The ‘Hack Attack’ descends on Logan Martin
2004 two-tour fishing phenom comes to Birmingham hungry for win in $1.5 million FLW Tour Championship
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Not since Kevin VanDam burst onto the professional fishing scene in 1990 has a new face dominated the pro ranks of bass fishing like Greg Hackney of Gonzales, La., did this season.
Consider, for a minute, Hackney’s record in 2004.
Between the FLW Tour, the BASS Tour and the E-50 events, Hackney fished a combined total of 16 national-level tournaments this season. Out of those, he made eight top-10s.
During one stretch of consecutive tournaments between mid-March and mid-May this season, he scored a fourth place at Old Hickory (FLW), a sixth place at Eufaula (BASS) and a ninth place at Santee Cooper (BASS). Then he drove across the country and, with hardly any practice, scored a 50th place at Beaver Lake (FLW), a second place at Lake Dardanelle (E-50) and a second place at Kentucky Lake (FLW).
Keep in mind, Hackney had never seen half of these lakes before, and only had two or three days of practice at each one. And you can forget suspicions of local information – he barely had time to buy a map and a fishing license for each stop.
Hackney finished second in the BASS Angler of the Year race by just three points, second in the FLW Angler of the Year points and fourth in the E-50 points.
Hackney’s uncanny fish-finding ability has been dubbed the “Hack Attack,” and he is bringing it to Logan Martin Lake this week for the $1.5 million Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship.
How does he do it?
With so many top-10 finishes this year, one would think that Hackney’s boat must be riddled with thousands upon thousands of lures. Guess again.
“This year I’ve probably caught 50 percent of my fish on this lure right here,” Hackney said, as he flipped a Lunker Lure Rattle Back jig to shallow grass in the upper end of Logan Martin during practice Saturday. “The rest were caught on shallow-running crankbaits and Wave Worm Tiki Sticks. With so much fishing this year, I didn’t have time to fool with a lot of tackle, so I tried to keep things simple.”
Whether it was jigs, crankbaits or Tiki Sticks, the bottom line on Hackney’s fishing was that it was all shallow.
“I mostly fished water 5 foot (deep) or less,” he said. “There were some exceptions, like Beaver Lake, but mostly I stayed on the bank.”
Hackney also attributes his success this year to a combination of factors: limited practice time; predominantly prespawn tournaments; finding fish during the actual tournament hours; and getting into a fishing rhythm that revolved around the steady beat of one tournament after another.
“Looking back over my last several years of competitive fishing, especially on the FLW Tour, I think my nemesis has been too much practice,” the Yamaha pro said. “This year I decided to fish both tours, and it was the best thing that happened to me because it really forced me into a fishing rhythm. There was no time for second-guessing – I had to fish by instinct.
“I can remember several FLW tournaments over the years where I gave myself five days of practice, and I would be ready to fish the tournament after two days – but by the time the tournament started, I had too many things going on in my head. This year the tournaments started just about the time I was ready for them to start.”
Another part of Hackney’s “rhythm” this year was using the beat of one tournament to predict the beat of the next tournament.
“The way the tournaments lined up this year, one lake was an indicator of what would be happening at the next lake,” he said. “For example, I took what I learned at Smith Lake (Alabama) in February and applied it at Table Rock (Missouri) a month later. The fact that most tournaments were prespawn events helped a lot, too. Fish are constantly reacting to weather changes that time of year.”
The rapidly changing conditions kept him from getting locked into one location or pattern.
“Knowing the fish were changing daily allowed me to gamble. During the tournaments, it didn’t bother me to completely abandon what I was doing and go to some place that I had never fished before – almost like I was still practicing. I used to be scared to do that; I was conservative and wouldn’t fish where I hadn’t practiced. But several times this year I took some chances during the tournament and actually found my best fish that way.”
Hackney plans to use these same elements of success this week at the FLW Tour Championship.
He just fished the Bassmaster Classic on Lake Wylie, another small suburban impoundment that has some similarities to Logan Martin. He didn’t do well at Wylie, but the tournament was won shallow giving Hackney the “beat” to find his rhythm here on Logan Martin.
