MERCER-The Awkwardly Honest Fishing Podcast

Trey McKinney is officially the Bassmaster Angler of the Year — but there’s a whole lot that happened inside his boat that you didn’t get to see.

Bassmaster cameraman Jake Latendresse spent the biggest moments of Trey’s AOY run on the back deck, giving him a front-row seat to EVERYTHING.

On this episode of Jake’s Take, Jake takes us inside Trey McKinney’s boat to talk about the nerves when everything was on the line, the massive waves, Trey’s locked-in confidence and the subtle bait adjustments that helped make the difference.

We also tackle the bigger question: after what Trey has accomplished at such a young age, how does he actually stack up against the all-time greats of professional bass fishing?

The cameras captured the action.
Jake saw EVERYTHING else!

Less than 24 hours after making history, Trey McKinney sits down at a picnic table with Mercer to talk about becoming the youngest Angler of the Year in Bassmaster history.

After finishing second in the AOY race in each of the last two seasons, Trey finally got it done. But what does it actually feel like when the thing you’ve chased, dreamed about and come painfully close to finally becomes reality?

With barely any time to process what just happened, Trey talks about the pressure of the final event, the emotions of Championship Sunday, the heartbreak of the last two years and what it means to finally be able to call himself Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

No studio. No time to prepare the perfect answers. Just a picnic table and a brand-new Angler of the Year talking about the biggest moment of his young career.

Trey McKinney made history. Less than 24 hours later, we talked about all of it.

The Bassmaster Elite Series season has come down to this — and there’s a LOT on the line.This week, Jake Latendresse is back for another Jake’s Take, and the timing couldn’t be better. We dig into some of the rumours making their way around about Bassmaster, what we’re hearing behind the scenes, and everything that is at stake heading into the final Elite Series tournament of the season on the St Lawrence River. But the biggest story is the Bassmaster Angler of the Year race. Three anglers. One tournament. And a battle that is simply too close to call.Trey McKinney, Drew Cook & Cory Johnston. Who handles the pressure? Who makes the right decisions? And who walks away as the 2026 Bassmaster Angler of the Year?The rumours are flying, the pressure is building, and the race is on. It’s all on this week’s Mercer Podcast.

Forward-facing sonar is right up there with politics and religion as a topic you’re probably better off not bringing up… so naturally, we’re talking about it.

This week on the MERCER Podcast, three different pro anglers with three very different perspectives weigh in on one of the biggest questions in professional bass fishing:

Did Bassmaster’s split forward-facing sonar schedule actually work?

Greg Hackney, Mike Iaconelli and Kyle Patrick give their opinions on how the season played out, what worked, what didn’t, and whether splitting the schedule between events with and without forward-facing sonar accomplished what Bassmaster hoped it would.

Did it create a more balanced playing field? Did it make the competition better? Did it prove anything at all? And most importantly—is this the format Bassmaster should stick with moving forward?

Three pros. Three perspectives. One topic that bass fishing just can’t stop arguing about.

Forward-facing sonar: did the split season work?

With just two Bassmaster Elite Series events remaining, Trey McKinney is once again right where he’s been knocking on the door for the last two seasons — in the hunt for Bassmaster Angler of the Year.

But this time, he’s the one everyone is chasing.

After finishing 2nd in AOY in each of his first two Elite Series seasons, Trey enters the final stretch leading the race and with a chance to finally finish the job.

This week on the Mercer Podcast, Trey talks about the pressure of leading AOY, what he’s learned from coming so close the last two years, and what it will take to close it out.

However we don’t avoid the tough stuff.

Does Trey get help from locals to find fishing spots? How does he handle the rumors, criticism and scrutiny that come with being one of the most successful young anglers in the sport? And does any of that noise actually get to him?

With two tournaments left and everything on the line, Trey McKinney answers the tough questions.