Banks Shaw is making a habit of the come-from-behind win. On June 7 the young angler from Harrison, Tennessee, ran down the leaders on the final day of the Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit's Stop 5 at Lake Eufaula, earning what Major League Fishing billed as his third victory of the 2026 season. Alabama's Cal Lane had carried the lead into the last morning; Shaw rallied past him to take it.
The finish was in keeping with how his year has gone. It started back in February at Lake Okeechobee, where Shaw won the Toyota Series opener by three ounces over Kyle Cortiana, weighing 49 pounds, 5 ounces over three days for $79,250 — a total that included a $35,000 Phoenix MLF bonus. He had, by his own account, seen it coming.
"I told my cameraman on the way down here, 'I'm due for a win,'" Shaw said. The margin was unusually thin for him. "Usually when I win it's by a decent margin, so this was nerve-racking. But I'm glad to pull it away."
His Okeechobee key was a single area he gambled would stay clean, fished largely with a Rapala Mavrik 110 jerkbait. "When I went to my main area, luckily right when I pulled up it was clean, and I caught my biggest fish in there – a 3 1/2-pounder," he said. "I'm definitely off to a good start, riding the momentum from last year."
The Wheeler Lake win in March may have meant the most. Shaw banked $100,000 there with 62 pounds even, climbing from behind on the final day — and he did it straight after the lowest point of his career.
"I recently had my worst pro level tournament at the Bass Pro Tour at Lake Whitney. It definitely bothered me," Shaw said. "To turn it around like this, it definitely gets my hopes back up, my confidence back up."
"I was completely changing it up. I knew I couldn't target the fish I was catching on forward-facing. I knew I could keep my bait around fish on visible structure, so I was targeting logs, visible stumps, barge ties, anything that makes a current break," he said. He had not expected the trophy. "I didn't think I had a shot with what I had, I thought possibly, if I had 22 pounds, I could have a shot if these guys stumbled."
The résumé behind the run is already deep for an angler his age. A graduate of Sale Creek High School and a 2022 Bassmaster High School All-American, Shaw is studying at the University of North Alabama, fishing his rookie year on the Bass Pro Tour while defending his Tackle Warehouse Pro Circuit Angler of the Year title. He has now earned more than $600,000 with Major League Fishing since January 2024. On current form, the Eufaula win will not be his last rally of the season.