{"id":166357,"date":"2025-08-22T11:33:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:33:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166357\/"},"modified":"2025-08-22T11:33:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-22T11:33:11","slug":"day-1-aoy-battle-update-standings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/166357\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 1 AOY Battle Update & Standings"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the Starting Spot -Bassmaster Elite Edition -Day 1. Your regular news headlines will resume next week, but until then come behind the scenes with me at the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series<\/a> season finale on the Mississippi River in beautiful La Crosse, Wisconsin. This will still be the perfect way to start your day with some of the top bass fishing stories on the internet. Thanks to FXR Pro Fish,<\/a> I\u2019ll be providing little mini-stories from my own observations. Plus, I\u2019ll have direct access to Trey McKinney and the whole FXR Pro Fish team. So, rub the sleep from your eyes, pour that first cup of the day, and head to your Starting Spot. <\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

So far, I’ve not seen the smiley, chatty, Trey McKinney I’m used to. \/ Photo by Kurt Mazurek<\/p>\n

I sat with McKinney at dinner the night before the start of the tournament and then photographed him at takeoff on Day 1 of the 2025 Bassmaster Elite Series season finale on the Mississippi River, and the normally smiley, happy-go-lucky kid was a lot more serious than I\u2019ve seen him before. It seems like he understands the magnitude of the current opportunity to win AOY and he\u2019s taking it seriously. I wouldn\u2019t say that I sensed he was nervous, but he was definitely stoic. <\/p>\n

\u2028\u2028I think it\u2019s great that he\u2019s taking it seriously, I just hope he remembers that he seems to fish like himself (an absolute bass killer) when he\u2019s chatty and laughing and singing.<\/p>\n

\"Matty<\/p>\n

Matty Wong is all about positive energy. \/ Photo by Kurt Mazurek<\/p>\n

Hawaii\u2019s Matty Wong is one of the anglers who is about to feel the wrath of the Elite Series qualification point system. But at takeoff he seemed like he was ready to enjoy every moment he has as a Bassmaster Elite angler. Wong has been a standout the past couple years as a guy who just exudes positive vibes. Whatever happens in qualifications, I\u2019m a fan and I\u2019ll follow his fishing career wherever it goes.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

If it’s a Bassmaster Elite tournament at La Crosse, expect an appearance of the General Lee. \/ Photo by Kurt Mazurek<\/p>\n

Apparently this bass fishing fan has broken out the Ol\u2019 General Lee boat at previous Elite Events at La Crosse. This year he upped the ante with the addition of a captain\u2019s hat and a new\u2026let\u2019s say, mascot, dressed in a Matt Robertson \u201cON\u2019EM\u201d t-shirt. Later, at the weigh in, Gerald Swindle discussed the mascot with emcee, Dave Mercer. I\u2019ll just share with you that the conversation ended when Mercer told Swindle, \u201cThe road is a lonely place.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trey<\/p>\n

Trey McKinney back stage at weigh in having his catch checked by tournament officials. \/ Photo by Kurt Mazurek<\/p>\n

If you watched the weigh in then you heard that the historic two-way tied battle for Angler of the Year, remains virtually unchanged at the end of day one. Johnston took a two ounce lead over McKinney, but neither one of them are above the Day 2 cut line. On a day when one of them left the door open, so did the other one. It\u2019s as if they know that keeping it close will make for a way more exciting ending. And they\u2019re not wrong. Tomorrow should be fun\u2026at least for the fans!<\/p>\n

\"Close<\/p>\n

JT Thompkins appears to be in a good mood after a solid Day 1 performance. \/ Photo by Kurt Mazurek<\/p>\n

And speaking of how tomorrow should be fun, I will be riding along with FXR Pro Fish team member, JT Thompkins as his official observer. Thompkins caught them pretty well today and is currently in 16th place. I\u2019ll get to see first hand exactly how he\u2019s catching them. Expect lots of photos.<\/p>\n

Thanks for starting your day with <\/strong>Fishing On SI.<\/strong><\/a> <\/strong>Lines in!<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is the Starting Spot -Bassmaster Elite Edition -Day 1. Your regular news headlines will resume next week,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":166358,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-166357","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115072205314075319","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166358"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}