By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor

Just about anybody reading this would enjoy an opportunity to fish on their birthday and perhaps some do that often, depending upon time of year and location. Trey McKinney will need to do some work on the previous three days to get that chance next month, but competing on the final day at Toledo Bend Reservoir (Feb. 25) in his first Bassmaster Elite Series event, would be a heck of a way to celebrate turning 19.

The Illinois native is one of a handful of anglers who had stellar seasons last year in the Bassmaster Opens Elite Qualifiers division, which is the primary path to the Elites for aspiring pros. In nine outings, he compiled seven Top-25 finishes (including two 2nds, a 3rd and a 7th) to become the youngest qualifier for B.A.S.S.' top circuit since it was reorganized in 2006.

On Feb. 22, he's set to become the first angler to make a cast in an Elite event prior to his 19th birthday. Corey Waldrop and Bradley Roy were both 19 when they debuted in 2008 and 2010, respectively.

As he always does, he took most of the fall and a good portion of the winter off to hunt deer and waterfowl. He got back into fishing mode last week on a pre-practice trip to Toledo Bend, though, and now he's itching to get his tour-level career started.

"I hadn't picked up a rod since the last tournament (the final 2023 Open was at Florida's Harris Chain), but when I was out on Toledo and catching a few, I realized how much I missed it," he said. "Taking that little break always fuels me and I think it gives me an edge because when I come back, I'm pumped up.

"I'm just going to take this first year as it comes and put in the work and hope to see good results, but only the Lord can take care of that."

From a meat-compilation perspective, his hunting season wasn't nearly as spectacular as his performance in the Opens. There weren't many ducks in his home region, but he partially mitigated that with trips to Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas to hunt with people he's met through competitive fishing. His family owns a farm that's been home to some big whitetails in the past, but size was a little down this year and he didn't shoot any of them.

"Those deer need one or two more years to fulfill their potential," he said.

McKinney's potential as a competitive angler has been on display for several years now. He won two MLF High School Fishing events and followed that up with three BFL victories over a span of less than 10 months in 2021-22.

"I've been very blessed on this crazy journey," he said. "It's been awesome and anytime I get to fish for five, I'm living the dream."

He's fully aware that posting upper-echelon finishes on the Elite Series will be much more difficult than at any level he's fished at so far and that there's still a learning curve to come. Therefore, he hasn't set any outlandish performance goals for his rookie campaign.

"Obviously I want to do the best I can, but if I could hang in there in the upper part of the standings and make the Classic, that'd be great," he said. "I know it's going to take some time to really get the hang of things.

"The schedule looks pretty good to me, but I've got a lot of work in front of me to figure out how I'm going to need to fish."