass, 24-7, $20,500
10th: Brent Ehrler, Redlands, Calif., eight bass, 20-11, $20,000
Overall, there were 162 bass caught weighing 454 pounds, 12 ounces, caught by the final 10 Bass Pro Tour anglers on Sunday.
Sunday’s $1,000 Berkley Big Bass Award was earned by Shaw, who caught a 6-pound, 15-ounce largemouth in the third period on a jighead minnow. Berkley awards $1,000 to the angler who weighs the heaviest bass each day.
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Major League Fishing (MLF)