Entry 263-1
Greg Hackney on His 2008 Bass Fishing and Strike King’s New Lures
Editor’s Note: Tiger Woods doesn’t always win, and one of the greatest hitters in baseball before the days of steroids was Babe Ruth. In addition to setting the homerun record for his day, he set the strike-out record. Sometimes when we go fishing, we’ll strike out. But the difference with the Strike King Pros is that when they work hard all week and strike out, they don’t go home with their paydays. We talked with Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, to learn how pros deal with this problem.
Part 1: Even Babe Ruth Strikes Out
Question: Greg, what kind of year have you had on the BASS circuit?
Hackney: This year has probably been my worst ever.
Question: What’s causing you to have a bad year, Greg?
Hackney: I can’t put my finger on it. I’m looking for excuses, but I can’t find any. Things haven’t come together as easily for me this year as they have in years past. One of the problems I’ve had is that I find bass in practice, and I can catch them pretty good. But when the tournament starts, I can’t seem to stay on the fish. I don’t seem to be able to make the adjustments quick enough to changing water, cloud cover and fishing conditions to stay with the bass and continue to catch them.
Question: How much of your tournament fishing is mental?
Hackney: 95% of my tournament fishing is mental. I can cast, flip and pitch with any of the Top 200 fishermen. I’ve got all the physical skills I need to win tournaments, just like the rest of the fishermen do. So when you’re fishing at this level where everyone has the same skills set, the mental side of the game plays a bigger role in your success than when you’re fishing for fun. I estimate that 95% + of my fishing success is mental.
Question: Greg, what messes-up your mental game?
Hackney: When I have all my systems working, and I’m really tuned in to my fishing, our having a 2- or a 3-week break between tournaments really messes me up. I do better, and many of the guys will if we go from tournament to tournament without a break. I know that when I return from a break, I can’t reach the same momentum that I’ve had before the break when I was fishing well. I haven’t had that problem in the past. I don’t know why it’s cropping-up this year.
Question: Greg, what do you do to fix this problem?
Hackney: I’m not sure because I’ve never had this problem. The main thing I have to do is not let this problem bother me. I need to quit thinking about it and stay focused on the tournaments I’ve got in front of me and not the problems I’ve had in the past. The more you dwell on a problem, the worse it becomes. I’m looking forward to the next two tournaments we have coming up. We’re going to New York this week. My last tournament at Old Hickory went pretty well.
Question: What made the last tournament at Old Hickory a good one?
Hackney: I feel like I fished really well and didn’t make any mistakes. I finished 25th out of 200 fishermen, and I was only 1-1/2-pounds from making the top 12 cut. I practiced well, and I fished well during the tournament. I might have lost one fish, which would have put me in the Top 12, but it wasn’t my fault that the fish came off the hook.
Question: What else made you feel good about that tournament, Greg?
Hackney: I didn’t make any fishing mistakes. For instance, you can finish second in a tournament, and it will be a bad tournament for you, if you make lots of mistakes that cost you first place. So, the way I judge my performance in a tournament is not by how much money I win or what place I finish but by how many mistakes I make. In our sport, there are so-many variables that a fisherman has no control over. If you finish in the top 25 in many tournaments and make very-few mistakes, you’re doing well. However, there are many things that can cause you not to win. The water or wind can change, or another fisherman may have found the same bass you have and reached them before you got there.
So, we don’t control the variables in our sport of fishing, which is something that inshore and bass fishermen must understand. 
There are so-many things about bass fishing that you can’t control that you shouldn’t get down on yourself when you don’t catch fish every time you go fishing. If I can look back at a tournament knowing I’ve made no mistakes, even though I may not have won the tournament, I’ll know I’ve fished well. I believe that this is how any fisherman needs to judge a day of bass fishing. Did the bass and the elements beat you? Or, did you make mistakes and beat yourself? If you beat yourself, fix what you can, and don’t worry about the rest.
Contents:
- Part 1: Even Babe Ruth Strikes Out
- Part 2: I’m Looking Forward to Monkeying Around
- Part 3: Catch The Wake
- Part 4: I’ll Have the Lobster
- Part 5: There’s a New Creature Living on The Bottom
