Greg Hackney Wins Bassfest Lake Texoma
Greg Hackney's Winning Pattern, Baits & Gear
Hackney encountered an enormous shad spawn on the first morning of the 3-day practice period and naturally assumed that the baitfish reproduction ritual would be a big factor in the competition. He quickly discovered, however, that the bass were paying little heed to it - there were so many shad around from the prolific spawn of 2015 that the bass could eat whenever it suited them. "Even in places where they weren't spawning, there were millions of them," he said. The lake had been 9 feet high earlier in the spring and then dropped 6 feet before returning to its previous level. He assumed the drawdown must've pulled some fish away from the banks, so he began running main-lake points near the main-river channel. "The more I fished, the more I realized that it was all about a channel in general. It didn't matter if it was a creek or a river and it didn't have to be a main-lake point as long as it had a major drain going into a big area. "I fished anywhere the channel made a turn or wherever a small drain ran into a big one. They were big, flat places, but they had a deep ditch draining into them." He found his best action in willow trees and brush that were situated a ways from the bank - places that would've been wet even with the lake at its normal level. They were suspended from the surface to 4 feet down on green-leafed vegetation that stood in 7 to 9 feet of water. "Once I got keyed in on that deal I started getting the better bites," he said. "All of them I got that were over 3 pounds came off that stuff. "There was a drop-off everywhere I caught them, and it was the old bank line. Rick Clunn (who finished 7th) was fishing the same thing, only he was doing it with a spinnerbait. Normally the banks are steep - I could tell that from graphing - and the water getting that high formed a ledge."
Competition:
It took Hackney several hours to dial into the bite on day 1 and he ended up with a sack that put him among the initial Top 12, but about 4 1/2 pounds off the pace set by day-1 leader Casey Ashley. It was the following day when he established himself as a prime contender. The 20-02 sack he weighed on day 1 bested Ashley's from the previous day be an ounce and pushed him to the top of the standings. It contained a 5-pounder and two 4s and most of it was compiled within 45 minutes of his first cast. He suffered a setback on day 3 when he returned to that same pace, only to discover that it hadn't replenished. "There just wasn't enough fish after I caught them off that key stuff," he said. "I got keyed in late on the first day and I really didn't beat the area up until day 2 - it was actually two big areas. "I fished conservatively on day 3 and didn't run any new water - I only fished areas that I'd practiced in because I knew I didn't need much weight to make the 12-cut." He started the final day in a place that had produced some decent quality in the afternoons and picked up a 4-pounder (which would be his biggest specimen of the day) and three run-of-the-mill keepers. He pulled up and began running new water that had the same characteristics as the locales that had been producing for him and eventually ended up on a stretch that he'd been watching all week on his journeys back and forth from the launch to the place where he was staying. "It'd been muddy, but every day it got clearer. When they started pulling water hard (through the dam), it cleaned up. "It was a large area that was connected to the one where I'd caught the 20-pound bag. It had all the right ingredients, but the mud had kept me and the other competitors out of it. It was a textbook situation and it hadn't been fished."
He stayed there from 11:30 until quitting time and estimated that he enticed 15 keeper bites. He quickly discerned that the fish had moved off of the green-leaf stuff and set themselves up on more woody-type cover. "I've seen that before - when the water starts coming out of the trees, it sours the leaves or something and the fish get away from the green stuff. I got lots of bites (Sunday) on trees that had no leaves. A lot of that stuff started showing up with the lower water and it was just outside of where I'd been getting bit." He lost his two best bites - both in the 5-pound class - and figured those miscues would cause him to finish in a position other than 1st, but it turned out that the 3 1/4- to 3 3/4-pounders that made it into his livewell were enough to thwart Card's big rally. Meanwhile, the two anglers who were ahead of him to start the day (Ashley and Gerald Swindle) turned in sub-par performances. "I still had a 2 1/2-pounder about 10 minutes before I had to come in and I caught a 3 3/4," he said. "I still think I'd have won without that fish, but that made it a lot easier. "When I bagged them up (back at the launch) I was thinking I had 17 pounds. I didn't have any giants, but I didn't have any little ones. It was a good bag for not having a big one."
