Elite

Big bass of the St. Lawrence River 2026

Best smallmouth bag in B.A.S.S. helps McKinney secure AOY; Hudson takes ROY; Kung wins

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Captions by
Mike Suchan
It was the greatest smallmouth tournament in B.A.S.S. history and perhaps the best season finale ever. The Lowrance Bassmaster Elite at St. Lawrence River had brutes, behemoth bags, belts and battles to the bitter end. Take a look at the big bass.
Century Belt totals of 100 pounds have been reached in the past three St. Lawrence events, and many believed the best total would be surpassed. For the week, the average bass weighed 4 pounds, 10 ounces, which was just a quarter pound less than the record-weight battles on Falcon Lake (4-14) and Lake Fork (4-15). Steve Kennedy shared the Phoenix Boats Big Bass on Day 1 with a 6-15. Kennedy, who had one of the few largemouth, finished 47th.
Kyle Welcher, who took fifth here in wrapping up the 2023 AOY title, split the Day 1 bonus with his 6-15. Starting 11th with 25-11, Welcher topped 20 pounds all three days to take 41st. At 18th in AOY, Welcher is headed back to Lake Hartwell for the 2027 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic. In 2022 there, he was runner-up to Jason Christie by a scant 5 ounces.
Andrew Loberg, aka Bergazoid, started seventh with 26-5 and  finished 31st. Loberg, the senior member of The Surge Squad that includes Emil Wagner, Paul Marks and Tucker Smith, finished 10th in the Progressive Angler of the Year standings. Marks, who was 23rd in the event, moved past him to ninth in AOY. All four should be a factor in the fifth Hartwell Classic, March, 19-21.
David Mullins, who finished second in the 2020 AOY race three points back of Clark Wendlandt, started third with 26-14. Another 26-2 had him fifth but only 19-6 on Day 3 dropped him to 22nd. The Tennessee pro moved up 12 spots to 41st in AOY, earning his fourth Classic appearance and first since 2023.
Japanese pro Kyoya Fujita brought in 26-8 for fifth then added 26-6 to drop a spot. Just 21-8 knocked him down to 14th, but he rose nine spots in AOY to 34th, giving him his fourth consecutive Classic berth. On Day 1, there were 97 limits, 90 over 20 pounds and 25 over 25 pounds.
Canada’s Evan Kung of Pickering, Ontario, needed some home cooking as he was fighting for his Elite life. At 72nd in AOY, the second-year pro was in jeopardy of being relegated from the Elites. Catching 26-9 on Day 1 had him in great position in fourth.
Trey McKinney was again fighting for AOY after being runner-up his first two seasons. A big of 5-15 helped him start sixth with 26-8, which included a 4-ounce dead fish penalty. The 21-year-old from Carbondale, Ill., came in with a 1-point lead on Drew Cook and two ahead of home-lake favorite Cory Johnston.
Cory Johnston suffered a slow first day but was surprised his estimated 21- to 22-pound bag weighed 25-7, putting him in a tie for 14th. While Cook fell out of the race with a 62nd, Cory Johnston was within reach of McKinney, only 10 points back.
Alabama’s Fisher Anaya, 20, started the event second in the Pro-Guide Batteries Rookie of the Year race, 12 points behind leader Caleb Hudson. Fishing close to the launch at Clayton Harbor Municipal Marina in Clayton, Anaya caught 26-1 to start ninth. With Hudson starting 71st, Anaya took a 50-point lead in ROY.
California’s Bryant Smith, who set the Bassmaster record for biggest bag of smallmouth at 29-5 in 2023 here, was at it again. He landed in second place after Day 1 with 27-4.
Tucker Smith, the 2025 ROY, needed a great tournament to make his second Classic. The Alabama pro, who turns 25 this week, was 67th in AOY with 383 points. The estimated total to become Classic qualified was 484, which he could attain with the winner’s 101 points. Smith got the start he hoped for with 27-5 to lead after Day 1 by an ounce and climb to 45th in points.
New Jersey’s Michael Iaconelli went old school for his final Elite weigh-in. Ike, the 2003 Classic champ and 2006 AOY, retired from the Elite Series after 298 Bassmaster tournaments over the past 30 years. The eight-time winner who competed in 20 Classics was celebrated for his stellar career.
