Trey McKinney has spent most of his professional career being the youngest guy in the room.
And apparently, the Bassmaster Elite Series veterans weren’t exactly waiting at the dock with open arms.
McKinney arrived on the Elite Series as a teenager and immediately started making noise. Now, at just 21 years old, he’s already a former Rookie of the Year, the youngest Elite Series winner in history and, as of last weekend, the youngest Bassmaster Angler of the Year ever.
But according to McKinney, earning all those accolades was one thing. Earning the respect of the other Elites took a little longer.
“They’re not a very welcoming crew to begin with,” McKinney told OutKick OutDoors. “If you’re somebody that’s coming on the Elite Series, don’t expect a warm hand of, ‘Come on, buddy. The water’s warm. Come on in. It’s a great time.'”
McKinney isn’t complaining about it. In fact, he thinks that’s probably how it should be.
“Rookies coming in, you get a hard time. You’ve got to learn how to prove yourself,” he said. “And once you do that, it honestly makes it that much sweeter.”
Watch Trey McKinney’s full interview with OutKick OutDoors here:
For McKinney, proving himself happened quickly on paper. He finished second in the Angler of the Year standings in each of his first two Elite seasons, both times behind Chris Johnston.
But he said the first couple of years were still a “hard road” when it came to being accepted by the veterans around him.
“This year, it’s kind of watching things turn around a little bit, gaining respect from certain people that I would never see it from,” McKinney said. “Now that I see that they respect me, I respect them just as much. So it’s very mutual.”
He laughed while describing just how different those interactions are now.
“Now I can go out and have a normal conversation with somebody, and they don’t just â I’m like, ‘Hey,’ and they just turn around and walk off,” he said. “Now we can have a conversation like man to man, and it’s pretty special to see where it was to where it is now.”
In other words, he’s not just the kid anymore.
“Exactly,” McKinney said. “I feel more welcome. I feel like I’m out there having fun. We’re doing our job. We’re competing. We’re competitors, and we realize that. But at the same time, we have the same respect as we do for everybody.”
If there were any doubts left about whether McKinney belonged among the sport’s best, he pretty well erased them on the St. Lawrence River.
McKinney entered the final Elite Series event of the season with the Angler of the Year title within reach. He then caught a 30-pound, 11-ounce five-fish smallmouth limit on Day 2 â the heaviest in Bassmaster history â and put himself in position not only to win AOY but also to win the tournament.
By Sunday morning, however, the normally cool 21-year-old was feeling every ounce of what was at stake.
“I’d never been so nervous that it affected my fishing, really,” McKinney said. “But no, it really did that last day.”
There was a tournament win, $200,000 and the title he’d spent three years chasing all hanging on one final eight-hour day.
“I’d be lying if I said it didn’t affect me because it did,” he said. “I just didn’t fish very good. I got nervous. I
