Chris Johnston felt the heat, but instead of cracking, he once again cracked ‘em.
Like last year, the final days of the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year race offered twists, turns and high tension. Like last year, Johnston overcame the pressure to become the fourth back-to-back AOY winner.
“Holy smokes, that was a stressful one,” the 36-year-old Canadian said. “I thought it was supposed to get easier, but that one got harder.
“It was a rough couple days of fishing on the Mississippi River. It wasn’t super easy like it can be.”
Johnston entered the season finale at La Crosse tied for the points lead with Trey McKinney. The screws tightened after Day 1.
Johnston’s 13 pounds, 1 ounce saw him start 55th while McKinney’s 12-15 had him 58th. Wisconsin’s Jay Przekurat, who lost his long-held AOY lead at Lake St. Clair two weeks earlier, started 10th to make up his 42-point deficit on the pair and retake the lead by three points.
“That was a shock to everyone,” Johnston said. “Between Trey and I, if I didn’t catch them, I was sure he was going to have a top 40 finish.”
Needing to make the Top 50 cut on Day 2, Johnston sensed he might not get there. With a late move, he went on a catching flurry.
“It all boiled down to one little area, that 30-minute little stretch,” said Johnston, who caught a 4-4 kicker there. “That was kind of the most relieving fish of the weekend, for sure. That’s like a 6- or 7-pounder on Okeechobee or anywhere else. When I put it in the boat, I knew I was going fishing on Day 3.”
With 16-8 on Day 2, Johnston stood 22nd and gained 36 points. He took the AOY lead outright for the first time this season. McKinney’s 14-1 squeaked him into the cut at 50th, 28 points back, but he was still alive.
Before the final two events, Johnston said he was less stressed than last year, when the season closed on the St. Lawrence River. AOY considerations and home-water expectations piled on pressure, and Johnston said he spun out a bit the first two days. However, he rallied from 31st to fourth with 29-5, tying the biggest B.A.S.S. stringer of smallmouth and securing the AOY title.
History again stared Johnston in the face at La Crosse, and the tension ramped up beyond his expectations. He thought he’d be able to fish free and easy, but the pressure ended up like a bus on his chest.
“It gets going and I’m leading, and then that final day rolls around and it was one of the most stressful days,” he said. “It’s a stressful day in a regular tournament, let alone add AOY pressure. And then you’re struggling to catch a limit on a place that’s supposed to be full of 2- and 3-pound bass.”
Partly because he wasn’t weighing his fish and didn’t realize their true size, Johnston felt he left the door wide open. McKinney stepped through with a 10-minute flurry that gave him the AOY lead on BassTrakk.
Johnston’s worries weren’t unfounded as McKinney culled and climbed as high as 19th, moving 10 points ahead of him. There was some confusion as Johnston did have a limit, but one was barely 14 inches, and he worried it might not measure at the official scales. Hoping to replace it posthaste, he told his cameraman not to enter it on BassTrakk.
Minutes turned to hours, and Johnston’s stress grew. He sensed his 2-9 cushion on McKinney had evaporated. The midday lull was getting to his skull.
“Honestly, I was thinking, how can I go get a bite?” he said. “I don’t want to not weigh a limit on the final day and blow AOY. I got to catch a limit, at least make him catch them half decent. That’s what was going on in my mind basically from 11 on.”
A late move to Goose Island offered hope. On his first cast, he hooked his largest bass all week, but unfortunately it came off.
“If I put that one in the boat, I would have won it,” he said. “That was my AOY right there. I got 11 1/2 pounds. There’s a good chance McKinney is going to have 14 to 16 pounds. I was kind of down in the dumps for a minute.”
Never give up, right. With three minutes before check-in, Johnston was near takeoff throwing a ChatterBait down a seawall. He hooked one and flipped it in the boat. As he put it in his livewell, he reassessed his fish. They all looked bigger than he thought.
“I literally was panicking to cull to get back in time,” he said. “For that one-minute, two-minute idle, I was doing math in my head. ‘I got three around 3 pounds, and two that are probably 2 and quarter. I should have about 13 pounds.’