Tied with four others at 39th with 23-13, Brandon Cobb catapulted up the leaderboard to 12th with 27-8, one of Day 2’s 26 limits topping 25 pounds. Cobb, who had missed the past two Classics, was enjoying his best season since being AOY runner-up in 2023. Cobb moved into seventh with 26-1 on Semifinal Saturday.
Tied for 48th after Day 1, Jordan Lee made a hyper-jump to 17th with a 26-5 limit that included a 6-13 big. Adding 24-6 gave the two-time Classic winner a 15th-place finish. He ended 16th in points to secure an eighth Classic berth, back at Hartwell where he completed his back-to-back championship run.
Robert Gee, who was runner-up in the 2024 St. Lawrence Elite, found a 6-12 big bite that helped him weigh 26-15 and climb 46 spots to 25th. Seen fishing around the leaders, Gee added 22-2 to finish 33rd. Gee moved up two spots to 30th in AOY as he  qualified for his second Classic.
Shane LeHew continued his Classic streak with consistent limits around 24 pounds each day. Just two events ago, the North Carolina pro was 56th in AOY, in jeopardy of missing his first championship since joining the Elites in 2019. Starting as the last man into the Classic at 45th, LeHew took 20th at the St. Lawrence to finish 36th in points. He shares the longest active Classic streak at eight with the Johnstons, Patrick Walters and Drew Cook.
JT Thompkins found his stride on Day 2 with 27-5, moving 23 spots to start Semifinal Saturday in 10th. The inaugural Elite Qualifier champ of 2023 made only one cut in the first four events of 2026 but steadily climbed as he sought his fifth consecutive finish above 33rd. A 6-6 anchored his 25-2 on Day 3 that put him seventh heading into Championship Sunday.
On Day 2, Caleb Hudson figured out the bite and jumped 32 spots to 39th with 25-12. It gave him hope for ROY as he cut his deficit to Anaya to 18 points. On Semifinal Satuday, Hudson added 25-4 to finish 19th. With Anaya eighth, Hudson regained the ROY points lead, 621 to 620.
Bryant Smith landed the Phoenix Boats Big Bass of Day 2, a 6-15 that tied for biggest of the event so far. The kicker bolstered his 26-13 stringer that put him third. Smith added 22-2 and 25-0 to finish eighth with 101-3, earning his first Century Belt. He ended 21st in points to gain a third Classic qualification.
There were couplets of twos for Evan Kung on Day 2. These two fat smallies helped him weigh the day’s second-best bag of 28-9 and move into second place with 55-2, one of 15 anglers on pace for 100 pounds.
A half-hour flurry made McKinney’s Day 2, event and season. With a decent but unimpressive limit, McKinney caught one near 6 pounds at 1:30, added a 6-13 eight minutes later, then moments later another 6. Just after 2 p.m., he caught a 6-0, giving him around 25 pounds in 30 minutes. He looks on with excitement as tournament director Lisa Talmadge puts his mega-bag on the scales.
As AOY leader, McKinney lead the field out on Day 1 and had until 4:30 p.m. to check in on Day 2. With his work done, he came in early and was the first to weigh. His five broke the Elites’ all-time smallmouth record with 30-11, which earned him the Rapala CrushCity Monster Bag bonus of $2,000.
McKinney gleefully shows off his slip showing he actually had 30-15 that was cut with a dead-fish penalty. It still put him in the lead with 57-3, 2-1 ahead of Kung and hoping to gain more ground on Cory Johnston in the AOY race.
It was not a typical St. Lawrence event for Chris Johnston. In seven previous B.A.S.S. derbies here, he had an Elite victory, two second-place finishes and never was below seventh. On Day 3 in 2024, he tied Smith’s smallmouth record bag at 29-5, propelling him to his first of two AOY titles. This year, after 24-8 and 22-9, he stood 48th but caught 26-13 on Day 3 to end up 17th.
His older brother, Cory, wasn’t quite done defending Ontario for the family. With 28-5 on Day 2, he jumped up to fourth and cut his AOY deficit to McKinney, 736-731. With 53-12, he trailed McKinney by 3-7 and left the stage brusquely saying there were two more days of fishing.
Easton Fothergill, the 2025 Classic champ, rose from 38th to 18th then sixth with a big Day 3 limit of 27-15 that included the first 7-pounder of the event. Fothergill, who spent much of practice in the hospital, weighed a 7-5 he hoped would hold out for big bass. All 10 finalists went into Day 4 needing less than what they had weighed in the previous three rounds to earn Century Belts. With 21-13 in the final round, Fothergill was the only one to miss, totaling 99-8. He was a half-pound shy of adding a smallmouth Belt to his Lake Fork largemouth belt from last year.
