Entry 212-2

Greg Hackney’s Saltwater Tactics for Catching Bass

Part 2: How I Fished During Day One of the Bassmasters Lake Erie Elite Tournament

Question: Greg, which flight were you in on the first day of the tournament?

Hackney: I was in the back of the pack and one of the last boats to leave the launch site.

Question: Weren’t you afraid some of the other contestants would find the fishing spots you’d found and fish them?

Hackney: Not really. I hadn’t seen any other boats on any of my sites during practice, and I had enough spots that homed enough big fish that even if someone did find a couple of my areas, I still would have plenty of places to fish without anyone else in the area.

Question: Were the rest of the competitors fishing along the bank?

Hackney: No. Nearly everyone was fishing offshore structure, including the top-12 anglers in the tournament.

Question: When you launched from the harbor on the first morning, where did you go to first, and why?

Hackney: I started on my best places where I’d caught 5 pounders because I wanted to catch a huge bag on the first day.

Question: What happened at your first spot?

Hackney: I lost a couple of 5-pound smallmouth, but then I caught three, 5 pounders pretty quickly. The first five fish I put in my live well weighed a total of between 17 and 18 pounds, so I spent the rest of the day running around looking for a big fish. One of the problems on the first day was that we had 6- to 8-foot seas, and the wind was blowing at 25-miles-per hour. So, I rotated between two sites that were close together. I couldn’t reach some of my other spots because the weather was bad.

Question: How do you fish the drop-shot rig in 6- to 8-foot seas?

Hackney: I threw out a drift sock to slow the speed at which my boat was drifting in the wind. Then all I could do was get my lead to the bottom and drag my drop-shot with a finesse worm on it across the spots I’d marked with my GPS. I cranked my big engine, ran the boat to the region above the places I wanted to fish, put out my windsock and then drifted across the spot again. Because the force of the wind and the current was so strong, I couldn’t hold the boat right over the fish. So, I had to troll across the spots I was fishing.

Question: How did you rig your drop-shot?

Hackney: I used 6-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon line, a No. 1/0 hook and a 1/2-ounce Tungsten drop-shot sinker. The only worm I used was Strike King’s 3X 4-inch watermelon-candy-colored finesse worm. The water in Lake Erie was clear enough that I could see 15-feet down into the water, so I wanted a natural-colored worm for my drop-shot rig.

Question: Were the sites you fished on the first day holding a big school of smallmouth, or were they locations where smallmouth hung around all day?

Hackney: The places where I was fishing held several schools of smallmouth.

Question: How many pounds of smallmouth did you catch on the first day?

Hackney: I caught 17 pounds of smallmouth on my first day, and my partner caught 19 pounds for a total of 20 pounds for the day. The bass surrounded the boat, so I didn’t have to share my fish with my amateur partner. At the end of the first day, my partner was in second place in the Partners Division and I was in fourth place in the Pro Division. I was confident because I knew I’d caught quality fish at my first two holes. When we woke up the next day, there were small-craft warnings, so the second day of the tournament was cancelled.

Next: How I Fished During Day Three of the Bassmasters Lake Erie Elite Tournament

Contents:

• Part 1: How to Learn About a Lake You’ve Never Fished
• Part 2: How I Fished During Day One of the Bassmasters Lake Erie Elite Tournament
• Part 3: How I Fished During Day Three of the Bassmasters Lake Erie Elite Tournament
• Part 4: How I Fished During the Final Day of the Bassmasters Lake Erie Elite Tournament
• Part 5: What I’ve Learned