Greg Hackney isn't scheduled to fish another major bass tournament until next February when the Bassmaster Classic comes to the Red River in Shreveport and Bossier City, La., which is about 4 hours across the state from his home in Gonzales.

That should give him plenty of time to revel in his recent victory at the FLW Series East/West Fishoff at Lake Falcon in Zapata, Texas.

By the sounds of it, he's going to need a little time to process the whole experience – from the size of the fish he caught, to his return to his FLW roots and a spot in the Forrest Wood Cup, to capping off a year in which he struggled with a superlative performance against a talented field.



He used a methodical and slow, bottom-based technique to total 109-06 over 3 days to beat fellow Eastern pro Terry Bolton (105-08) in the overall standings. In the head-to-head format, in which pros were paired up against opponents based on their points finish in the Eastern and Western FLW Series, Hackney easily defeated Western opponent John Billheimer, Jr., who finished with 25-01.

It's Hack's first major win since the 2006 Sam Rayburn Elite Series, and first major FLW Outdoors victory.

"To have another tour-level win is nice because it gets harder and harder to do every year as the fishermen get better," he said. "I'm glad the year's over for me because I need to soak it in for a few months. Nowhere else can compare to that. To do it in a bass tournament was insane. And it was against the best from the East and the best from the West. They're all tour-level fishermen and there were some really big-name guys, so to do it I feel really blessed.

"I can't see myself beating what I caught," he added. "I've caught 99 before in 4 days, but to average 36 pounds is just insane. It was fun. It was like a dream for 3 days. Every time I got bit, I got spooked because you didn't know how big it was going to be. They were like freaks of nature."

Along the way, he set the FLW Outdoors single-day weight record with his day-2 limit of 39-11. Even though the Fishoff was a 3-day event, he was less than a pound from breaking the FLW 4-day cumulative weight mark of 110-02( set by Jeremy Guidry this past January at the Falcon Texas Stren).

It was a year of monster bites and mammoth bags at Falcon, capped off by Hackney's win, which earned him entry into next year's Forrest Wood Cup, which he last fished in 2005.

"That's an awesome deal," he said. "In a way, this was one of the worst years I've had, but in the last 3 or 4 weeks, I've turned it around. I got my head on straight and everything went my way."

For reference, here's a look at what it took to win the three major tournaments this year at Falcon:

  • Texas Stren (January) -- Jeremy Guidry -- 110-02 (4 days)
  • Elite Series (April) -- Paul Elias -- 132-08 (4 days)
  • East/West Fishoff (November) -- Greg Hackney -- 109-06 (3 days)

    Presently, Hackney and Mike Iaconelli are the only pros who've qualified for both the 2009 Bassmaster Classic and Forrest Wood Cup.

    "I feel really fortunate to do it," Hackney said. "Now, I have a really easy feeling heading into some off-time. I can spend some more time with family and maybe do some deer hunting. It's going to be easy going into next year knowing that."

    Here's how The Hack Attack won at Falcon.

    Practice

    The field was allowed 4 practice days, but Hackney stuck to his Elite Series routine and only fished the first 3. It worked out fine since he was able to locate some key areas right away on the first day with a big worm – a 10-inch Strike King Rage Tail Anaconda.

    "I'm just used to 3 days and I think too much time on the water and the longer I practiced was going to hurt my confidence," he noted.

    He finished 74th in the Falcon Elite Series back in April, and thus had somewhat of an idea of what to expect at the Fishoff. However, Falcon's water level was 40 feet higher than it was in the spring.

    "The place I caught fish at was a dry a month ago," he noted. "It's a totally new lake. I fished an entirely different end of the lake – 20 miles in the opposite direction of where I was.

    "I caught two 7-pounders on back-to-back casts and then reeled up and went to look for other places. My next stop turned out to be my next-best place."