Cole Sands added insult to injury when his 7-6, fat-bellied behemoth overtook Fothergill for Day 3’s Phoenix Boats Big Bass. It held on as biggest of the event and stands second to Paul Mueller’s 7-13 in 2020 among the four 7-pounders caught at the St. Lawrence in Elite competition. On Day 3, 47 of the 50 anglers caught limits with 13 bags topping 25 pounds.
On Championship Sunday, JT Thompkins has 21-8 on BassTrakk, 10 ounces shy of a belt. At the scales, his five went 25-2 to give him 103-0 for a seventh-place finish. He’s now double-belted, earning a largemouth belt at Fork last year. Ending the season 19th in points, Thompkins qualified for his fourth Classic.
The scowl on Cory Johnston’s face after 23-2 on Day 3 turned into a smile with 29-9, the biggest of Championship Sunday. He needed a couple more like his big of 6-11 as he finished fourth with 106-7, 3-2 from winning a fourth Bassmaster title on his home fishery. In 2019, he was eight points short of AOY, and this year he fell four shy of winning.
Cobb had a slow Day 4 but topped 100 pounds with a 5-pounder around 1 p.m. With 26-8, he finished sixth with 103-14. The South Carolina pro won at Lake Fork in 2019 with 114-0 to start the Elites string of eight consecutive years with Century Belts. Belted with smallmouth and largemouth, Cobb finished the season fourth in AOY to qualify for his sixth Classic.
Sands, the first-man out of this year’s Classic on his home fishery of the Tennessee River, added 26-12 on Sunday to finish fifth and earn his first belt with 105-10. The top five all eclipsed Patrick Walters’ 105-0 best winning total at the St. Lawrence, where belts have been awarded in four consecutive visits.
Tucker Smith fell to eighth after Day 2, losing seven points and  knocking him back to 50th in AOY. Catching 25-14 on Day 3 moved him back to fourth, making him last man into the Classic. Falling on Championship Sunday would have spelled doom, but instead he surged with his best day. Two 6-4 bass helped him to 29-2, third place with 107-1 and his second Classic. Now double belted after his largemouth victory last year on Fork, Smith is last man in with 483 points. Bryan Schmitt (481) is first-man out, hoping for an EQ double qualifier while Drew Benton (480) hopes for two and Hunter Shryock (479) three.
Holding the full-field weight tiebreaker, Fishery Anaya needed to finish seventh to tie Hudson in points and take ROY. Anaya, who won on Lake Martin in his second Elite, weighed 23-5 and fell to ninth. He earned a belt with 100-5 in a stellar rookie season.
Hudson has a miserable day sweating his fate, although he just couldn’t check the BassTrakk standings. When Anaya couldn’t move up, Hudson took ROY by the skin of his teeth, 621-219. Hudson took seventh in AOY and Anaya eighth, both qualifying for their second Classics. On stage, Hudson addressed his mother, asking if the title was a good enough gift to celebrate her birthday. It might have been, but the $10,000 Pro-Guide Batteries bonus could certainly buy a great dinner and cake.
His Elite status secured, Kung went out hoping to catch bigs and win. Trailing late in the day on BassTrakk, he added a 6-7 that gave him a 1-ounce margin over McKinney. At the scales, it went 6-13, the day’s Phoenix Boats Big Bass, and bolstered his 27-12 bag that gave him the victory with 109-9.
“This is by far my biggest win,” Kung said. “It was a tough year for me, so it was great to end it like this. I couldn’t think of a better ending.” Kung earned the win-and-in Classic feature while climbing to 55th in points and securing his Elite spot for 2027.
McKinney struggled on Day 4 with only two fish through much of the morning, putting his AOY lead on the line. Then he landed a 6-pounder and went on to catch 24-4 and finish second with 107-9. Accumulating 735 points, he won AOY by four points over Cory Johnston. At 21, he supplanted Kevin VanDam as the youngest AOY. KVD was 24 when he won the first of seven AOYs in 1992. “This feels unbelievable,” McKinney said. “When I caught the 6-pounder later in the day, I knew that bass had won me $100,000 and Angler of the Year, something I have dreamed of all of my life. I choked trying to win it for the last two years and have been so close.”

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