Entry 294-1
Tournament Bass Fishing with Greg Hackney – Get Your Head Together and Keep it Together
Editor’s Note: From February 20-22, 2009 in Shreveport-Bossier City, Louisiana, 51 of the best bass fishermen in the nation competed for $500,000 in the 2009 Bassmaster Classic, where the winner was determined by skill, luck, talent and emotional stability. If you lose your cool in a big tournament, you’ll lose the tournament, and if you’re not mentally prepared, you won’t fish well. How professional tournament bass fishermen deal with the emotions and the pressures of bass fishing determines their success or failure. This week, Strike King has asked Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, the pre-Classic favorite, how he deals with his emotions during a big tournament. If we can understand how the best bass fishermen in the world deal with the emotions of bass fishing, we’ll greatly improve our chances for success every time we fish for bass.
Part 1: Riding the Emotional Roller-Coaster of Bass Fishing
Question: Greg, how do you describe tournament bass fishing?
Hackney: Tournament bass fishing is an emotional roller-coaster ride. When you’re at the top, you experience the highest of highs, but when you’re at the bottom, you feel the lowest of lows. Fishing is often an emotional overload, whether you’re tournament fishing or fishing for fun. As I’ve matured, I’ve learned how to handle the emotional aspects of bass fishing a little better and control my emotions better now than in the past.
Question: One of the worst realities of bass fishing is when you go out fishing and don’t catch any bass, or if you’re a tournament fisherman, when you lose a tournament where you’re favored to win. How do you deal with that type of situation?
Hackney: You have to look at the positive side of what has happened. You’ve had a chance to win the tournament, and that’s a positive. Review the factors that have caused you to lose, determine the steps you could’ve done differently, and recognize the lessons you’ve learned. 
To become a successful bass fisherman, follow the same secrets to success that we do in life, such as finding the positive in any negative situation. If I lose a tournament I could’ve won, I immediately think I did well because I had a chance to win.
When I look back at the tournament and the reasons I’ve lost, I look at those details as learning experiences. Then identify the mistakes and what I could have done to prevent them from happening. Then I vow not to make those same mistakes in the next tournament. Weekend bass fishermen can use this same type of emotional management. When you miss a bass, know that you at least tricked that bass into trying to eat your lure. So, you should be able to entice another bass on your next cast.My philosophy is to learn from my bad tournaments and gain motivation, confidence and skill during my good tournaments.
Question: How do you get a poor tournament performance off your mind?
Hackney: I turn a negative performance into a positive opportunity. When I perform poorly in a tournament, I can’t wait to compete in the next tournament to prove that I’m better than my bad performance. A bad tournament really motivates me to do well in the next tournament
Question: How do you get over losing a 6-pound bass in a major tournament or in a day of fishing?
Hackney: When I lose a nice-sized bass, I tell myself, “That was a good 6-pound bass I just missed. He’s not the only 6-pound bass on this lake. If I can entice that bass into biting, then I can tempt another one into biting.” Bass fishing has helped me grow as a person and a fisherman by learning to turn negative situations into positive ones and to use the negative aspects of bass fishing to help me fish better the next time I go out on the water.
Next: How to Handle the Slump
Contents:
- Part 1: Riding the Emotional Roller-Coaster of Bass Fishing
- Part 2: How to Handle the Slump
- Part 3: When the Wheels Come Off
- Part 4: Disqualification or A Dead Fish - Now That's Bad
- Part 5: I Love a Streak
