The Bassmaster Elite at St.Lawrence River closed out the 2026 Elite Series regular season, and with it came the season-long Angler of the Year and Rookie of the Year titles.
These are awards decided by cumulative points across all nine regular-season events — not by who wins this one tournament.CLICK HERE FOR MORE COVERAGE FROM OUTKICK OUTDOORSStill, a lot was riding on how this Championship Sunday shook out.Trey McKinney came into the season finale having watched Chris Johnston walk away with the Angler of the Year title for two straight years — runner-up finishes that, as the emcee pointed out, meant McKinney had "never been out of the top two" in the AOY race in his young career.Trey McKinney celebrates his Bassmaster Angler of the Year win with friends and family.(Amber Harding Snyder)This time, the roles reversed: Johnston himself handed McKinney the trophy.
A passing of the torch, you could call it.At 21, McKinney is now the youngest Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year in history — breaking a record held by Kevin VanDam since 1992.It's a fitting cap to a week where McKinney also boated the heaviest five-fish smallmouth limit ever weighed in Bassmaster history (30 pounds, 11 ounces, back on Day 2) and picked up his own Century Belt for good measure.None of it came easily.
McKinney finished the tournament in second place, 2 pounds behind Kung.But by his own account, that was never really what he came to Clayton for."Yes, I didn't win the tournament, but I wasn't even thinking about that," McKinney said.
"Angler of the Year is the only thing I was thinking about all week.I was doing well in the tournament, but that title is what was on my mind."EVAN KUNG WINS BASSMASTER ELITE AT ST.
LAWRENCE RIVER IN A TOURNAMENT FOR THE RECORD BOOKSThe final push very nearly didn't happen.McKinney described his last hours on the water as the most nervous he's ever been fishing."I was more nervous today than I've ever been in my whole life," he said.
"I couldn't...