Entry 319-1

How I won a $1/2-Million in One Weekend with Greg Hackney

Part 1: A $25,000 Win for a Ticket to Compete for $1/2-Million

Question: Where were you fishing?

Hackney: We were fishing the Three Rivers, which included the Ohio, the Allegheny and the Monongahela; I had fished a Bassmaster Classic there in 2005, so I had a pretty-good idea what the fishing would be like before I arrived. I knew this tournament would be tough, and I’d have to really work hard to catch a lot of little bass.

Question: Greg, what made this tournament such a tough tournament?

Hackney: These three rivers constituted a very-polluted system in the past. However, a fantastic job has been done to clean-up these rivers. The rivers are beginning to recover, but there’s still not a lot of bait there or cover. The area really doesn’t have a lot of backwaters where the fish can winter. These rivers contain more fish now than has been there in awhile, but all the bass are small. Catching 12-inch keepers is really difficult.

Question: Greg, how many days did you have to practice?

Hackney: I spent about 2 weeks at home before the tournament preparing two clear Plano tackle boxes with all the lures I thought I’d use. My goal was to catch 12-inch fish and hope that those fish would total 5-6 pounds a day. I thought that weight would be enough to win the tournament.

Question: Greg, what lures did you think you’d have to use in this tournament?

Hackney: I planned to use all the lures that I would normally use to fish for bass, except they’d be scaled-down. For instance, I’m a jig fisherman, but the biggest jig I took was a Strike King Bitsy Bug. I carried a Strike King Mini-King spinner bait and a Strike King crappie spinner bait with me. The biggest standard-size spinner bait I carried was a 1/4-ounce Strike King Premier Model, and that was one of the biggest lures I took with me. I took 2- and 3-inch worms, little shad-bodied lures – the kinds of lures that I’d usually fish with for either white bass or crappie.

Question: What did you learn in practice?

Hackney: The biggest thing I learned in practice was that the river had changed a lot from when I had fished it previously. I looked for key areas that I thought might hold five, 12-inch bass every day of the tournament. The heaviest line I took with me was 12-pound test, and most of the line I fished with was 6-pound-test line on my spinning rods and 10-pound test on my bait-casting rods.

Question: Greg, you’re generally a bubba-bait fisherman. You like big jigs, big spinner baits, big buzzbaits and big crankbaits. Those kinds of lures are what you like to fish in Louisiana and in much of the South. Were you planning to be fishing the complete opposite kind of tackle than you fished at home?

Hackney: Yes, I was going to be fishing much-smaller baits than I usually fished in the South, but I was planning to use the same lures, just in smaller sizes. As a matter of fact, the lures I took with me were what I called tiny baits. I just downsized the lures I would have to use as much as possible. I’d been off for 2 months, so all I did was mentally prepare to fish for the bass in the Three Rivers region.

Question: How did you qualify for this tournament, Greg?

Hackney: I won the FLW East/West Fish-Off. I had qualified through the FLW Series; then the FLW took the top 30 fishermen from the West and the top 30 from the East for this Fish-Off. I was paired against one guy from the West. All I had to do was beat that one guy from the West. Not only did I beat him and win the tournament, I set the all-time 3-day tournament record for the FLW with 111 pounds of bass weighed-in during that 3-day tournament.

Question: Where was this tournament held?

Hackney: The tournament was held on Falcon Lake in Texas.

Question: How much did you win in the East/West Fish-Off?

Hackney: I won $25,000.

Question: What place were you in for the points standing when you came to fish the 2009 FLW Cup tournament in Pittsburgh?

Hackney: I was 8th in points on the FLW circuit.

Next: The First Day of Competition: Three Bass - 3-Pounds Plus - and I’m Still in the Hunt for the $1/2-Million

Contents:

• Part 1: A $25,000 Win for a Ticket to Compete for $1/2-Million
• Part 2: The First Day of Competition: Three Bass - 3-Pounds Plus - and I’m Still in the Hunt for the $1/2-Million
• Part 3: The Second Day of Competition: From 36th Place to 1st Place in 1 Day
• Part 4: From Leading the Tournament to Middle of the Pack with 1 Day Left and $1/2-Million in the Balance
• Part 5: Three Ounces for $1/2-Million