Entry 304-1

Greg Hackney on Smith Mountain Lake

Part 1: The Game Plan

Question: Greg, what did you know about Smith Mountain Lake before you arrived?

Hackney: I knew it was a deep, clear lake, and on the first two days of practice, I found quite a few bedding bass. I concluded that the main tactic to win the tournament would be sight fishing for bass on the bed, which was indeed a major factor in the tournament. However, a cold front came through and hit the lake on the second day of practice. The male bass stayed on the beds, but the bigger females pulled off their nests and didn’t really start showing up again until the last day of the tournament. Even after the female bass made that adjustment, they weren’t stable enough to start biting. I found that female bass have to stay on or near the bed for a day or two before they’re catchable.

Smith Mountain Lake is a really-good lake, and it homes plenty of 3- to 4-pound bass. However, these bass are difficult to catch. We were fishing so close to the spawn that the bass had finished feeding-up in preparation of the spawn. The female bass weren’t really interested in feeding, but rather, in laying their eggs. Then, when the cold front hit, the female bass pulled off the bank and suspended. When bass do that, they become really inactive. I’ve learned that the bass don’t really start feeding heavily in this situation until after they’ve finished spawning.

Because the male bass stayed on the bed after the female bass had pulled out, I was able to survive this tournament. I’d found a number of bass I thought could win the tournament, and I didn’t have a lot of competitors in my area. So, I thought I had a really-good chance to win. Every day, during practice and before the sun rose, I could flip the Strike King Rodent around wood cover and catch bass. However, after the sun rose, I’d have to start bed fishing.

Question: Why do you have so much confidence in the Rodent?

Hackney: The Strike King Rodent has a really-good profile and it’s the right size for a big bass to eat. Yet, it’s a very-subtle bait. The Rodent doesn’t move a lot. It doesn’t have hardly any action. So, when the bass are in a really finicky mood like they were during this tournament, they like to eat baits that don’t move a lot. When the bass become very aggressive, you need baits with a lot of action to attract them. But when the bass are inactive, you want baits like the Rodent that kind of slip into their areas without much fuss. The Rodent looks like a really-easy meal for the bass to eat, and that’s why they eat it.

Question: During practice, what color Rodent did you flip?

Hackney: I fished a green-pumpkin-colored Rodent and used Spike-It dye to put chartreuse on the tail of the bait.

Question: When the flipping bite was over, what did you do?

Hackney: I turned my trolling motor on high and went to the bank, trying to mark as many beds with numbers of bass as I could.

Question: How did you mark the beds, Greg?

Hackney: I have a GPS receiver on the front and the back of my boat. I’d mark the pockets where the bass were holding with the GPS on the back of the boat, and then mark the exact the location of each individual bass I found in that pocket with the GPS on the front of the boat. However, in the tournament, I didn’t catch very many of the bass I found on the bed. I had to fish new areas during the tournament and locate new bass. But I went into the pockets and the coves where I found bass and then cast and trolled the Strike King Zero, while I searched for bass. I got several bass using this tactic, including one 3 pounder. I didn’t catch a lot of bass every day during practice, but I got some quality bites.

Question: At the end of practice, what were the patterns you planned to fish during the first day of the tournament?

Hackney: Early in the morning, I planned to flip cover with the Rodent. Then I’d start sight fishing. When I was sight fishing, I used a 4-1/2-inch Coffee Tube and the new Baby Rage Craw, which is generally used as a trailer. I use a No. 5/0 Youvella short-shank hook, which is a big, heavy hook with a fairly-short shaft. The Baby Rage Craw is just big enough to fit on this hook. The lure was affective because many times the bedding bass would just barely pick-up off the bed to go after the bait, and since the Baby Rage Craw was small, and the hook so big, if the bass picked up the bait, it would have the hook in its mouth.

Next: Day 1 of the Smith Mountain Tournament

Contents:

• Part 1: The Game Plan
• Part 2: Day 1 of the Smith Mountain Tournament
• Part 3: Day 2 of the Tournament
• Part 4: Day 3 of the Smith Mountain Competition
• Part 5: The Last Day of the Smith Mountain Lake Tournament