    Another difference was overall bites. "I wasn't expecting 50 bites," he said. "The first time there I fished for a lot of bites and learned that's not the thing to do. You had to fish it like any other tournament – just fish for five key bites. It shocked me how hard it was to get bites for a lake that literally has thousands of fish in it."

    He believes the unstable weather during the tournament – two fronts pushed through – turned some fish off.

    "I had to fish really methodically and slow and I just kept pounding away at certain spots," he added. "It fished like Florida after a cold front. It's almost on the same parallel as Lake Okeechobee and when the water cools down, they don't like it."

    However, his search for even more similar areas ended once he realized the quality that was on key spots. Still, on a lake like Falcon where 6-pounders are on the small side, he said it's hard to gauge what he needed.

    "I felt like someone would catch 40 (pounds)," he said. "You can't be satisfied there. I caught 32 on my best spot the first day and left it because I felt like I needed 35 to 38 to be in contention. I wasn't thinking about winning the tournament then. I was worried about winning my bracket. I told myself I needed to make my spots last until the last day."

    His key spot wound up being a 90-degree turn in a rocky road that followed a fence line along a bluff.

    "What made it special was it was a bluff bank with a road on top next to the steep drop," he noted. "The other place was a road on top of a pond dam. It went from 15 right down to 25 and again the key was the really steep drop next to a hard, flat bottom.

    "Usually I like to fish a pattern, but you just couldn't get that there this time. It turned out to be a spot tournament."

    He noted the fish would be on top of the bluffs in the morning to feed, then they'd back down into the dropoff, which required the methodical approach.

    Competition

    > Day 1: 5, 32-00
    > Day 2: 5, 39-11
    > Day 3: 5, 37-11
    > Total = 15, 109-06

    Like Hackney noted above, he was concerned from the get-go that his 32-00 showing on day 1 would be about average. As it turned out, it was good enough for 3rd. He sat behind leader David Fritts, who caught 37-02, and Bolton.



    FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell
    Photo: FLW Outdoors/Rob Newell

    About his 109-06 total, Hackney said: 'Every time I got bit, I got spooked because you didn't know how big it was going to be.'

    About his day-1 presentation, he noted two keys. One was to maintain bottom contact. The other was to slowly drag the worm across the rocks. He Texas-rigged a red-bug Anaconda on day 1 with a 3/8-oz. black Tru-Tungsten Denny Brauer Flippin' Weight and a 5/0 Youvella hook.

    "The worm has a huge tail on it and pushes a lot of water around," he said. "Any other place, it's a giant worm. There, it's not. I felt like the tungsten rattling around in the rocks made a lot of racket. I had to drag it so slow and had to let them eat the worm and load up on it before setting the hook.

    "On day 1, I had a tendency to fish too fast. One of my strong suits has always been to fish extremely slowly. If you moved it fast, you could catch the small ones, but you had to be so slow to get the big ones' attention. It was like fishing in the dead of winter some places where the water temps are in the 40s."

    On day 2, the field was greeted by 30-mph winds that added an additional hour to his southbound run, but it didn't stop him from boxing the best single-day weight in FLW Outdoors history. He nailed three on the worm and the other two on a 5/8-oz. jig with a Strike King Rage Tail Lobster trailer, again with a slow, bottom-hugging retrieve. His key bites – a 9-14 and an 11-03 – came early and helped him to a 39-11 total that gave him the lead with 71-11.

    "I felt like I should've had close to 50," he said. "That's unheard of to say that, but I feel that way. My wife usually gets excited when I win, but even she said the fish looked prehistoric, or they looked like fake fish."

    He had to change up his colors on day 3 and caught 37-11 to seal the win.

    "I caught four on the worm and one on the jig off my best place," he said. "I tried the red-bug, but I went to 'Bama-bug and I think it worked because it was a little darker under the cloud cover. It showed them something different. I think they'd seen the red-bug so much."

