McKinney Ready To Get Back At It

By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Trey McKinney will either become the second rookie pro to ever win the Bassmaster Angler of the Year title, or he won't. At the moment, he's just anxious for the final two 2024 Elite Series tournaments at Lake Champlain and the St. Lawrence River to play out so he can let that chip fall where it's ultimately headed and put his fishing gear away in favor of hunting equipment.

It's not that he doesn't care – in fact, it's just the opposite. But if the monumental miscalculation he made in the Smith Lake event is destined to cost him the points title, then the 19-year-old would just assume get that behind him as soon as possible.

The Illinois resident heads to Champlain trailing AOY leader and reigning Classic champion Justin Hamner by 24 points. He gave away dozens of points at Smith when he failed to check in on time at the end of Day 2 and then answered a phone call from a family member who'd rung him repeatedly to inquire about his tardiness. He finally answered his phone, thinking there might be an emergency, and that was a violation of Rule C3 xiv, the penalty for which is a full-day disqualification.

"I didn't control the controllable and that's what hurts the most," he said this week. "Now a lot depends on what happens at Champlain – I can't play it safe because I'm not trying to maintain the (points) lead, like I should be. I'm gonna swing on them all and I'm not gonna stop.

"If I come out of there and the gap (between he and Hamner) is a little closer, then I probably won't do anything too crazy at the St. Lawrence. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be. If not, it's gonna hurt."

He appeared to be well on his way to joining Tim Horton (2000) as the only first-year pros to secure the points crown. In his first six events, he posted finishes of 12th, 1st, 6th, 17th, 6th and 22nd to built a whopping 59-point lead in the points chase.

He was wrecking fish again at Smith and would've been in contention for another victory without the time mix-up. He has relatively little tournament experience on Northern fisheries, but his skill in the use of forward-facing sonar would've made him a good bet to hang onto at least a portion of such a massive points bulge.

"There's nothing else I can do now except try to win (at Champlain)," he said.

If he doesn't, it won't be for lack of effort. He spent 5 days pre-practicing at the famed New York/Vermont border lake before it went off-limits last month and he'll enter pre-practice with some definitive ideas regarding what he wants to focus on.

"I know where I want to start," he said. "I split up my time between graphing and fishing and I was catching 18 to 20 pounds a day – I just couldn't figure out how to get over that 20 threshold.

"I caught a lot of 4-pounders. If you can catch anything over 5 there, you're doing something right."

He and fellow rookie J.T. Thompkins (last year's Opens Elite Qualifiers Division AOY who's 8th in the Elite points) have spent most of the past month pounding on northern fish in other locales. He said they've fished a lot at Cayuga Lake, where they could've weighed combined 30-pound bags on three consecutive days.

He and Thompkins weren't real pals last year on the Opens circuit, but they've since formed a strong bond. They're part of a rooming and info-sharing alliance with a third high-performing rookie, Tyler Williams (12th in the Elite points).

"It's the craziest thing, but last year when I'd see J.T., I didn't really want to talk to him," McKinney said. "We were big-time rivals. Then one day one of us got the other one's phone number and we'd see each other on the water and we started calling maybe once every other day, then it became almost every day.

"Him and Tyler had known each other for quite a while. We all respect each other and what we've got going should make us all really consistent for the future.

"Maybe we won't be winning all the time, but we should be check-reliable."

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