“After Champlain, we had a little break in there where I didn’t fish much and I got off my rhythm,” he said. “I went into the Classic offbeat. A lot of people thought the Classic would be won deep and it was dominated shallow. So now I’m trying to take some things I learned at Wylie to find my groove here.”
What makes the `Hack Attack’ tick?
A day in the boat with Hackney provides a little insight into how the “Hack Attack” works.
He has spent most of his life hunting and fishing and is enthralled by the natural world, especially predator-prey relationships.
“I love the Discovery Channel, especially those wilderness shows that have animals eating other animals,” he laughed. “`Shark Week’ is the best. My favorite movie is Jaws – I’m just fascinated with predators, and to me, a bass is the ultimate predator. Being in a boat 12 hours a day fishing for them while observing the natural world is like heaven to me.”
Perhaps Hackney’s years of natural observation have attributed to his innate ability to size up shallow water by sight. During practice he spends a lot of time idling around looking at shallow water the same way a deep-water angler would spend a lot of time idling around looking at a depth finder.
What exactly he is looking for is so visceral, it’s hard for Hackney to put into words.
“Some banks just look more appealing to me than others,” he explained. “I’m looking at water color, current direction and tiny changes in water depth.
“For instance, over the last few days I’ve learned how to associate the thickness of the bank grass with water depth – see how the grass over there is thick and the water is flush to the leaves. And over there it’s sparse with a lot of stems exposed – those are the little differences I’m looking for.”
Like a predator himself, Hackney’s eyes are trained to make sense out of subtle characteristics along a bank that might attract his prey. He fishes all combinations of shallow-water cover until he gets enough bites to begin isolating the key ingredients.
“Once I get a few bites from a certain kind of grass, then I’ll begin idling around looking for more of it,” he said. “If I think I’m really dialed in, I won’t even fish the good-looking stuff I find until the tournament.”
What about winning?
Hackney has some firsts in his tournament resume, including a BASS Open victory, but considering he was so close to two tour-level victories and two Angler of the Year titles this year, is he bummed about not winning?
“Not really,” he said. “I mean, sure, being so close and not winning gets on me a little, but I really feel it’s possible to win too early in this sport; too much success too fast can ruin you. Right now I’m being driven by the taste for victory. If things had happened differently and I won two or three tournaments this year and then won both Angler of the Year titles, I might not be as hungry to win as I am right now. I think everything has its own way of working out in due time.
“My main goal right now is to be consistently at the top – to always be a threat to win. I think the worse thing that can happen in this sport is to win a really big tournament and then fall off the map, never to be heard from again.”
Random `attacks’
Here are a few random thoughts from the “Hack Attack” on various topics.
On lure modification: “I trim my jig skirts down a little and change hooks on crankbaits, but other than that, I don’t spend much time doctoring up lures.”
On lure colors: “My main theory on color is camouflage – I want a color that blends in, not sticks out. I try to use lure colors that are similar to the water color and cover. Green pumpkin is usually a good color anywhere. When I fish dark water, like down in Florida, I like darker colors.”
On line choice: “I hardly use monofilament anymore. I either use braided line or fluorocarbon.”
On being paired against Todd Ary of Birmingham, Ala., in the first round: “I know he is from around here, so he should be pretty strong. But I’m going to treat this like any other tournament and catch as much as I can catch every day.”
On what it would be like to win the FLW Tour Championship: “I couldn’t tell you until it happened.”
On being a new face dominating the world of professional fishing: “Well, I don’t know about being a new face. I’ve been fishing tournaments since I was 11 years old. I have fished BFLs and tournaments around home for many years.”
On his fascination with predators: “Let’s put it this way,” he said, laughing, “if I wasn’t practicing for a tournament right now, I’d be up here shaking these mayflies off the branches just to watch the bream eat them.”
Will Hackney find his rhythm on Logan Martin this week? We will find out when competition for the Wal-Mart FLW Tour Championship begins Wednesday at 7 a.m. at Pell City Park on Logan Martin Lake.