Entry 282-3

Greg Hackney Sets New Trophy Bass Record

Part 3: The Day to Get Ahead

Question: Greg, what did you do the second day of the tournament?

Hackney: I ran straight to the spot where I’d caught the 7-pounders, and a big fish broke me off. I had seven good bites from monster-sized bass but was only able to put two of these bass in the boat. The first fish weighed 11-pounds 3-ounces, and the second weighed 9-pounds 14-ounces. The third bass weighed 7-1/2-pounds. I only had about 28 pounds of bass before the fish shut-down. Remember, I stuck a couple of fish I didn’t land and had one fish break my line. So I had taught those fish not to bite, and no other fish would take my lure at that time. I had to leave those fish and travel to my number-two spot.

Question: Where was your number-two spot?

Hackney: My number-two spot was an underwater pond dam with a break in the middle of the dam. I made three casts to this spot, catching a 4-pounder, a 5-1/2-pounder and a 6-1/2-pounder. I culled the 4-pounder. I knew I had roughly 40 pounds for the day.

Question: Greg, how in the world did you find this underwater pond dam?

Hackney: I saw a road that came off the bank and went down into the water. So I started fishing down that underwater road bed. I noticed as I fished down the side of the road bed that the road bed dropped-off in one spot from 12 feet to 18 feet and on the other side of the road, there was a drop-off from 12 feet to 26 feet. So I graphed around that area and determined this road had run across the top of what now was a lake before the water rose. So, when I finished my graphing expedition, I determined that there had been a break in this pond dam, and that’s where all the bass had ganged-up. One spot produced all the bass I caught here. I sat in the middle of the pond and cast toward the former pond dam.

Question: Were you still fishing with the Anaconda?

Hackney: I caught two bass with the plum-colored Anaconda. Then I switched to the new Hack Attack jig that I helped design to catch the three-other bass I caught that finished my limit. This jig will be introduced at the 2009 Bassmaster’s Classic in February.

Question: What makes the Hack Attack jig different from others?

Hackney: It has a big hook and is designed to fish heavy cover for really-big bass. I threw the 5/8-ounce jig, which is the lightest jig in this series, but the weights of the jigs go up to 1-1/4-ounces, making it suitable for heavy timber, brush piles and thick grass. This is a heavy-cover, heavy-line jig with a No. 7/0 hook, a good weed guard and a head designed to penetrate heavy cover. There were some trees that had fallen in around that pond levee, and I started catching smaller bass on the Anaconda.

So, I switched to the Hack Attack jig to show the bass a different lure. I used a green-pumpkin-colored jig with a perch-colored skirt and a watermelon-red Rage Lobster on the back. I put the Rage Lobster, which is a really-big craw, on the back of that light jig to slow-down the fall of this jig. The bass wanted a bait with a big profile that fell really slowly. I’d drag the lure through the brush very slowly to get the fish to bite. I was fishing pulling-teeth slow and making repeated casts to the same spots.

Question: What was your total weight at the end of the second day?

Hackney: I had 39 pounds 11-ounces, which gave me a total of 71-pounds 11-ounces for two days of fishing, and I moved to first place in the tournament.

Next: The Last Tournament Day

Contents:

• Part 1: Twenty-five Bites in 2 Hours and Two 8-Pounders
• Part 2: Thirty-Two Pounds for 4th Place on Day One
• Part 3: The Day to Get Ahead
• Part 4: The Last Tournament Day
• Part 5: Hackney Holds First On the Final Day