Elite

A look at closest AOY races

Tight Bassmaster Angler of Year races have been common since 2019, but this year's McKinney/Johnston tie a first.

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You want close? We got close. Trey McKinney and Chris Johnston are tied atop the 2025 Progressive Bassmaster Elite Series point standings. While there have been tight Bassmaster Angler of the Year races, this is the first time two anglers have been deadlocked heading into the final event. Let’s look back at the closest AOY battles since the 2019 split — complete with late twists, turns, and even a few blunders — that decided what anglers consider the most prestigious title in the sport.
In 2019, two-thirds of the Elite field left to fish another circuit, bringing in some new blood. There were 75 anglers battling through nine regular-season events before the finale, the AOY Championship event on Lake St. Clair. Scott Canterbury went into St. Clair with a nine-point lead in the season-long points race over Chris Zaldain, while Cory Johnston lurked 14 points back and Stetson Blaylock was 20 behind. There had never been a race with as many competitors having a shot to win, and it tightened through the three-day tournament.
Each of those four led the unofficial BassTrakk standings during the event, although some only momentarily. After Day 1, Texas transplant Chris Zaldain, who had three runner-up finishes among his five Top 10s on the season, stood 11th in the tournament. That gave him a two-point lead over Blaylock (second in the derby), four over Canterbury (24th) and nine over Cory Johnston (16th).
While Zaldain and Blaylock held their positions after Day 2, Cory Johnston (above) gained five points by moving up to 10th, and Canterbury improved eight spots to regain the AOY lead. All four had a shot on the final day. It was anyone’s ballgame.
Blaylock was having his best Elite season, winning his first title at Winyah Bay while posting five Top 10s. With Seth Feider running away with a tournament-best 77 pounds, 15 ounces, Blaylock held second with 71-7 to finish the year with 840 points. Johnston, still lamenting his time infraction that cost him the St. Lawrence River cut and perhaps much more, moved up to eighth at St. Clair for his sixth Top 10 of the year, tying Blaylock at 840 points. Zaldain dropped to 15th at St. Clair to finish his year with 838 points.
Canterbury, who had two fish around noon on Day 3, fell down the leaderboard before another late rally, which defined his season. He came to the scales needing to finish 22nd or better, and his 19-12 limit gave him 14th and the title by eight points. Final point totals were: Canterbury 848; Blaylock 840; Johnston 840; and Zaldain 838.
The COVID pandemic jumbled the 2020 season, which was put on hold after the Lake Guntersville Classic in March and restarted in June. Clark Wendlandt posted three Top 10s and led AOY for four events before finishing 81st at Lake Chickamauga, the penultimate event. With an 18th-place finish there, David Mullins (above) turned his 47-point deficit into a 16-point lead on Wendlandt.
With his second top five of the year at Chickamauga, rookie Austin Felix climbed from sixth to second. He had 618 points, just five back of Mullins and 11 ahead of Wendlandt. After Day 1 in the season-ending event on Lake Fork, Felix stood 42nd and Mullins was 43rd, allowing Wendlandt to regain the lead as he started 18th. One fish on Day 2 knocked Felix out of the hunt at 68th, but he won Bassmaster Rookie of the Year.
Fork was stingy that Nov. 5-8 tournament, and Mullins added two fish to finish 47th for a season total of 677 points. Wendlandt lost one place and headed into Day 3 needing to finish 31st or better. Things got razor thin. As others topped his weight, Wendlandt fell from 19th and, at one point, was 30th on BassTrakk, prompting Bassmaster TV’s Mark Zona to offer a worrisome “Ay-yi-yi.” But Wendlandt landed his fourth fish late in the day.
At the scales, Wendlandt totaled 7-4, good enough to finish 28th and win the AOY by three points, 680-677. Although Wendlandt won three AOYs with FLW, he said no trophy in bass fishing compares to the B.A.S.S. AOY. “This is the most coveted for all the fishermen,” he said. “You ask the anglers, and 95% would say that’s the award they’d rather win.” At 54, Wendlandt took over as oldest AOY by eight years. Gerald Swindle was 46 in 2016 when he supplanted Roland Martin, who won his ninth and final AOY at 45 years old in 1985.
Seth Feider was the runaway AOY in 2021, topping Chris Johnston by 61 points. Brandon Palaniuk looked like he would give a similar beatdown in 2022 before things got tight. Shooting for his second AOY, The Prodigy led Mullins by 41 points after seven events. Palaniuk took third at Santee Cooper Lakes and second at Fork and hadn’t missed a cut until stop No. 8.
Earlier in the year, Brandon Lester took his name off the best-to-never-win an Elite at Pickwick Lake, just months after breaking the ice with an Open win. With no missed cuts in 2022, the Tennessee pro was in the AOY mix, although 66 points behind Palaniuk with two events left. On a visit to South Dakota’s Lake Oahe, Palaniuk’s stranglehold loosened when he finished 66th, his only missed cut on the year. Lester trimmed his deficit to 37 points heading into the finale at La Crosse, while event runner-up Chris Johnston moved up to third, 46 back of Palaniuk.
