Entry 304-1

Greg Hackney on Smith Mountain Lake

Part 5: The Last Day of the Smith Mountain Lake Tournament

Question: Greg, what did you have to do on the last day to win?

Hackney: I needed to catch at least 20 pounds of bass on that last day to win. I really only needed 19 pounds, and I caught 15 pounds, 5 ounces. I had the biggest bag of bass brought to the scales on the last day of the tournament.

Question: How did you find and catch those big bass on the last day?

Hackney: One of the lakes I planned to fish had muddied-up because of a rain we had during practice. As I was running up to the lake where I’d intended to fish, I thought about those bass I’d found in that pocket, which was now muddied-up. I thought to myself, “Greg, you may be able to catch those bass in that creek using standard-fishing tactics instead of bed-fishing tactics. There should be some females that have moved-up, but they’re not locked on the beds, yet.”

To me, sight fishing isn’t really fishing because you don’t actually make a cast until you see the bass. To me, fishing is when I’m flipping or casting, and I don’t know where the bass is located or when it will bite. So, I started flipping cover with a dirty-water bait. Because I’d learned that the females usually cruised in this spot looking for a bedding site, I went to that dirty water where I couldn’t see the bass and caught two of my biggest bass fishing the Strike King Rodent.

One of the bass was a 3 pounder, and the second bass was almost 5 pounds. Then, I caught a third keeper bass while I was still flipping the green-pumpkin-colored Rodent. By 10:00 am, I had three bass – two keepers and one other nice-sized bass. Next, I went sight-fishing, found some bass, caught two fairly quickly and finished my limit. Then, I found two-more quality bass and was able to cull some of the bass in my boat. But I didn’t have the big-bass bites I needed to win the tournament.

Question: Going into the weigh-in, how much bass did you think you’d caught?

Hackney: I thought I only had about 13 pounds, but when the bass were sent to the scale, I saw that I had over 15 pounds. When I weighed-in, I took the lead in the tournament However, two more anglers weighed-in, knocking me out of the lead. Kelly Jordon of Mineola, Texas, took the lead to finish in third place, Matt Herren of Trussville, Alabama, finished in second place, and Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, won the tournament. Kevin was keying-in on smallmouths. Not many of the other anglers were even trying to catch smallmouth. Kevin beat me by 4 pounds.

Question: What did you learn in this tournament, Greg?

Hackney: I sight-fished more in this tournament than I’d ever sight-fished before. On most of the tournaments where sight-fishing was the order of the day, I still could compete by casting or flipping and not sight fishing. In this tournament, however, my major pattern was sight-fishing. I’ve always liked to sight-fish, but I’ve never liked to sight-fish during a tournament.

Question: Why did you pick the Baby Rage Craw as one of your primary lures?

Hackney: I’d never fished the Baby Rage Craw before the first day of this tournament. But I’ve sight-fished enough to know that the size of the bait can have an impact on the size of the bass you catch. Since I was catching mainly male bass, and they were smaller than female bass, I knew a lure like the Baby Rage Craw might be more appropriate than a bigger bait. I Texas-rigged the Baby Rage Craw with that No. 5/0 hook. I’d peg the slip sinker to the head of the Baby Rage Craw, so it would sink straight to the bottom, because the bass liked to take the bait on the bottom.

Question: Why did you decide to use the watermelon-red color?

Hackney: Watermelon red is fairly transparent and a little more subtle. Because the bass were more finicky, I didn’t want to scare them with a brighter lure. I fished the Baby Rage Craw on 10-pound-test fluorocarbon line.

Question: Greg, you have a week off to go home to Louisiana. Then, you have to go to a tournament at Guntersville Lake. What do you think you’ll have to do at Guntersville to win?

Hackney: Guntersville Lake in Guntersville, Alabama, is a big-bass lake. To win, an angler would have to weigh-in 80-plus pounds. The shad spawn will be the factor I key-in on in this tournament. I may have 1 to 1-1/2-hours to fish that spawn. I’ll probably be fishing a 1/2-ounce double-willowleaf Strike King spinner bait in the white-and-chartreuse or the smoking-shad colors. But Kevin VanDam won a tournament on Guntersville Lake the last time we fished it out on the ledges, cranking a Series 5 crankbait. So, I won’t know until I get to Guntersville how I’ll fish it.

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