Entry 294-4
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 4: Disqualification or A Dead Fish – Now That’s Bad
Question: Greg, how do you handle being disqualified in the tournament or having a dead fish at the weigh-in?
Hackney: Having a fish die on me from the time I put it in the live well until I reach the weigh-in station cost me $76,000 in an FLW Tour Event on Kentucky Lake in 2004. On the third day at weigh-in, one of my bass had died, which cost me 8 ounces in total tournament weight, causing me to loose the tournament by 5 ounces. The difference in the payout between first and second place in that tournament was $76,000. I’d been on a real hot streak at that time and had just finished in second place the previous week in a BASS Elite 50 Tournament. The loss didn’t bother me that much right after the tournament because I was fishing good, had a chance to win and didn’t lose through any fault of my own. The fish dying simply was bad luck. There was nothing I could do to prevent this loss because I didn’t know it would happen ahead of time.
Although the bass looked healthy when I put it in the live well, it died before I reached the weigh-in station. I didn’t let that dead fish bother me enough to cause me to fish poorly in the next tournament. 
As far as I was concerned, I’d won the tournament; I just got beat by a technicality over which I had no control. Realistically, I caught the fish needed to win the tournament. Too, I’m not the only person who’s experienced this problem. I had a tournament coming up the next week after this happened and needed to get myself mentally ready to win again. Bass fishing teaches you to never dwell on the past, but rather always look to the future. The sun will come out tomorrow, and you always can expect tomorrow to be better than today.
Next: I Love a Streak
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
