Entry 321-3
Greg Hackney Tries Out the Strike King Hack Attack at Lake Oneida
Editor’s Note: Two-weeks before the last event on the BASS Elite Series, Strike King pro Greg Hackney of Gonzales, Louisiana, won the 2009 Forrest L. Wood Cup and $500,000 at Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. But after this big win, Hackney had to turn around, re-program himself, drive over 1,000 miles from his home in Louisiana and fish Lake Oneida in New York to fish against another group of some of the best bass fishermen in the world. There was a $100,000 first-place prize, but more importantly, he had to make sure he qualified for the 2010 Bassmaster Classic. Having won over $1/2-million dollars 2-weeks earlier, most of us would have kicked-back and coasted during the next tournament, but not Hackney. Hackney, like all of the Strike King pros, is a staunch competitor first and a bass fisherman second. He enters a competition, not to play the game, but to give his best effort to win. Let’s see how Hackney rebounded after winning the FLW Championship.
Part 3: The Second Day of Competition
Question: Greg, what was your game plan for the second day of competition?
Hackney: I went to the places where I’d caught largemouths in the past in hopes of catching some big fish in the very beginning of the day. I learned that later in the day the largemouths didn’t bite as well as they did earlier. On the first day of competition, I went to my smallmouth spots first and didn’t get to my largemouth spots until about 9:00 am. When I did reach my largemouth spots, I only caught one bass that increased the weight of my bag. So, I decided if I was going to catch big largemouths and improve my weight and my place in the tournament, I needed to go to my largemouth spots first and then fish my smallmouth sites later in the day.
Question: Were you still exclusively fishing a jig the next day?
Hackney: Yes, I was, but I learned that the largemouths were holding around certain types of vegetation in that water. I looked for patches of hydrilla in those milfoil flats. The largemouths seemed to be keying on those patches of hydrilla. 
I was catching my largemouths during practice on the 3/4-ounce Hack Attack jig, but on the second day of the tournament, I switched to the 1/2-inch jig to get the largemouths to bite.
These largemouths were post-spawn, and they really hadn’t recovered from the spawn yet. Since this area had had a late winter, the bass had spawned later than they normally would. They had only left the bed a few weeks before the tournament started. So, I downsized my jig from a 3/4-ounce to a 1/2-ounce jig to get a slower fall and get the bass to bite better.
Question: Besides downsizing the jig, what were you doing to make them bite?
Hackney: I had to really do what I call “fishing a jig.” The difference between catching bass on the jig and “fishing the jig” is when you flip the jig out into cover or grass, and the bass will take it on the fall, which is what I define as catching bass on a jig. When you flip the jig out, and it falls all the way to the bottom without your getting a bite, then you have to shake it on the bottom, hop it on the bottom, pull the jig halfway up to the surface and stop it and shake it and then pull it almost to the top of the water and stop it and shake it again, which is what I define as “fishing the jig.” 
I believe that “fishing the jig” means you have to really entice the bass to bite by the action you give the jig after it hits the bottom and while you’re pulling it back to the surface.
Another way I “fish the jig” is when I start to pull the jig off the bottom, and it gets hung on a piece of grass.Instead of pulling it free of the grass, I’ll shake the jig, while it’s still stuck in the grass. Many times, the bass will attack the jig, while it’s still stuck in the grass.
Question: Okay, Greg, what pound-test line were you using when you were flipping the Hack Attack jig?
Hackney: I was using 50-pound-test Cajun Braid line on my Greg Hackney 7-foot, 11-inch Quantum Flipping Stick with a Quantum Energy PT 6:1 bait casting reel.
Question: How big were the fish you caught on the second day of the tournament?
Hackney: I had a limit of bass that weighed 17 pounds, 4 ounces. I had two largemouths and three big smallmouths. 
I actually caught a limit of largemouths that weighed about 13 pounds, and then I went smallmouth fishing and culled three of my largemouths with three big smallmouths.I had two, three-pound largemouths, a smallmouth right at 3 pounds and two smallmouths pushing 4 pounds each. I really had a good, solid bag of bass, even though I didn’t have a big kicker fish.
Question: How did you feel your chances were to win as you stood in line at the weigh-in that day?
Hackney: Because the weights between 33rd place and 12th place were so close, I felt really good and thought I should move up in the standings. I thought I’d make a pretty good jump in position. I jumped from 33rd to 5th place in one day with that bag of fish.
Contents:
- Part 1: The Key to the Tournament - The Hack Attack and the Rodent
- Part 2: The First Day of Competition
- Part 3: The Second Day of Competition
- Part 4: The Third Day of Competition
- Part 5: The Final Day of Competition
