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Norman,
OK – You never miss the water until the well runs dry.
Louisiana’s Greg Hackney hasn’t missed qualifying for a Bassmaster Classic since he burst onto the national scene only a few years ago. That streak, which spanned the six Classics from 2003 through 2008, was in jeopardy until cut day at Lake Oneida this past weekend. On the strength of a 30th place finish, he snuck into the field as the 36th place finisher in the Angler of the Year
Standings.
That’s a very un-Hackney-like performance. For the sake of comparison, one only needs to look at the prior four seasons. In both 2006 and 2007, he was 11th overall. In 2005, he ended up 5th. And in 2004 he was 2nd, missing the AOY title by three points.
But once he made it into the field, everyone starts again at zero in February. Had he missed it, it would have been devastating.
“Someone asked me the other day would you rather win a tournament or win the Classic,” Hackney said immediately after the Oneida event. “And the answer is absolutely make the Classic. If I never won another tournament but I made the Classic every year, that would be fine with me. As an angler, that’s what you strive for.”
The relief that he felt upon realizing that he had made the cut was tremendous: “The closest feeling I’ve ever had was winning a tournament. It was a lot like winning a tournament,” Hackney said.
But back in March and April, it seemed highly unlikely that he’d even end up in the top half of the field, let alone fishing a home state Classic. He started off the year terribly, finishing dead last, 109th, at the Harris Chain.
“I had a bad practice at Harris Chain,” he said. “I was so close to where Brian Snowden lost the fish that would have won the tournament for him. I was fishing the west end but I didn’t get any bites there. Then the last day I went to the other end and got two big bites, so that’s where I started. Everybody that caught them caught them in the west end and I was in the east end by myself. I knew that they caught them there. But my pride didn’t allow me to go up there the second day, even though I had been there.
“Honestly, if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t have crowded them but I should have sucked my pride up. I was in the right area, but I was in the wrong area of the right area.”
The miserable triple-digit finish was something of a wake-up call. He had been taking his success of previous years for granted.
“A lot of it was coming into the start of the year, I came off a good Classic,” Hackney said. “I was probably a little overconfident. I came into it, made some stupid decisions and got myself in a hole that I honestly didn’t know if I could get out of.”
It didn’t get much better at Kissimmee, where he finished 62nd, although that bottom-half result still moved him up in the AOY standings from 109th to 97th.
“I went to Toho and I was going to catch them flipping,” Hackney said. “I knew they were going to catch them out, but I still wanted to catch 40 pounds flipping. I was just too hardheaded and confident in my ability. I was going to make ‘em bite the way I wanted to make ‘em bite.”
The poor finish at Kissimmee was surprising because he has done well on that chain of lakes in the past, including a 37th place finish on Kissimmee in BASS Competition in 2005 and a 25th on Toho in 2007. He also finished 19th in the 2006 Classic on Toho and 39th in an FLW Tour event on Toho in 2005.
Falcon was another disaster. He came in 74th, but once again even that dismal finish was enough to move him up in the standings from 97th to 96th. At that tortoise-like rate, it would take him another 60 tournaments to get into Classic contention.
But at Amistad he made a top 12 and ended up 7th overall, including a 10 pound hawg. For the first time since the Classic, he had a smile on his face. While he still wasn’t anywhere near Classic contention, that top finish moved him up another 30 places, to 66th.
At Clarks Hill, he got another check, finishing 42nd, to move up another 6 places. Then a 17th at Murray pushed him to 43rd, only a few spots out of the Classic field.
“In the middle of the season, I got on some things and it looked like I was going right,” Hackney said. “Then we went to Wheeler. I made some stupid mistakes and went right back down the ladder again.”
“At Wheeler, I wanted to catch them shallow, but it soured. I stayed shallow and I got beat. I wasn’t fishing naturally, letting the fish tell me. I’ve never forced it before. This time I just kept forcing it over and over. I never seemed like I got in my groove.”
Indeed, his 74th place finish at Wheeler dropped him 13 spots, to 56th. It was surprising because with the exception of one average finish at Wheeler (65th in the 2002 FLW Tour tournament), he’s had some great finishes there, including 24th in the 2003 FLW Tour event, 4th in the 2005 FLW Tour event, and 6th in this year’s FLW Series tournament.
Then the Elites went to Kentucky Lake, where once again except for one aberrational tournament (111th in the 2003 FLW Tour tournament), he has had a stellar record: 45th in the 2006 Elite Series; 2nd in the 2004 FLW Tour; 18th in the 2003 Stren; 20th in the 2002 Stren; 21st in the 2001 Stren; and 7th in the 1999 Stren.
With three tournaments to go, he was back in 61st in the AOY standings. That’s when he loosened the reins a bit and freed himself up to succeed. The result was a 25th place finish in the tournament that was moved from Fort Madison, Iowa to Tennessee’s Old Hickory.
“At Old Hickory I got really laid back,” he explained. “I had to figure out what my problem was and when I stopped trying to make it happen, it happened.
Lake Erie was more of the same: “I just went fishing. I didn’t worry at Buffalo. I knew that if I just went there and fished a good tournament I would be in contention.” On the strength of his second top 12 finish of the season, he moved into 41st with one tournament left to go, only 4 spots out of a Classic berth.
But practice at Oneida was poor at best and things looked grim.
“I didn’t really get around them in practice,” Hackney said. “Then the first day of the tournament was mediocre. I was going to fish for smallmouth but that didn’t work out so I had some backup largemouth, enough to save the day. Then the next day I knew what to do.”
But the second day didn’t go smoothly, either. The normally unflappable angler allowed circumstances to weigh on his mind. His co-angler caught several big fish behind him and it rattled him.
“Normally, I can hold my composure, but all of a sudden it worried me. I was thinking about making the top 12 when I went out, but then he catches those fish and I instantly went into defensive mode.” But he managed to overcome those hurdles and get into the field.
The third day of competition he underestimated his catch and was relieved when heard Keith Alan read out his weight.
“I thought I had nine pounds and thought that I wouldn’t make it, but then I weighed 10 ½ and it was like I’d just won a hundred thousand dollars,” Hackney said. “It was such a relief. I may have been the last guy in, but it doesn’t matter. I made it.”
He believes that the near-miss may serve as a building block for his career:
“I got humbled and I needed that. It may be the best thing that’s ever happened to me. My career is still actually fairly young compared to most of these guys. Even though it has been a horrific year for me, I’ve probably learned more this year than any year before.”
A return to instinctual fishing may be exactly what he needed: “My daddy told me after the second day (at Oneida) that I was kind of fishing like I used to fish. He asked what I was doing and I said I didn’t know. Maybe that’s the reason. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m just doing my thing now. “
He was certainly motivated by the addictive effect of past Classic appearances. He said that “there are guys out there who have never been to the Classic. They know they want to go. But you don’t know how much you want to go until you go the first time and then it almost controls your life.“
“There was so much pressure to make the Classic given where it’s going to be. Not that I know so much about (the Red River). There are probably guys in the field who have fished it more than I have. But it is going to be in the state of Louisiana where I live. It would be a shame if I was commentating on it instead of fishing it.”
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