Winning Gear:
Flipping gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Quantum Tour Tactical Hack Attack flipping stick, Quantum Smoke 200 HD casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 50-pound Gamma Torque braided line, 1-ounce Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover flipping jig (blue or Alabama craw), Strike King Rodent trailer (bluebug or double header). He used the blue jig in the low-light conditions of the morning and then switched to Alabama craw when the sun got high. He said the Rodent trailers were critical because they increased the profile of the jigs and caused them to fall extremely fast, which seemed to be what the suspended fish preferred. "I could get more bites on plastics in practice, but the big bites came on that big profile," he said. "I had the mentality that if I could get four or five bites a day on it, three of them would be big ones."
Main factor: "Probably just confidence in my equipment and a lot of confidence in that style of fishing."
Performance edge: "The new 200 HD reel is great for flipping. It's really beefed up - it's a big reel with a light frame and big handles on it. It seems to handle braid real well because it's super-smooth and easy to free-spool."
Brandon Card's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action Abu Garcia Villain rod, Abu Garcia Revo Rocket casting reel (9:1 ratio), 20-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, unamed 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, 4/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank heavy cover hook, various creature baits (green-pumpkin with tails dipped in chartreuse JJ's Magic dye).
Topwater gear: 7' medium-action Abu Garcia Veritas rod, Abu Garcia Revo MGX casting reel, 30-pound Spiderwire UltraCast braided line, Yo-Zuri 3DB Pencil (bone).
Main factor: "Keeping the flipping stick in my hand the first 3 days. I didn't experiment a lot because I had confidence that was what I needed to be doing when it was sunny."
Performance edge: "My Suzuki 250 SS engine is the most dependable motor I've ever used, and that was important because I was running around a lot."
Gerald Swindle's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Flipping gear: 7'6" Quantum EXO flipping stick, Quantum Exo Smoke HD casting reel (7.3:1 ratio), 22-pound Sunline Shooter fluorocarbon line, unnamed 1/2-ounce tungsten weight, 5/0 Gamakatsu straight-shank heavy cover hook, Zoom Z-Craw (green-pumpkin).
Main factor: "The wind was key for me - staying in it was a difference-maker, for sure.
Performance edge: "The Quantum Smoke HD reel with the bigger cranking handles and the bigger spool allowed me to have a lot of line on the reel. You have to re-tie a lot after setting the hook in bushes that are in 8 to 10 feet of water."
Chad Morgenthaler's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Flipping gear: 7'11" extra-heavy Lew's Custom Lite rod, Lew's SuperDuty casting reel (8:1 ratio), 20-pound Gamma fluorocarbon line, 3/4-ounce Lunker Lure Rattleback jig (black/blue), Zoom Big Salty Chunk trailer (black/blue). When flipping the D Bomb (California love), he used a 1/2-ounce Reins Tungsten weight and a 5/0 Owner straight-shank hook.
Main factor: "Fishing in a way that I had confidence."
Performance edge: "I really felt like the most critical thing was the Lew's Custom Lite rod. It's got just the right action and I could get the fish turned quickly in those deep bushes."
Ott Defoe's Pattern, Baits & Gear
Swimjig gear: 7'6" medium-heavy Fenwick World Class rod, Pflueger Patriarch casting reel (7.9:1 ratio), 17-pound Berkley Trilene 100% Fluorocarbon line, 1/2-ounce Terminator Pro Series jig (white), unnamed swimming-style chunk trailer.
Flipping gear: 7'8" heavy-action Fenwick World Class rod, same reel, 20-pound Trilene 100% flurocarbon, 1/2-ounce Reigns Tungsten weight, 4/0 VMC wide-gap heavy-duty hook, Berkley Havoc Change Up (green-pumpkin with tips dyed orange).
Main factor: "Probably not going back to too much water that I fished on the first day. The areas where I caught my better flipping fish seemed to be one-fish places. Some were small and some were big, but when I went back on the second day I didn't get any bites. I just had to go fish new water each day."
Performance edge: "The 12-foot Minn Kota Talons were important. The water would be 8 feet deep around those bushes and I could put them down and pick the bushes apart."