Entry 175-2
Bass Fishing with Greg Hackney
Editor’s Note: In August 2006, Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, placed 2nd in the 4-Day Bassmaster Legends tournament, held on the Arkansas River near Little Rock, Arkansas, and won $36,000. In the hot weather with tough fishing, many of the top anglers had days when they didn’t even bring in one weighable fish. But Hackney, who has really been hot on the circuit this year, earning more than $200,000, has hot-weather fishing secrets, which he’ll share this week.
Part 2: How Hackney Fished the Series 1 to Get a $36,000 Payday
I fished the Series 1 chrome crankbait with a black back on a medium retrieve during the first two days of the Legends Tournament. But the real secret to making the bass bite was bouncing that little crankbait off the cover. I was really getting reaction strikes from the bass. The other way I caught bass was by beating that cover up pretty badly. I’d often make up to six casts to the same cover before getting a bass. I felt I should keep putting that crankbait in the fish's strike zone and bouncing off that cover until I made it bite.
Of course, when the boats locked through the dam and the water current began, the bass started biting better. When I have moving water, I may catch a bass on the first cast. But without moving water, a bass may not bite until the fifth or sixth cast.
At the Legends Tournament, I was using 12-pound-test GAMMA Fluorocarbon Line. The fish were holding at 2- to 4-feet deep on the edges of old stump rows. I kept the Series 1 crankbait tied on one rod during all four days of the tournament. I had a lot of confidence in that bait because it fit the profile of the shad that the bass were eating. 
Most people won’t fish a little crankbait because they think that a little crankbait’s designed for ultra-light fishing like little bass. However, I’ll choose a bait based on what forage I think the bass are feeding on at the time of the year I’m fishing.
My two favorite crankbaits are a Strike King Series 1 and Series 3. Anywhere I fish in the nation, I’ve found that those two crankbaits can produce bass. The only difference in these two lures is the depths that they cover.
On the first day of the tournament, I weighed in the biggest fish and the largest limit of the day. All of those fish were caught on that Series 1 crankbait. I had one fish that weighed almost 5 pounds. So, don’t underestimate the fish-catching ability of a little lure like the Series 1. On the second day of the tournament, I had five bass that totaled 14 pounds, which was a huge stringer for that time of year on the Arkansas River. The next biggest stringer was 11 pounds.
Another advantage I had was having fished in so many fishing rivers I knew what kind of structure the quality fish would be holding on at this time of year. Someone asked me what I did different from the other competitors on the 3rd or 4th day of the tournament when I had four to six different locations to fish, and all the other competitors were fishing from those same places. 
My answer was I didn’t try to fish the entire location on any hole we fished. I’d pick out a 100-yard stretch of bank where I thought the fish would be holding, and I fished that spot thoroughly. I didn’t try to get several bites in each hole, but instead just one bite in each hole. I tried to pick key cover areas in each hole.
The difference between the last two days of fishing and the first two days was that I was fishing primarily back water during the first two days, but my holes on the last two days were on the main river. I just picked out what I thought was quality cover that would hold plenty of fish, and I tried to fish for one bite in each hole.
When I figured out how tough this tournament would be, I decided it probably would be a five-bite tournament. By that I mean, if you could get five bites from keeper fish in one day and land all five bites, you’d win. On the first day, I had four bites and caught two bass. On the second day, I had five bites and caught four bass. I knew wasn’t going to get many keeper bites. 
I did catch a lot of bass, but many of those bass weren’t keeper fish. We had a 15-inch-size limit, and catching a bass over 15 inches was hard.
When we were fishing in the holes, I drastically slowed my fishing down, fished every piece of cover as thoroughly and slowly as I could fish it and tried to work hard in that time for one good bite. On the last two days of the tournament when we were fishing the holes, I fished different baits. I fished a Strike King 3X Finesse Worm and the Z Too, and I caught some bass fishing a bleeding bait tube. When we started fishing the holes, I caught all my fish using plastic lures.
