Uh-oh. Not again.
The thought of falling short in the Progressive Angler of the Year race for the third consecutive year raced through Trey McKinney’s mind. He coulda, shoulda already had two titles, but a disqualification ended a potential runaway his rookie season then a horrid start thwarted a great run last year.
With a slow morning on Day 4 of the season-ending Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River, thoughts of a third miss surfaced.
“Absolutely,” said McKinney, 21, of Carbondale, Ill. “Definitely when it was going slow — nothing was happening, nothing was biting — it definitely did creep in my mind. I was like, ‘No way. I’ve been close three times in a row.’
“It definitely gets you negative, and that’s the hardest thing to overcome. You got to stay positive.”
Doom and gloom surfaced during McKinney’s lull. After a record Day 2, McKinney led the tournament and had increased his scant AOY lead, but Cory Johnston, by making Championship Sunday, held an outside chance to overtake him.
The pressure squeezed McKinney. Sitting on two early fish, he went two hours without landing a keeper. Normally gregarious, his boat went quiet. Everything he had worked for all season was in jeopardy. He felt a pall. He tightened up.
“Absolutely. You got 200 grand on the line,” he said. “There’s the tournament, which is hard as heck to win, and you got Angler of the Year that’s even harder than anything in bass fishing to win. It all rested on my shoulders. It just kind of wore on me a little bit the last day.”
Yet he knew that was just stinking thinking. There was hope, especially considering his big Friday. With around 25 pounds but worried Johnston could wreck them in calm conditions, McKinney went on an astonishing half-hour flurry.
“I caught four in a row, and every one of them was over 6. My biggest one was 6-13, so it was an unbelievable day,” said McKinney, who set the Elites’ single-day smallmouth record of 30-11. “Without that day, the outcome might not have been the same.”
Just one kicker on Championship Sunday would go a long way close out AOY. McKinney said he thought, “I’m not letting this happen a third time.”
Yet the outcome was in doubt at noon. McKinney had filled his limit but only had a little over 20 pounds, leaving the door cracked. His key bite, a 6-pounder at 12:15 p.m., sealed one of the deals.
“I knew that bass had won me $100,000 and Angler of the Year, something I have dreamed of all of my life,” McKinney said. “I choked trying to win it for the last two years and have been so close.”
He culled again to 24-4 but finished second in the tournament with 107-9. Canada’s Evan Kung made up his 1-8 deficit with 27-12 to take the win with 109-9.
“He literally earned it,” McKinney said. “He didn’t really have a slow day. Every day, he caught 26 to 28 pounds. All you can do is tip your hat.
“It was in grabbing reach, but I let the nerves take over on that final day. It really affected how I fished, to be honest. I wasn’t fishing as good, but once I caught that 6-pounder, I kind of calmed down. I was fishing good again, but till then, man, it was pretty rough.”
Not lost on McKinney is that he earned his third Century Belt and joined a small group of anglers with smallmouth and largemouth Belts. Patrick Walters, Kyoya Fujita and Chris Johnston previously accomplished the feat, while Tucker Smith, Brandon Cobb and JT Thompkins also doubled up at the St. Lawrence as only one of the Top 10 fell short of 100 pounds.
“Not every day you have one at smallmouth, not every day you get a chance at that,” McKinney said. “That’s a special belt, having one for brown. Not everybody gets one of those.”
Belts have been awarded in the past four visits to the St. Lawrence, which with 17 total passed Falcon Lake (15) for second behind Lake Fork (29).
The second-place finish gave McKinney 100 points. He totaled 735 on the year, four ahead of Cory Johnston, who earned his third belt at the St. Lawrence.
In his Rookie of the Year campaign in 2024, McKinney finished 24 points behind Chris Johnston. His downfall was a DQ at Smith Lake that turned his 59-point lead into a 24-point deficit.
In 2025, McKinney started 89th at St. Johns but climbed steadily throughout the season to lead Chris Johnston heading into the finale at the Mississippi River, where he fell eight points shy of AOY.
While it appeared McKinney might be denied once again, he came through in the clutch to become the youngest AOY at 21 years old. He eclipsed Kevin VanDam, who was 24 when he won his first of seven AOYs in 1992.
“We finally brought her home,” McKinney said. “That’s the main thing, that we got the first one out of the way. We won’t have those first-time jitters no more. We’re ready to roll.”
McKinney has been rolling since becoming the youngest to qualify for the Elite Series. He won his second Elite entry, coming just 1-9 shy of the all-time weight record with 130-15 at Lake Fork. At 19 years, 1 week, he took over as youngest Elite winner. He added a second Elite title in 2025 at Lake St. Clair, and he’s been runner-up in the past two Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classics presented by Under Armour.
In 43 events over three Elite seasons, McKinney has accumulated $851,940 in B.A.S.S. earnings, an average of $19,812 per event. That puts him on pace to join the Bassmaster Millionaire Club in 51 events, the quickest ever.
In the 2024 St. Lawrence Elite, both Johnston brothers eclipsed $1 million in B.A.S.S. earnings, Chris in 65 events and Cory in 66. Patrick Walters held the fastest accolade after his victory in the 2023 St. Lawrence Elite, his 77th B.A.S.S. entry.