“I would love to say I was just sandbagging, but holy smokes, I didn’t know I had that much weight. That was the first point in that whole day of fishing where I thought maybe I have a chance.”
Held as the last two to weigh their fish, McKinney’s 14-9 moved him up to 27th, and Johnston raised his arms when his 13-7 put him 19th. With 776 points, Johnston secured his second AOY over McKinney by eight points. He topped McKinney by 24 points last year.
Remarkably, Johnston, who made four Top 10s last year, did not record one in 2025. Most of the previous AOY champs had multiple Top 10 finishes. Johnston’s season was a model of consistency, with six finishes 20th or better, including two 11ths, a 13th and two 15ths, with a worst of 33rd.
“It’s very weird because it didn’t feel like a great year. A decent year, but it never felt like an amazing year,” he said. “Usually, I’m getting a couple Top 10s. It’s more so that I just cashed a check and missed a Top 10, so a little disappointed. You get a check, but you’re always shooting for a Top 10.”
Not lost on Johnston was that in becoming the 13th angler with multiple AOYs, he is only the fourth to win in consecutive years. He joined Kevin VanDam (2008-2011), Guido Hibdon (1990-91) and Roland Martin (1971-73, 1978-79, 1984-85).
“It’s an honor to be mentioned among those guys,” he said. “I don’t know if I’ll ever win another AOY. It’s a pretty cool feat, and to be honest, I’ve got one more trophy I’d like to win. I could call it a day, and I’d be happy.”
That would be the Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic. Johnston will be fishing his seventh consecutive championship next year on the Tennessee River out of Knoxville. He’s posted three Top 10s in Classics, his best a fifth on Lake Hartwell in 2022. He was 31st in 2023 at Knoxville.
Johnston hasn’t really had time for the accomplishment of consecutive AOYs to set in. He and his older brother and fellow Elite, Cory, left La Crosse and headed back home for the inaugural CISA Kingston Open.
Fiercely competitive, they set aside their sibling rivalry, at least for awhile.
“It’s honestly shocking. You would think we’d almost kill each other, get at each other’s throat, but we actually get along pretty well in the boat when we’re fishing a team tournament,” Chris Johnston said. “Afterward, we usually we give each other a hard time. ‘Cory sucked, he lost three fish and cost us the tournament.’
“He did give me a hard time this past weekend, because I lost four smallmouth in a row. I was like, ‘You know what, how about you just cast at the next couple.’ I didn’t know what I was doing wrong, I could not keep them hooked. So I was just the netman. In the end of the day, we ended up winning, so it was good.”
They averaged 28 pounds a day to put another $50,000 in their joint bank accounts, proving once again they are kings of Ontario.
The St. Lawrence was where Chris became the first Canadian Elite winner in 2021, and Cory won the 2024 Elite and two Bassmaster Opens there. But there’s a sore spot as well. In their first Elite season in 2019, Cory had a great shot at AOY. Mechanical issues caused him to miss the cut, and he ended the season eight points behind the AOY winner.
The Johnstons are happy piling up hardware, not hard feelings.
“I don’t think he’s jealous at all; he’s pretty happy for me,” Chris said. “We do have quite the battle ongoing. Between me and all my friends, we remind him regularly who’s the better fisherman. At the end of the day, I think he’s pretty happy for me.
“I feel he probably swings for the fence a little more than me, so that’s why maybe you see the odd bomb. I’m sure his day will come.”
Chris Johnston has a few more events to fish this fall before he puts the boat away for winter. There will be time for his feat sink in.
“I need a little down time from fishing, do some other stuff, hunting, my kids are in sports, hang with the family,” he said. “Then come January, I got the bug for it again.”
Johnston will begin his AOY defense at Lake Guntersville, Feb. 5-8, with the nine-event season concluding in his region at Champlain and the St. Lawrence in August. If he’s again in the hunt, it’s sure to be a stressful Northern Swing with a three-peat on the line.
