Entry 250-1

Fishing Lake Amistad with Greg Hackney and the New Shadalicious and the Ocho Stir Stik

Part 1: Day 1 of the Tournament

Question: Greg, where is Lake Amistad?

Hackney: It’s in west-central Texas in Del Rio.

Question: How much money did you win for this tournament?

Hackney: I won $17,000.

Question: What did you know about Lake Amistad before you arrived?

Hackney: This was the third consecutive year we fished Lake Amistad, but we fished it a month later than in previous years.

Question: So, what did you know about the lake before you arrived?

Hackney: Probably 50% of the bass in the lake had already spawned before we arrived, so I assumed that the other 50% of the bass would be spawning while we were there. The Amistad Dam was pulling water through the lake really hard, which sped-up the spawn for the bass already on the bank and delayed the spawn for the bass that hadn’t yet reached the lake.

Question: So, most of the bass were deep, right?

Hackney: That’s right. But they weren’t necessarily deep. The bass were concentrated in 15 to 30 feet of water, holding in staging regions (places where they’d wait to either move out to deeper water or into shallow water).

Question: Okay, Greg, what did you learn in practice?

Hackney: I ran all over the lake and found some grass. The first year we fished at Lake Amistad, the lake had some grass in it. Then the next year, the lake didn’t have any grass. This year, I was able to find a little grass, which turned out to be the key to my success.

Question: What kind of grass did you fish?

Hackney: I fished hydrilla grass.

Question: When you found those grassy places in practice, were any bass holding there?

Hackney: Yes, there were. Too, I fished transition areas, where the bottom changed from rocks to grass. In areas that didn’t have grass, bass would be holding in 3 feet of water. But in the areas with grass, the bass were concentrating in 12 to 18 feet of water. Since the bass weren’t in extremely-deep water, I had a variety of baits to use. But I caught 95% of my bass on a crankbait.

Question: How many bass did you catch during practice, and how big were they?

Hackney: My best five bass in practice weighed 30 pounds. My biggest bass was about 7 pounds. I caught a really-good average size of bass.

Question: What did you decide in practice before the tournament?

Hackney: I believed I could catch post-spawn and pre-spawn bass in the grassy spots I located. When you can find places like this, you can catch bass moving to and away from the bank. You don’t have to worry about the post-spawn or the spawning bass leaving your spot because you have fish coming and going to the same section of water.

Question: When did you decide the crankbait would be your lure of choice?

Hackney: On the first day of practice, we had clouds and wind. Lake Amistad is a really-clear body of water. I started using the crankbait to cover a lot of water and try and find fish. The bass at this lake eat more bream and tilapia than shad. Every time we’ve fished there in the spring, the shad haven’t been a factor. I could use bream-colored crankbaits, reel them really fast so the bass couldn’t get a look at them and get the bass to bite. I used perch and crawfish-colored Series 5 and Series 6 crankbaits.

Question: On what pound-test line did you fish the crankbait?

Hackney: I alternated between 30- and 50-pound-test braided lines.

Question: The first day of competition was cancelled because of weather, right?

Hackney: Well, the day was cancelled because of the anticipation of weather. If we could have fished that day, it would have been the best fishing day. A front was coming through, and the wind was blowing 10- to 15-miles-per-hour. I’m certain there would have been giant bags of bass caught, if we could have fished that day. But the officials in the tournament were really concerned we would have a bad storm. So, they decided to cancel the day. Therefore, the second day of the tournament was really the first day of the tournament. Actually, the conditions were tougher to fish every day after the first day. The first day of the tournament was the first day after the cold front had passed.

Next: The Actual First Day of Competition

Contents:

• Part 1: Day 1 of the Tournament
• Part 2: The Actual First Day of Competition
• Part 3: Day 2 of the Competition
• Part 4: Day 3 of the Competition
• Part 5: Lessons from the Shadalicious and the Ocho Stir Stik