With 12-13 on Day 1 at La Crosse, Palaniuk (shown on the Yeti Hot Seat at Fork tied with Gerald Swindle) stood 36th, allowing Lester (13th) and Johnston (fourth) to climb within 14 and 15 points, respectively. Palaniuk was fishless early on Day 2, and both pursuers passed him on BassTrakk. But Palaniuk remained calm in the storm, catching his limit fish, a 1-4, about a half-hour before his check-in time. With 11-13, Palaniuk stood 37th, 17 ounces inside the cut. Even though Johnston took the tournament lead, only Lester, who was 11th, still had a mathematical chance to pass Palaniuk for AOY.
Day 3 served as a victory lap for Palaniuk, who caught one of the better bags at 15-1 to finish 25th, making anyone else’s finish moot. He added 76 AOY points at La Crosse to finish the year with 723. Lester was second with 707. Johnston was runner-up in the event to conclude a monster rally on the Northern Swing. He started in 12th place, 129 points back of Palaniuk but made up 106 to finish third in AOY with 700.
South Carolina’s Brandon Cobb was rolling in 2023. He rode the biggest bag of the year, 32-15, to a third-place finish in the season opener on Lake Okeechobee. He posted three more Top 10s and led AOY by 49 points after five events. Then came the Sabine River. Alabama’s Kyle Welcher took seventh and, combined with Cobb’s 91st, turned a 72-point deficit into a 12-point lead.
At Lake St. Clair, Cobb finished 13 places ahead of Welcher to regain the AOY lead by one point. The tables turned again when Welcher bested Cobb by seven spots at Lake Champlain to take a six-point lead into the St. Lawrence River finale. Welcher was a man on a mission. Eschewing the safety of the river on a rough Day 1, Welcher traveled into Lake Ontario, where he caught a 6-9 in his 25-10 bag to stand fifth.
Cobb tied for 12th with 24-7 to stay in contact, but despite topping 20 pounds the next two days he couldn’t make up any ground. Welcher added 27-12 to take the Day 2 event lead, which increased his AOY lead to 36 points. Cobb finished a respectable 23rd at St. Lawrence, totaling 728 points on the season.
Welcher dropped to second on Day 3 yet was awarded the AOY trophy at the weigh-in. Welcher threatened to double up on $100,000 paydays with the AOY and event titles, but mechanical issues cut his fishing time on Day 4, and he fell to fifth just 4 ounces from 100 pounds. Patrick Walters led the four Century Club belt recipients to win with 105-0. Welcher won AOY with 752 points, 24 ahead of Cobb. “That’s the trophy that I want more than anything,” Welcher had said. “But it’s nine tournaments — you have to catch them in all nine.” He did, never missing a cut, posting two Top 10s, three finishes in the teens and never falling below 44th.
The Top 10 in the 2024 AOY race went into the St. Lawrence finale separated by 50 points. Leader Justin Hamner, who was trying to become the third angler to win the Classic and AOY in the same season, was 13 ahead of Chris Johnston (above) and 19 up on Tennessee’s Jacob Foutz. Hamner said Johnston, who became the first Canadian Elite champ and never finished lower than sixth in five Elite events on his home lake, “scared the hell” out of him.
Yet it was Foutz who took over the AOY lead after Day 1 after starting seventh. After eight successive missed cuts, Foutz was on pace to make his 11th consecutive Top 50. With 749 points, Foutz stood two ahead of Chris Johnston (16th after Day 1) and three up on Hamner (30th). While Foutz fell to ninth on Day 2, Hamner dropped out of the race by falling to 61st. Johnston lost ground as well, sinking to 31st and starting Semifinal Saturday 16 points back of Foutz.
It looked as if Chris Johnston might be out of the AOY race, but he performed more St. Lawrence magic. He caught a 6-7 and another around 6 pounds to total 29-5, equaling Bryant Smith’s Bassmaster record bag of smallmouth caught there the previous year. The big day catapulted Chris Johnston from 31st to fourth, a 27-point improvement. Foutz went the other way, from ninth to 35th, creating a monstrous swing.
With 758 points, Chris Johnston became the first Canadian to win Progressive Bassmaster Angler of the Year. His older brother, Cory Johnston, won the event and climbed to third in AOY with 733 points.
Trey McKinney, the 20-year-old from Carbondale, Ill., finished third at the St. Lawrence, jumping from fifth to second in AOY with 734 points. McKinney won Rookie of the Year and might have doubled up if not for a disqualification in stop No. 7. McKinney won at Lake Fork to become the youngest Elite champ at 19 years, one week. That gave him the AOY lead, which he held for four more events in building a 59-point lead. Disaster struck at Smith Lake, when his Day 2 DQ saw him plummet to 93rd after being in the mix for the title.
McKinney is back in the hunt in 2025. After starting the year with an 89th-place finish in the St. Johns opener, McKinney has posted five Top 10 finishes and steadily climbed the standings. Two weeks ago, he won at Lake St. Clair to pull even with Johnston at 690 points. McKinney could become the youngest AOY winner, besting Kevin VanDam’s 1992 title when he was 25 years, 1 month and 22 days old.
Chris Johnston has not missed a cut all year. He recorded his second 11th-place finish at St. Clair, has a 13th, two 15ths and a worst of 33rd. Johnston, the first international AOY winner, is also chasing history. The 36-year-old could become only the third angler to win successive AOYs. While there are 12 anglers with more than one AOY, only Kevin VanDam, Guido Hibdon and Roland Martin have won titles in consecutive years. The 2025 AOY comes down to a Mississippi River showdown — McKinney’s hot run vs. Johnston’s uber-consistency. Who you got?

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