It’s been more than a month since 19-year-old Trey McKinney won the 2024 B.A.S.S.® Rookie of the Year award on the last day of the final Elite Series tournament of the season, and the young Yamaha Pro is still digesting what he accomplished in his record-breaking season.
He finished 12th in his very first Elite tournament, the season opener in February at Toledo Bend, when he was still 18. He won his second Elite tournament, on Lake Fork, with a stunning 130-pound, 15-ounce catch; the youngest angler to win a Bassmaster® Elite Series tournament. The rest of the season included two sixth-place finishes and a third in the final on New York’s St. Lawrence River. He had never been on six of the nine lakes, including Fork, before competing on them.
In the 19-year history of Elites, he is the youngest Rookie of the Year winner.
“It was a blessing,” says McKinney. “You only have one chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, and I truly did want to win it. It really means a lot to me. I look back on the season now, and it’s almost like a dream.
“Winning at Lake Fork literally changed my life. It’s one tournament lake I never would have thought about winning, but it was also a tournament where I just had a special feeling that I knew exactly how the fish were going to act. It fit my style of fishing, too. I started offshore and just kept following the bass as they slowly moved into shallow water.
“At the same time, it was scary,” admits the Yamaha Pro. “My largest fish weighed 8-8, but I knew any of the fisherman could catch a 10 or 11-pounder on any given cast and wipe out my lead.”
McKinney arrived at the season-ending St. Lawrence River just hours after struggling through his most difficult tournament of the season at Lake Champlain. Wind and high waves there had wiped out his fishing area the third day and although he finished in 42nd place, he managed to keep a slim lead in the ROY race. He was determined not to give it away.
He almost had given it away in June after making a terrible rookie mistake at Smith Lake, the seventh tournament of the year, when he missed his second day’s weigh-in time and lost that day’s catch. That error did quite possibly keep him from also winning the Angler of the Year title. He fought back and actually finished as the runnerup in the AOY title, losing by just 14 points.
“Despite all the pressure I had created for myself at Smith Lake and Champlain, the St. Lawrence event turned out to be one of my best tournaments of the year,” notes McKinney. “I made it my personal challenge to figure out the smallmouth.
“I had never been there before and I fished all four days in the river, rather than risk a long run out into Lake Ontario. It wasn’t quite the same feeling I had had about the largemouth at Lake Fork, but I did figure out where the fish were located and how I could catch them, by drifting across smaller areas of calmer water out of the current.”
Figuring out the St. Lawrence smallmouth was a huge personal accomplishment for the Yamaha Pro, but he readily admits that never in his life did he ever dream he’d catch more than 90 pounds of smallmouth and finish third.
“In retrospect, this entire Elite season was a huge learning experience,” concludes McKinney, “and not just about catching fish on the different bodies of water. For me, it was more about just getting comfortable and gaining more confidence in every aspect of the sport.
“For the 2025 season, I plan to pre-practice as many of the lakes I can, and especially at Lake Ray Roberts in Texas for the Bassmaster Classic®. I’ve already made winning the Angler of the Year title next season as one of my goals, too.”
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He finished 12th in his very first Elite tournament, the season opener in February at Toledo Bend, when he was still 18. He won his second Elite tournament, on Lake Fork, with a stunning 130-pound, 15-ounce catch; the youngest angler to win a Bassmaster® Elite Series tournament. The rest of the season included two sixth-place finishes and a third in the final on New York’s St. Lawrence River. He had never been on six of the nine lakes, including Fork, before competing on them.
In the 19-year history of Elites, he is the youngest Rookie of the Year winner.
“It was a blessing,” says McKinney. “You only have one chance to win the Rookie of the Year award, and I truly did want to win it. It really means a lot to me. I look back on the season now, and it’s almost like a dream.
“Winning at Lake Fork literally changed my life. It’s one tournament lake I never would have thought about winning, but it was also a tournament where I just had a special feeling that I knew exactly how the fish were going to act. It fit my style of fishing, too. I started offshore and just kept following the bass as they slowly moved into shallow water.
“At the same time, it was scary,” admits the Yamaha Pro. “My largest fish weighed 8-8, but I knew any of the fisherman could catch a 10 or 11-pounder on any given cast and wipe out my lead.”
McKinney arrived at the season-ending St. Lawrence River just hours after struggling through his most difficult tournament of the season at Lake Champlain. Wind and high waves there had wiped out his fishing area the third day and although he finished in 42nd place, he managed to keep a slim lead in the ROY race. He was determined not to give it away.
He almost had given it away in June after making a terrible rookie mistake at Smith Lake, the seventh tournament of the year, when he missed his second day’s weigh-in time and lost that day’s catch. That error did quite possibly keep him from also winning the Angler of the Year title. He fought back and actually finished as the runnerup in the AOY title, losing by just 14 points.
“Despite all the pressure I had created for myself at Smith Lake and Champlain, the St. Lawrence event turned out to be one of my best tournaments of the year,” notes McKinney. “I made it my personal challenge to figure out the smallmouth.
“I had never been there before and I fished all four days in the river, rather than risk a long run out into Lake Ontario. It wasn’t quite the same feeling I had had about the largemouth at Lake Fork, but I did figure out where the fish were located and how I could catch them, by drifting across smaller areas of calmer water out of the current.”
Figuring out the St. Lawrence smallmouth was a huge personal accomplishment for the Yamaha Pro, but he readily admits that never in his life did he ever dream he’d catch more than 90 pounds of smallmouth and finish third.
“In retrospect, this entire Elite season was a huge learning experience,” concludes McKinney, “and not just about catching fish on the different bodies of water. For me, it was more about just getting comfortable and gaining more confidence in every aspect of the sport.
“For the 2025 season, I plan to pre-practice as many of the lakes I can, and especially at Lake Ray Roberts in Texas for the Bassmaster Classic®. I’ve already made winning the Angler of the Year title next season as one of my goals, too.”
Back to Blue Life
