By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Greg Hackney admitted that the Toyota Tundra B.A.S.S. Angler of the Year (AOY) race was on his mind throughout the Bassmaster Elite Series regular-season finale at Cayuga Lake, which he won. Now, in the midst the 4-week break between that derby and the AOY Championship, it's still front and center in his consciousness.
"I usually don't start thinking about it until I wake up in the morning," he said with a chuckle. "Honestly, my life revolves around tournament fishing and that's such a huge part of it that it can be hard to think about anything else. I don't look at that as a negative – it's fun and I think it's motivated me."
"I think about it at some point every day, but I do stop thinking about it when I go to bed at night. I haven't had any dreams about it."
The Third Jewel
If Hackney wins the AOY later this month at the Bays de Noc in Michigan, it'll give him the third leg of the sport's Grand Slam (he won the FLW Tour AOY in 2005 and the Forrest Wood Cup in '09). Only a Bassmaster Classic title would be missing.
No angler has completed the Slam. Kevin VanDam, Davy Hite, David Fritts and Jay Yelas each have three legs on their résumés.
He'll carry a 15-point lead over defending AOY Aaron Martens into yet another venue that'll be unfamiliar to the majority of the competitors (it was on the original schedule for 2009, but was one of several events that were dropped in the wake of the country's severe economic downturn). If he finishes 15th or better in that tournament, he'll claim the title regardless of what anyone else does.
All 50 anglers who qualified will catch big smallmouths, as the bronzebacks in the northwestern portion of Lake Michigan are plentiful and will be eager to chomp during the early-fall timeframe. Hackney will go with the same strategic approach that's worked for him all year.
"I'm going to treat it just like the rest of them – I'll go and practice and then fish (during the tournament) for whatever I get on," he said. "Obviously, the best thing or me to do would be to go and win the tournament, but everybody's going to catch them. I do expect it to be a slugfest.
"The bags that are caught might be bigger than the ones at Cayuga (where he averaged slightly more than 21 pounds per day en route to victory). I talked to Edwin Evers and Tim Horton, who've both been up there, and they caught 6-pounders."
A Little Time Away
After Cayuga, Hackney drove to Kalamazoo, Mich. to drop off his truck and boat, then flew to Little Rock, Ark. for some filming for Bassmaster TV. This week he's headed for his deer camp in Louisiana, where he'll celebrate his Cayuga triumph with family and friends.
Deer season doesn't open until next month, but there will be some firearm-related recreation to partake in.
"We'll shoot some skeet and do a little dove hunting, and then just visit and ride around and have a good time," he said.
The following week he'll film an episode of the Louisiana Sportsman TV show that will have him fishing for cobia and mangrove snappers. Then it'll be time to turn his full focus to Michigan.
Once he gets back to Kalamazoo he'll have a 6- or 7-hour drive from there to Escanaba, so that'll give him plenty of time to think about the task ahead.
"The biggest factor is going to be the weather – if the wind blows real hard it won't be real easy to get around," he said. "It's a huge area that (will be available) to fish and everybody will be able to spread out, and everybody who's been there says the fishing's just phenomenal.
"And I love fishing for smallmouth, so that part's not going to bother me at all."
