Practice:
The tournament was initially slated to take place in early April, but was postponed for 2 months due to flooding. Hackney didn't pre-practice ahead of the original off-limits period, but like many in the field he took advantage of 2 added pre-practice days that immediately followed the derby at Lake Travis. He'd spent most of his time fishing Louisiana (his state of residence) waters in the two previous Sabine events - he finished 5th in 2015 and 45th in 2013. The Louisiana side was taken out of play for this one, though, because of a state law that gives property owners dominion over navigable waters within their land boundaries. He had to find some new stuff and he spent most of those 2 days visiting locales that were wholly unfamiliar to him. When he returned for official practice the aforementioned canal showed some nice potential and a few other places on or just off the main Sabine channel showed potential.
"I probably got 40 keeper bites (the minimum length for largemouths was reduced to 12 inches this time as opposed to 14 on past visits) in the one day I spent fishing the Sabine," he said. "My main goal was to try to see where everybody else was going to end up in there because I knew there was nothing that wasn't going to get fished." On the second day of official practice he began employing moving baits in the canal, and the results were promising. "You can cover so much water with them and typically in the summertime it's a better bite than you get flipping. When the water gets really hot (water temps were reaching 90-plus degrees), other than places where there's a bunch of mats, I've never caught a lot flipping. Pitching to wood has never been a big deal to me under those conditions."
Competition:
Hackney not only led from start to finish, but the margin was never close. He was up by almost 4 pounds after day 1 and he added about a half-pound to his advantage on day 2. The bulge became 8 1/2 pounds on day 3 and he coasted to the win with what was by far his smallest bag of the event on day 4. He shared the canal with Bill Lowen and Casey Ashley for the first 3 days and did all he could to keep from fishing in the immediate vicinity of either. His best fish were coming from the center of the channel, which had patches of grass in the 3- to 6-foot depth range and some fallen treetops that extended more than halfway across. "The back half of it was where most of the grass was," he said. "The front half hardly had any grass - it was mostly wood. I didn't get as many bites out of that end, but I probably ended up weighing as many, including the 5-14 I caught on day 1." A buzzbait produced nine of his first 10 weigh-in fish (the other was enticed by a crankbait). With higher water levels on the weekend, a frog became his most productive offering. "The fish came up higher in the water column and got on the matted coontail right on the edge," he said.
Throughout the event, he cranked key pieces of wood that were in the middle of the channel. His action cooled off considerably on the final day and he had only a couple of small keepers when it was half over, but he said he was never concerned that he'd be unable to fill a limit. "I was fairly confident that I could catch some flipping and I told myself I'd leave 2 hours in the afternoon to do that if I had to. I'd flipped some on day 2 and you could catch a bass of some size on almost every piece of cover. "I didn't have to do that, though - I ended up finishing my limit on the frog."
Winning Gear:
Buzzbait gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Quantum Tour KVD rod, Quantum Smoke HD 200 casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 50-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 1/4-ounce Strike King Hack Attack Select buzzbait.
The Hack Attack Select features no skirt and comes with a toad trailer. "The first day was all about a white toad, but that was the only day," he said. "After that it was black for the rest of the week. On the second day they started boiling on the white toad and they wouldn't get it."
Frog gear: 7'2" medium-heavy Quantum Tour PT rod, same reel, 65-pound Gamma Torque braid, Strike King KVD Sexy Frog (stump jumper).
Cranking gear: 7' medium-action Quantum Tour KVD Cranking rod, same reel (6.6:1 ratio), 16-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, homemade wooden crankbait (black/chartreuse).
Main factor in his success: "Patience was definitely a virtue. You could go a long time without a bite fishing for those better ones because they were few and far between. I only missed one fish, it was on day 1, and I ended up catching that one the next day, so I fished about as clean as I possibly could."
Performance edge: "I'd say it was my Atlas jackplate. I had to idle over a lot of logs that were almost on the surface and being able to lift the motor up made things a lot easier - your equipment doesn't get beat up as much you're not boiling mud and trash the whole time. The other thing was my Garmin electronics for knowing where the grass was in the canals. Visible cover was not the deal - it was the stuff on the bottom that you couldn't see (with the naked eye)."
Bass Elite Tour Sabine River Winning Pattern BassFan 6/12/18 (John Johnson)
"I spent 98 percent of my time on one 700-yard stretch, running back and forth," he said. "I was out behind everybody a little bit, off the bank in the 4- to 8-foot (depth) range where there was some scattered milfoil and brush and stuff like that. I got it pretty well dialed in on either the high or low tide. "I knew it was going to be a tough tournament all-around and instead of running here and there to other areas, I stayed in one where I knew fish lived and just fished. Instead of trying to run the tides up and down the river, I stayed put and learned what the fish did on the different tides and spent all 9 hours of the day casting." The morning of day 4 brought the highest tide of the event and he used a topwater popper to catch two 4-pounders from the outside edge of deep trees and a 3 from a corner of a ditch.
Gear:
Shaky-head gear: 6'10" medium-heavy Quantum Vapor rod, Quantum Smoke spinning reel, 10-pound Sunline SX1 braided line (main line), 10-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon (leader), 3/16-ounce VMC Shaky Head jighead, 6" Zoom Trick Worm (redbug or green-pumpkin/blue flake).
