Entry 255-2

Looking Back at Lake Murray and Forward to Wheeler Lake with Greg Hackney

Editor’s Note: Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, finished 17th in the Bassmaster Elite Series tournament May 15-18 at Lake Murray in Columbia, South Carolina. Hackney was only 13 ounces from making the 12-cut, and if luck had been on his side, he might could have won the tournament. This week, Hackney will tell us what he learned from Lake Murray, how he competed against 108 of the best bass fisherman in the world, and how he plans to fish the next tournament at Wheeler Lake, June 5-8.

Part 2: The First Day of Competition

Question: Greg, what was your game plan when you went out on the first day of competition at Lake Murray?

Hackney: I had a couple of different techniques. During practice, I caught a number of quality bass but never caught any really-big fish. So, on the first day, I ran my spinner-bait pattern. All the fish I caught were in the 2- to 3-pound range. I caught about 30 bass on the first day. I just never got any really-big bites. Another technique I developed on that first day was using a Strike King Z Too on a scrounger head jig. Later in the morning, I caught some key fish using this rig.

Question: Greg, what’s a scrounger head?

Hackney: It’s a lead-headed jig with a bill on it. I’d put the Z Too on the hook and swim that Z Too through the water like a baitfish. Basically, I just chunked it out and reeled it in to the boat. The scrounger head made the Z Too look like a swim bait. I liked the Z Too better than the swim bait because the Z Too more-closely resembled a blueback herring with a long profile. Blueback herring are long and skinny, just like the Z Too.

Question: What Z Too did you fish?

Hackney: I used Arkansas shiner and pearl colors.

Question: What line did you fish?

Hackney: I fished the Z Too on 14-pound-test fluorocarbon line and the spinner bait on 20-pound-test Gamma fluorocarbon line.

Question: On what kinds of places were the bass holding?

Hackney: I ran a series of rock points and flats, covered a lot of water and fished a number of places because the bass were really fighting well.

Question: Did you catch any stripers?

Hackney: I found that if you moved your baits really fast from the shallow water to the deep water, the stripers would jump all over it. But I was slow-rolling that spinner bait and fishing it down and closer to the bottom. When I fished the scrounger head jig and the Z Too, I fished it the same way. To repel the stripers, I slowed down my retrieve because the stripers like a really-fast moving bait. I caught one striper the first day. The visibility in that water was 5 to 8 feet. So, the stripers could see the bait and turn off it before they hit it.

Question: So, how many pounds of bass did you have the first day?

Hackney: I had 14 pounds and some change and was in 22nd place at the end of the first day, which was good enough to make the 50-cut.

Looking Back at Lake Murray and Forward to Wheeler Lake with Greg Hackney

Part 2: The First Day of Competition

Next: Day Two of the Tournament

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