Bass trac has two oz's seperating McKinney and Johnston. 

So the weigh in will reveal the AOY winner today. 

Johnston is AOY

So any opinions of the AOY ? 
To me it seems a little strange that the winner never even had a top ten finish. 
I understand it’s about consistency, but I myself think winning a tournament is a bigger deal. Anyways congrats to Johnston. 

Johnston joins elite company as a back to back winner of AOY. The only other anglers to accomplish that feat are KVD, Roland Martin, and Guido Hibdon

Johnston wanted it, watching him on the water vs Trey.. it's just unfortunate for Trey but very telling. Johnston fished hard all three days and earned the trophy. 
 

Congratulations to him for back to back AOY trophies! 

I'd like to point out that 3 of the top 10 anglers are in fact from Wisconsin.

 

Coincidence?

And yet another bad tournament for the scoping is killing bass fishing crowd. And the AOY is an all arounder too.

59 minutes ago, gim said:

I'd like to point out that 3 of the top 10 anglers are in fact from Wisconsin.

 

Coincidence?

 

Nope. Other than the home field advantage. Schlapper whupped the southerners on the Sabine too. Jay has had a great year as well. The state produces exceptional anglers.

1 hour ago, gim said:

I'd like to point out that 3 of the top 10 anglers are in fact from Wisconsin.

 

Coincidence?

 

11 hours ago, Dan N said:

So any opinions of the AOY ? 
To me it seems a little strange that the winner never even had a top ten finish. 
I understand it’s about consistency, but I myself think winning a tournament is a bigger deal. Anyways congrats to Johnston. 

 

Not the most inspiring way to win it, but going B2B puts him in elite company. 

 

Trey's win was amazing but he had some bad results early in the year. He has a huge future.

5 hours ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

 

Not the most inspiring way to win it, but going B2B puts him in elite company. 

 

Trey's win was amazing but he had some bad results early in the year. He has a huge future.

I’m a fan of Treys but I watched him in this tournament and he wasn’t mentally in it, it’s clear to me now that he doesn’t want to work on a non FFS tournament. On the other side of this, Johnston worked his butt off, he never stopped.. much like last year. I’m not an admirer of him but he’s got my respect for his toughness and ability. He can use the scope and find fish without it. Back to back AOY victories is no joke. He deserved it for sure. 

6 hours ago, Pumpkin Lizard said:

Schlapper whupped the southerners on the Sabine too.

 

I wouldn't put too much into that one.  Its choked full of 1 pounders lol

6 hours ago, F14A-B said:

I’m a fan of Treys but I watched him in this tournament and he wasn’t mentally in it, it’s clear to me now that he doesn’t want to work on a non FFS tournament. On the other side of this, Johnston worked his butt off, he never stopped.. much like last year. I’m not an admirer of him but he’s got my respect for his toughness and ability. He can use the scope and find fish without it. Back to back AOY victories is no joke. He deserved it for sure. 

I think you’re painting a broad stroke on the guy saying he wasn’t into it based on one or two tournaments. I don’t agree.

For his age the guy has proven his worth 

7 hours ago, gim said:

 

I wouldn't put too much into that one.  Its choked full of 1 pounders lol

 

Congratulations Pat Schlapper on the win!

 

https://www.bassresource.com/bass_fishing_123/bass-mississippi-82425.html

16 hours ago, F14A-B said:

I’m a fan of Treys but I watched him in this tournament and he wasn’t mentally in it, it’s clear to me now that he doesn’t want to work on a non FFS tournament. On the other side of this, Johnston worked his butt off, he never stopped.. much like last year. I’m not an admirer of him but he’s got my respect for his toughness and ability. He can use the scope and find fish without it. Back to back AOY victories is no joke. He deserved it for sure. 

listened to Trey this morning on the Mercer Podcast. According to Trey his biggest strength is jigs and fishing brush piles.  
 

Biggest weakness: fishing endless grass mats. He isn’t good at find the hard spots and breaking them down. This was recorded a week ago.

 

He laughed at the idea that he was an FFS guy. When he was fishing BFLs and other tournaments it was all about power fishing. 

Just now, Pumpkin Lizard said:

listened to Trey this morning on the Mercer Podcast. According to Trey his biggest strength is jigs and fishing brush piles.  
 

Biggest weakness: fishing endless grass mats. He isn’t good at find the hard spots and breaking them down. This was recorded a week ago.

 

He laughed at the idea that he was an FFS guy. When he was fishing BFLs and other tournaments it was all about power fishing. 
 

That’s a good insight into his performance this week, which really wasn’t that bad.

 

On 8/23/2025 at 11:28 PM, Dan N said:

So any opinions of the AOY ? 
To me it seems a little strange that the winner never even had a top ten finish. 
I understand it’s about consistency, but I myself think winning a tournament is a bigger deal. Anyways congrats to Johnston. 

It's a symptom of a stacked field....When the entire field is strong, its very difficult to win or finish high so a lot of times the AOY winner might not notch a win during that season.  Between anglers improving their electronics skills and the schedule negating the some of the electronics dominance, this Elite season looked to be a gauntlet.  Trey had a great season an stacked high finishes, but he had 1 dud....Which is also a symptom of a stacked field, you can't have a dud no matter how good the rest of your season is.  

 

When an angler stacks wins and top 10's (or a couple anglers)....It's usually a sign of a top heavy field.