Some might assume that the recent Bassmaster Legends Major was a hero-or-zero deal where the big kicker dominated. Not so.
Instead, it was an old-fashioned grind where two or three solid keepers a day made for a rock-solid sack.
Scott Rook won the event on a flipping bite (for the details of his winning pattern, click here). What follows is how 2nd-place Greg Hackney and 3rd-place Kevin Short caught their fish.
2nd: Greg Hackney
> Day 1: 2, 3-09
> Day 2: 5, 13-04 (7, 16-13)
> Day 3: 2, 4-02
> Day 4: 4, 8-03 (6, 12-05)
Hackney spent days 1 and 2 cranking shallow wood, and caught all his fish on a Strike King Series 1 crankbait.
"I was fishing back in a creek and in the mouth of the creek – right next to the main river," he said. "You had to make contact with the crank, and I got all my bites as it deflected off wood.
"And sometimes it took repeated casts. I'd come by a stump, throw at it four or five times, then come back later and get bit. There was a period when they turned on and bit good, but you had to be there at the right time."
His timing improved on day 2, when he caught his only limit of the tournament. "I never lost a fish that day. I moved really well and moved at the right time. I was really dialed in."
Once he switched to the six-hole course for the final 2 days, he flipped.
"I caught most of my fish flipping vegetation. It was some shallow grass, and some vine-type grass that was floating. It had to have at least 3 feet of water under it, but it could have had up to 12 feet under the floating mats."
> Crankbait gear: 7' Quantum PT Gary Klein signature series cranking rod (fiberglass), Quantum Accurist PT casting reel, 12-pound Gamma Edge fluorocarbon line, Strike King Series 1 Pro Model crankbait (chrome with a gray back).
Hackney threw a chrome/gray Strike King Series 1 crank (blue/chartreuse shown) to make the day-2 cut.
> The crankbait was the identical one he used to make the cut at this year's Bassmaster Memorial Major at Eagle Mt. Lake.
> Flipping gear: 7'11" medium-heavy Quantum PT Greg Hackney signature series flipping stick, same reel, 20-pound Gamma Edge and 65-pound unnamed braid (in heavier cover), 1 1/2-ounce Tru-Tungsten weight (black), 4/0 Tru-Tungsten prototype hook, generic plastic crawfish (green-pumpkin and watermelon).
> The prototype Tru-Tungsten hook is one he's designing. "I can't say it'll be out next year – we're working on it – but it will be the deal for flipping heavy vegetation," he said. "Tru-Tungsten is the first company that's building tournament tackle, not fishing tackle. It's tackle designed for tournament fishermen in all the extremes."
> Main factor in his success – "I was slow and methodical and I fished every piece of cover like it had a fish on it."
> Performance edge – "I'd say that it was my boat and motor. I was making a long boat ride (on days 1 and 2), and I had no trouble winning the boat race. I actually had extra fishing time because my boat was so fast. I'm running a Triton 21-X with a Mercury 250 Pro XS on back. When you lock, everybody locks together. The first day, we had 36 boats in the lock, and when I got to where I was going, I looked around and I couldn't see another tournament competitor. I was pumped when I got there. It was like I already had an edge."
3rd: Kevin Short
Kevin Short focused on schooling fish each day. It's a dominant pattern on the river this time of year, and will hold up reasonably well, but it's a timing issue. The schools only bite at certain times.
"The key to it is figuring out what time period during the day each school is going to be active," he said. "Lots of times, at the same time up and down the river, all the fish will start biting.
"I talked to Greg Hackney and somebody else, and all three of us said our fish bit between 10:30 and 11:30. I don't know why that is, but it's fairly common."
On day 1, he flipped to a school that was in matted grass. On day 2, he fished a school in pool 7 and caught one on a topwater and three on a crank.
Once inside the course, on day 3 he found a school and threw a crankbait. That took him up to 3rd place. He got to the school late on day 4, due to his hole rotation, and only caught one.
Kevin Short focused on schooling fish, but the bite window was short.
> Flipping gear: 7'6" heavy-action St. Croix Legend Elite rod, Shimano Castaic casting reel, 65-pound Triple Fish Bully braid, 1-ounce Bass Pro Shops XPS tungsten weight (pegged), 4/0 Owner straight-shank wide-gap hook, Zoom Ultra Vibe Speed Craw (watermelon/candy and blackberry).
> Topwater gear: 6'8" medium-action St. Croix Legend Elite rod, Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Triple Fish Chameleon line, 3 1/2" homemade propbait (Tennessee shad, double-prop).
> A friend made the propbait for him. "He lives up the river in Clarksville," Short noted. "It's the ugliest thing you've ever seen in your life, but it catches fish."
> His crankbait rod is medium-action, but has a fast tip and is actually marketed for use with small jerkbaits.
> Crankbait gear: 7' St. Croix Premier rod (fiberglass), Shimano Chronarch casting reel, 15-pound Triple Fish fluorocarbon, Norman Deep Baby N (pink/white) and Lucky Craft RC 1.5 (black/white).
> Main factor in his success – "Finding those little schools of fish and knowing what to do when I found them. It was a timing thing and I had to keep checking them."
> Performance edge – "Probably, with all those zebra mussels, it was my Triple Fish fluorocarbon line. I was fishing around rocks quite a bit and the fluorocarbon is so tough and durable around zebra mussels. If I was fishing with regular mono, I'm sure I would have broke off several times."
Notable
> Pattern information for 4th-place Shaw Grigsby and 5th-place Gary Klein will be posted tomorrow.
