Entry 175-4
Bass Fishing with Greg Hackney
Editor’s Note: From the end of August through September, the weather’s really, really hot, so we asked Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, about his favorite techniques to make fish bite at this time of year.
Part 4: Hackney’s Favorite Hot-Weather Techniques
I really like to use crankbaits at this time of the year when the bass are feeding on baitfish more than they’re feeding on crawfish or any other type of forage. I catch many bass shallow-cranking at this time of the year. My two favorite crankbaits for hot-weather fishing are the Series 1 and the Series 4S. I really prefer the Series 4S because it’s bigger, and it casts better. But I let the size of the baitfish that the bass are feeding on tell me what size crankbait to fish.
The Series 1 runs from 0- to about 2-1/2-feet deep, and the Series 4S usually runs to about 3- to 4-feet deep. Most of the time, I’m fishing with a medium retrieve, and then I speed up the retrieve so that when the bait hits the cover, it’ll deflect off the cover. Then, I speed up the retrieve after the crankbait bounces off the cover. I use these crankbaits oftentimes in off-colored water. Most of the time, the strike will come after the crankbait bounces off the cover. My favorite colors are lime, blue, chartreuse and/or Tennessee shad. Most of the time, I’ll be fishing with 15- to 16-pound-test GAMMA Fluorocarbon Line. My home lake is the Arkansas River, but I fish about 150-miles south of Little Rock in Louisiana.
Several people asked how I put down that little crankbait that I’d caught so many bass on the first two days of the tournament to pick up the soft-plastic baits and start fishing them. The answer’s quite simple – I’ve learned from experience not to get locked into a particular lure. I don’t have any hesitation about switching lures when the weather, the fishing conditions or the cover I’m fishing in changes. So, at the Legends Tournament, even though I’d been highly successful on the Series 1 crankbait, when I saw the amount of grass cover that was available in the tournament, I knew I had to use soft plastics. I always try to match my lures to the color I’m fishing and not try to take the lure I have confidence in and make it produce bass in a place it hasn’t been designed to produce bass.