Dropshot gear: Same rod, reel, line and baits, 1/0 VMC straight-shank hook, 3/8-ounce bullet weight on top of swivel.
Topwater gear: 6'9" medium-heavy Quantum G4 Gerald Swindle Signature Series rod, Quantum Smoke casting reel (6.1:1 ratio), 15-pound Sunline Armilo Nylon monofilament line, Rapala Arashi Cover Pop (bream).
Main factor in his success: "Staying in one area and not running around a bunch was the best decision I made."
Performance edge: "The Spot-Lock (on his Minn Kota trolling motor). When the tide started coming out, I could sit in the center of the canal and repeat the same cast over and over. It would hold me dead in position the whole time."
Bass Elite Tour Sabine River Patterns 2-5 BassFan 6/13/18 (John Johnson)
"During pre-practice for when the tournament was scheduled before (it was postponed for 2 months due to flooding), they were just stacked. I could pull up at a cut and catch 15 pounds in no time Ð they were just sitting in those cuts, out of the current." He didn't make the run on day 1 of competition Ð he determined that the water level was too low to risk it. When he finally made it up there on day 2 after catching a small limit down below, he boxed one of the biggest stringers of the tournament. He fished numerous small backwaters that had ditches running into them. He threw a variety of baits, with a wacky-rigged worm and a spinnerbait being the most productive.
Worm gear: 7'1" medium-heavy iRod Fishing rod, unnamed spinning reel, 10-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon line, 1/0 dropshot hook, wacky-rigged and nail-weighted unnamed 7" worm (green-pumpkin).
Spinnerbait gear: 7'3" medium-heavy iRod Fishing rod, unnamed casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 16-pound Sunline Super FC Sniper fluorocarbon, unnamed 3/8-ounce spinnerbait (Colorado and willow-leaf blades).
Other baits he employed included a Luck-E-Strike RC Series 4 crankbait, a chug-style topwater plug and a black and blue plastic craw imitation (flipped).
Main factor: "Making the decision to run up there on the second day. I knew I could catch a limit if I stayed around Orange, but I wasn't 100-percent sure I could catch a good limit. I knew where some good ones were and that gave me the confidence to make that long run."
Performance edge: " I'd say my boat and motor for helping me navigate through all that stuff up there. That Triton handles like a dream - I was able to zig-zag back and forth and get to where I needed to go."
He was remarkably consistent on such an unpredictable fishery, as there was only a 1 1/4-pound variance in the weight of his four bags. A Fluke-style soft-plastic bait was his primary offering - he made everything from long casts to short pitches with it, depending on the cover. He also caught some fish on a crankbait. "The (Fluke-type bait) just seemed to fit the situation," he said. "There were a lot of little baitfish in there and the bass were definitely eating them. "I threw the crankbait when the tide set up a little better for that - the best was high, but falling out. The fish would pull off the hard line of the trees to the stuff out in front."
Fluke gear: 7'3" medium-heavy MHX MB873 rod, unnamed casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 15-pound Seaguar InvizX flurocarbon line, unnamed 4/0 hook, 5" Fluke-style bait (white).
Cranking gear: 7' medium-action MHX CB843 rod, unnamed casting reel (6.3:1 ratio), same line, Bandit Series 100 square-bill (pearl/chartreuse back).
Main factor: "I felt like I managed my fish well in the areas I had."
Performance edge: "Definitely my boat and motor (Triton/Mercury) for getting me there and back."
His best spot within the area was a backwater pond that covered only a couple of acres. It was lined with cypress trees and featured a few small cuts. He pulled a 4 3/4-pounder out of one of the cuts on day 3. Most of his better fish were enticed by a frog and almost all came from 2 feet of water or less. He caught a few on a crankbait and one on a flipping stick. He handled six to eight keeper fish each day. "I wasn't catching the numbers that some guys were, but I was getting some better bites."
Frog gear: 7'3" heavy-action ALX IKOS Series rod, Lew's BB1 Speed Spool casting reel (8:1 ratio), 65-pound PowerPro braided line, SPRO Bronzeye Poppin' Frog 60 (white or killer gill).
"I had a black frog on in practice," he said, "but on the first day of the tournament they were just slapping at it so I switched to white. (On day 4) I had a couple fish puke up small bluegill in my livewell, so I changed to killer gill."
Cranking gear: 7' medium-action ALX IKOS Series Hustler rod, same reel (6.4:1 ratio), 12-pound Seaguar InvizX fluorocarbon line, 6th Sense Crush 50X (chartreuse/black back).
He caught his flipping fish on a Strike King Rage Bug (black/blue).
Main factor: "Finding a place where I could get a bigger bite. There were a lot of 7- or 8-pound bags weighed and if you could catch a 3- or 4-pounder you could get to 10 pounds or more and separate yourself. I was able to get a couple of those bites each day on that frog."
Performance edge: "My boat was very important for making that 45-mile run and with those rods I was able to make casts back into the cypress knees and then get the fish out of there."