    When told he was just 13 ounces shy of the 4-day weight record, he said, "I had that fish on a couple times. Dealing with fish that big, it's hard. You always hear stories about the big one getting away, but there (at Falcon), everything has to go right to land those fish.

    "Chances are, I'll never catch that again."

    BassFan Store
    Photo: BassFan Store

    Hackney threw a Texas-rigged 10" Strike King Rage Tail Anaconda in 'Bama-bug (top) and red-bug (bottom).

    Winning Gear Notes

    > Worm gear: 7'2" heavy-action Quantum Greg Hackney Signature Series Senko rod and 7'11" heavy-action Quantum Greg Hackney Signature Series flipping rod, Quantum Tour Edition PT casting reel (7.0:1), 20-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon, 3/8- and 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten Denny Brauer Flippin' Weights (black), 5/0 and 6/0 Youvella extra-wide-gap hooks (black nickel), 10" Strike King Rage Tail Anaconda ('Bama-bug and red-bug).

    > He also caught two weigh fish on day 2 and another on day 3 on a 5/8-ounce Strike King Hack Attack jig. The jig's currently unavailable, but is set to debut at the Classic in February. His had a brown/green-pumpkin skirt (color names have not yet been chosen) and he tipped it with a Strike King Rage Tail Lobster (black). "The 5/8-ounce is the smallest in the line," he said. "They run up to 1 1/2 ounces and have a big 7/0 hook. They're designed for fish 6-plus-pounds and better."

    > He used his Senko rod on day 1, but swapped it out for the flipping stick on days 2 and 3, "just because the fish were so big and I was making such long casts," he said. "I wanted good hookups. Honestly, I thought I had a shot at having a 15-pounder on. I was on the biggest fish, as far as best quality, that I've ever been on in my entire life."

    > His partners were throwing braid, but weren't having near the success he was . He thinks the fluoro allowed him to maintain his slow crawl along the bottom, whereas the braid would slide the baits too much and too quickly.

    > He went to 1/2-ounce weights to combat the big blows on day 2. "Fishing in 22 feet, having the light weight in deep water made me fish so slow to keep contact with the bottom."

    > He caught his day-1 fish on a 5/0 Youvella hook, but he also lost a couple. On day 2, he went to a 6/0 hook and it helped him catch the record bag. "Their mouths are so big," he noted. "I would've gone bigger, but 6/0 was the biggest I had. It was crazy fishing for trophy fish in a bass tournament."

    The Bottom Line

  • Main factor in his success – "Just being slow and methodical. That was the deal and keeping my confidence up that my place would produce. I felt like every cast I'd catch a 10-pounder. I was so dialed in. I wanted to win it so bad. It was my last chance of the year to win. At Clarks Hills (Eastern FLW Series), (David) Fritts got so far ahead that I didn't feel I could catch him. It was a huge personal goal to win this tournament once I got into contention. My first goal was to make the (Cup), but I was to shift gears from that to winning after day 1. I didn't know I had it won until after I weighed in."

  • Performance edge – "My rod and reel were the main deal and my lures, but the biggest keys on day 2 were my Triton and Mercury and MotorGuide trolling motor. Nothing else mattered because it was so rough. I ran by a guy who got swamped right in front of me. The water was so big and bad and that day of the tournament, there was only one other boat in the creek with me. It was so bad that day that my boat and motor were the key to me winning. When you're catching those kinds of fish, your equipment is so important."

    Notable

    > Hackney's heading to Shreveport/Bossier City this week to get in some practice for the Classic. He also participated in the Bossier Christmas Parade Tuesday night to help advertise for the Classic.

    > His other FLW Outdoors wins came in 1998 when he won BFLs at Greers Ferry and Sam Rayburn.

    Much of the tackle referenced above is available at the BassFan Store. To browse the selection, click here.

    Final Standings

    > Field = 60 boats

    > Bracket winners noted in blue.

