By finishing 10th in the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Qualifiers point standings, Brock Reinkemeyer of Warsaw, Mo., pulled off becoming a Bassmaster Elite Series angler in his first go at the Opens. However, he was hardly a novice tournament angler when he took on this challenge.
He came to the Opens with countless weeknight and weekend derbies under his belt, a handful of Bassmaster team events, as well as BFL and MLF tournaments. He may be a rookie on the Elite Series tour, but he comes in as a seasoned veteran.
Early introduction
His introduction to fishing took place at age 6 on Lake Truman, where his grandparents, Urban and Lavern, had a lake house. He and his father, Rick, would share a boat with his grandfather and tempt crappies with live minnows.
When he was 12, Reinkemeyer befriended another young angler who lived on a lake that hosted Wednesday night bass derbies. These events limited the boats to 150 hp. The boys competed from a small paddle boat.
“We’d sink the front of the boat to make a livewell,” Reinkemeyer said. “We actually won one of those tournaments.”
His father bought a 1993 Astro bass boat when he was 19, and they began fishing local tournaments. These included the popular Joe Bass Team Trail. They won one of those events, which qualified them to fish the 2019 Bassmaster Team Championship and Classic Fish-Off at Lake Hartwell. They finished second by 6 ounces, narrowly missing a berth to the Classic.
“That burned,” Reinkemeyer said. “I really wanted to make the Classic. Now I have a good opportunity to get there through the Elites.”
Climbing the ladder
Over the next several years, he competed in larger tournaments that had more costly entry fees, including the BFLs and the MLF Toyota Series. He won an event at Lake of the Ozarks, had several top five finishes and challenged for the Angler of the Year title three times.
These events took him to Texas, to Florida, to New York and exposed him to a wide variety of bass waters, fishing conditions and techniques. What he learned from those experiences prompted him to add the Bassmaster Opens to his tournament schedule, a wise move.
While competing on the Elite Series, he intends to continue working at Piros Signs in Barnhart, Mo., and to guide occasionally at Truman Lake. If he fares well as an Elite angler, he hopes to attract enough sponsors to become a full-time professional angler.
Reinkemeyer’s sponsors include Piro Signs, Garmin, Miller Tech Batteries, Motion Fishing and Clutch Swimbaits.
