Trey McKinney became the youngest Bassmaster Elite winner in history with his incredible four day catch of over 130 pounds on Texas' Lake Fork last week. (B.A.S.S.)

By Frank Sargeant
Frankmako1@gmail.com

It’s official: Kids and spinning tackle now rule the world of big money bass tournaments.

Trey McKinney, who is 18 years old, not only won the Bassmaster Elite event at Lake Fork, he won it with a near record catch of xxxx over the four days. Of course, part of the credit for that goes to the lake itself, which turned out multiple bags over 100 pounds for four days of fishing. More on this below. But McKinney proved he was up to the venue with his astounding daily catches, for sure.

Smart pro anglers are now running at least two big screen sonars on the console, 2, 3 or even 4 more up front to assure spotting fish and allowing precision casts to them. (Humminbird)

This is not the only case of Gen Z making their bassing seniors look a bit behind the times in big money events in recent years. The day of the wise old angler winning with experience appears largely at an end.

How are the younger anglers doing it?

Electronics and an approach that’s more science than intuition.

Those under 30 grew up with computers and smart phones and have a natural intuition for and gravitation toward all things electronic, including the latest whizz-bang forward facing and 360 sonar systems. They have complete faith in the digital world, and they use it consistently and with amazing skill. They rarely fish for bass they don’t “see” first on screen.

It has to be noted that they or their sponsors also invest heavily in the technology, to the point that the electronics can now make up close to a quarter of the cost of a $100k bass boat in some cases, and the huge systems—up to six big screens--require their own dedicated batteries.

While this is all a bit daunting to us weekenders who just want to get out on Saturday and catch a half-dozen 2 or 3 pounders from a jon boat, it’s now the way of professional fishing, and the youngsters are leading the charge.

Texas Parks & Wildllife has helped to make Lake Fork the top big bass producer in the nation with monsters like this ShareLunker trophy, in excess of 15 pounds. (TP&W)

Lake Fork Is Red Hot
The other news out of this tournament is that Lake Fork is now arguably THE best big bass lake on the planet. The 27,700-acre lake east of Dallas turned out more giant fish during the four day event than any other lake, ever, with the exception of Falcon Lake on the Mexican border, in 2008 when it was near new.

What’s up to cause the incredible boom in big fish?

Lake Fork got hit with the worst drought in its history from 2010 to 2015, dropping the water level to the lowest point since the lake was created. The shallows dried up quickly leaving exposed lake beds where plants now grew on land instead of submerged grass flats. Fishing virtually stopped.

As the lake began to fill back up again in 2015 and 2016, the exposed shorelines, now covered in brush and small trees, were submerged. Tens of thousands of baby bass were hatched successfully, grew fast in the new environment and found hiding spots in the new cover. Endless food was available in the fertile waters.

Meantime, Texas Parks & Wildlife did what was needed to grow the lake into a premiere fishery.  A combination of restrictive harvest regulations, stocking of 300,000 to 500,000 Florida strain largemouth almost annually, and abundant habitat contributed to rapid development of the fishery. Last year, TP&W reported that more than 65% of the Texas Top 50 largest bass (including the current state record) and more than half of those entered in the Toyota ShareLunker Program, were caught from Lake Fork.

It might not last—as the booming year classes that came up after the drought die out from old age (largemouth life span is typically around 10 years) the fishery may go back to normal unless another drought comes along to create another reset. But for the next couple of years, Lake Fork is the place bass fishing dreams come to reality.