    Jimmy McMillan (1) -- 2, 5-4 -- 2, 10-9 -- 3, 7-10 -- 7, 23-7 / 14, 70-9 -- 5, 18-10 -- 4, 22-12 -- 5, 29-3 -- (30) Dustin Baker

    Takahiro Omori (2) -- 5, 22-14 -- 3, 14-12 -- 5, 28-0 -- 13, 65-10 / 11, 32-15 -- 5, 13-0 -- 1, 3-14 -- 5, 16-1 -- (29) Sean Stafford

    Art Ferguson III (3) -- 4, 16-8 -- 3, 8-13 -- 5, 25-0 -- 12, 50-5 / 7, 28-9 -- 5, 19-0 -- 1, 6-8 -- 1, 3-1 -- (28) Tim Klinger

    Dave Lefebre (4) -- 5, 16-10 -- 5, 15-12 -- 5, 13-2 -- 15, 45-8 / 15, 80-0 -- 5, 27-10 -- 5, 26-14 -- 5, 25-8 -- (27) Zack Thompson

    Jim Dillard (5) -- 2, 9-2 -- 5, 11-8 -- 5, 31-4 -- 12, 51-14 / 9, 39-3 -- 2, 10-0 -- 3, 13-13 -- 4, 15-6 -- (26) Jason Hickey

    Ramie Colson, Jr. (6) -- 2, 4-4 -- 1, 2-0 -- 5, 23-11 -- 8, 29-15 / 15, 51-15 -- 5, 13-13 -- 5, 20-4 -- 5, 17-14 -- (25) Scott Nielsen

    David Walker (7) -- 5, 24-14 -- 5, 21-5 -- 5, 30-11 -- 15, 76-14 / 15, 69-9 -- 5, 25-10 -- 5, 24-8 -- 5, 19-7 -- (24) Brett Hite

    Tony Couch (8) -- 4, 9-15 -- 1, 3-4 -- 3, 8-0 -- 8, 21-3 / 11, 43-6 -- 3, 10-13 -- 3, 10-3 -- 5, 22-6 -- (23) Chris Zaldain

    JT Kenney (9) -- 5, 12-12 -- 4, 17-10 -- 5, 21-9 -- 14, 51-15 / 11, 39-7 -- 3, 8-0 -- 3, 11-6 -- 5, 20-1 -- (22) Jim Davis

    Mark Rose (10) -- 5, 30-1 -- 5, 23-9 -- 5, 21-14 -- 15, 75-8 / 8, 25-2 -- 2, 5-14 -- 1, 3-5 -- 5, 15-15 -- (21) Bill Spence

    Shinichi Fukae (11) -- 5, 23-14 -- 5, 14-1 -- 5, 21-15 -- 15, 59-14 / 14, 48-13 -- 4, 11-13 -- 5, 20-6 -- 5, 16-10 -- (20) Brent Lyon

    Dan Morehead (12) -- 5, 21-4 -- 3, 12-3 -- 5, 17-14 -- 13, 51-5 / 13, 49-3 -- 5, 18-4 -- 3, 10-12 -- 5, 20-3 -- (19) Cameron Smith

    Keith Combs (13) -- 4, 13-7 -- 5, 23-5 -- 5, 26-0 -- 14, 62-12 / 15, 66-0 -- 5, 28-0 -- 5, 21-11 -- 5, 16-5 -- (18) Jason Borofka

    Thanh Le (14) -- 5, 20-12 -- 5, 15-11 -- 5, 18-0 -- 15, 54-7 / 5, 14-13 -- 1, 2-7 -- 3, 8-10 -- 1, 3-12 -- (17) Brandon Craner

    Terry Bolton (15) -- 5, 36-13 -- 5, 29-12 -- 5, 38-15 -- 15, 105-8 / 13, 51-9 -- 3, 7-15 -- 5, 18-9 -- 5, 25-1 -- (16) Rob Riehl

    Greg Hackney (16) -- 5, 32-0 -- 5, 39-11 -- 5, 37-11 -- 15, 109-6 / 8, 25-1 -- 5, 17-15 -- 0, 0-0 -- 3, 7-2 -- (15) John Billheimer Jr

    Jake Deeds (17) -- 5, 21-13 -- 5, 21-10 -- 5, 24-12 -- 15, 68-3 / 14, 61-6 -- 5, 18-7 -- 4, 21-7 -- 5, 21-8 -- (14) Rj Bennett

    Dion Hibdon (18) -- 4, 10-12 -- 5, 34-13 -- 5, 27-7 -- 14, 73-0 / 15, 69-3 -- 5, 23-0 -- 5, 25-15 -- 5, 20-4 -- (13) Jon Strelic

    Kevin Snider (19) -- 5, 20-14 -- 5, 18-8 -- 3, 18-5 -- 13, 57-11 / 8, 30-5 -- 5, 23-9 -- 1, 2-14 -- 2, 3-14 -- (12) Clint Johanson

    Koby Kreiger (20) -- 5, 28-1 -- 5, 37-4 -- 5, 17-9 -- 15, 82-14 / 13, 64-15 -- 5, 22-6 -- 5, 33-13 -- 3, 8-12 -- (11) Randy Mcabee Jr

    Jonathan Newton (21) -- 5, 20-13 -- 1, 2-7 -- 5, 20-13 -- 11, 44-1 / 11, 44-2 -- 5, 16-4 -- 5, 22-13 -- 1, 5-1 -- (10) Michael Rooke

    Chris Daves (22) -- 5, 14-4 -- 4, 18-6 -- 5, 20-5 -- 14, 52-15 / 13, 56-12 -- 5, 26-15 -- 5, 21-6 -- 3, 8-7 -- (9) Joe Uribe, Jr.

    Tommy Biffle (23) -- 5, 14-14 -- 5, 13-9 -- 5, 16-10 -- 15, 45-1 / 9, 27-10 -- 2, 5-14 -- 5, 15-6 -- 2, 6-6 -- (8) Jimmy Reese

    David Fritts (24) -- 5, 37-2 -- 5, 33-7 -- 5, 19-6 -- 15, 89-15 / 11, 38-7 -- 4, 17-10 -- 5, 14-5 -- 2, 6-8 -- (7) Cody Meyer

    Jim Tutt (25) -- 5, 16-12 -- 2, 5-9 -- 5, 20-9 -- 12, 42-14 / 15, 74-7 -- 5, 29-15 -- 5, 27-15 -- 5, 16-9 -- (6) Brent Ehrler

    Ricky D Scott (26) -- 2, 3-11 -- 1, 3-6 -- 2, 3-9 -- 5, 10-10 / 14, 62-1 -- 5, 25-3 -- 4, 12-1 -- 5, 24-13 -- (5) Rusty Salewske

    Chris Baumgardner (27) -- 5, 25-10 -- 5, 30-11 -- 5, 29-15 -- 15, 86-4 / 11, 48-3 -- 5, 20-9 -- 5, 24-2 -- 1, 3-8 -- (4) Roy Hawk

    Mike Hawkes (28) -- 5, 18-5 -- 5, 19-7 -- 5, 30-0 -- 15, 67-12 / 10, 34-2 -- 0, 0-0 -- 5, 18-7 -- 5, 15-11 -- (3) Ronald Hobbs, Jr.

    Bryan Thrift (29) -- 5, 25-4 -- 5, 21-14 -- 5, 21-6 -- 15, 68-8 / 7, 15-2 -- 3, 6-5 -- 2, 5-2 -- 2, 3-11 -- (2) David Kromm

    David Dudley (30) -- 5, 16-13 -- 5, 23-1 -- 5, 18-13 -- 15, 58-11 / 15, 75-3 -- 5, 25-15 -- 5, 24-5 -- 5, 24-15 -- (1) Ken Wick