Unwillingness To Leave Shallows Hindered Hackney

Greg Hackney still has the same confidence in his own abilities that he did 3 years ago, when he won the FLW Tour Angler of the Year (AOY) award and sat atop the BassFan World Rankings. That actually worked against him a few times during this year's Bassmaster Elite Series campaign.

"In a way, my biggest problem all year was that I was overconfident and it made me fish stupid," said the always-straightforward Louisianan, who barely qualified for the 2009 Bassmaster Classic in his adopted home state and has seen his World Ranking fall all the way to 41st. "When I get overconfident I do stupid things, and there were times during the year when I went into tournaments saying I was going to catch them the way I want to catch them instead of letting the fish tell me what to do.

We had all those tournaments this year where all those fish were caught (offshore), and not one time did I choose to fish out, even though I knew they were going to be caught out. I just decided I didn't want to fish that way, and I got exactly what I deserved."

Big Dose of Reality

Hackney's calendar year got off to a great start as he logged a 4th at the Okeechobee Eastern FLW Series in January and a 5th in the Bassmaster Classic at South Carolina's Lake Hartwell in February – easily his best-ever finish in that event.

But then came the Elite opener at Florida's Harris Chain, where he ended up 109th (dead last).

He followed that up with a 62nd at Toho and a 74th at Falcon. After three events, he was 96th in the points.

"When the year started everything was going my way," he said. "But confidence is a double-edged sword – you need it to succeed in this sport and it drives you, but it can also be your demise if you don't use it in the right ways, and I didn't."

He bounced back with a 7th at Amistad, and that put him on a mini-hot streak (he was 42nd at Murray and 17th at Clarks Hill in the succeeding events). But then came a 74th at Wheeler and a 73rd at Kentucky Lake. With just three tournaments to go, he sat at 61st on the AOY list, and his streak of qualifying for six straight Classics was in serious jeopardy.

He averted that disaster with Top 30s in the last three events, including a 12th at Erie. But the quest to make it to the Red River this winter was more of a chore than it should've been.

"Qualifying for the Classic this year felt like what winning an event has felt like in the past, just because this was the first year I'd really struggled to make it. I got started off on the wrong foot and I never could right the ship.

"Making it was a big relief and just an awesome feeling."

Sort of a Homer

Hackney has a considerable amount of experience fishing the Red River, but doesn't consider himself a true local for the upcoming Classic. His home in Gonzales is about a 3 1/2-hour drive from the launch in Bossier City.

He's a shallow-water guru and should have ample opportunity to fish to his strengths on the Red's prespawn bass.

"I've never actually been there at that time of year – my experience is pretty much late spring through fall," he said. "Occasionally I go over there and spend a little time with no tournament on the line.

"It's a fun place to fish and it's the type of body of water I like to fish on. It could be high and muddy, which would force everybody into smaller areas. But if it's stable and not running real hard, it'll fish incredibly big."

He plans to get over there several times prior to the Dec. 15 cutoff.

"I want to get most of it done in October and November because our deer hunting is so good and it really gets keyed up when December comes around. I might spend the first week of December over that, but that'll be about it."

Can He Change His Ways?

As for the 2009 Elite Series, Hackney's preliminary evaluation of the schedule tells him that it'll favor the shallow-water maven more than the '08 slate did. But he'll be more prepared to fish offshore – and hopefully more willing.

"I didn't grow up on that type of fishery and it's one of those deals that I need to spend some time doing," he said. "I need to get out there and learn to find schools of fish better and learn what to look for. Will it change my decisions? I don't know – I can't read the future – but I do thing what happened this year helped me.

"I'm going to spend some time (this offseason) with the electric motor and a big crankbait and see if I can't build some confidence. The hardest thing isn't getting them to bite, it's finding that big school that hasn't been molested and has fish that'll bite readily."

And as always, winning an Elite Series AOY to bookend with the one he won on the FLW Tour will be on his mind – at least in the early going.

"I think about it every year, especially after being in the hunt for it that first year (he was 11th in 2006). I feel like I'm a more knowledgeable fisherman than I used to be, but I don't feel like I've maximized my potential, and that bothers me.

"I consider myself still fairly young in my career, but I've been around long enough not to make the kind of mistakes I made this year."

Notable

> Hackney said there could be a couple of non-Elite Series qualifiers for the Classic who'll be more "local" than he is – Red River guide Homer Humphreys has a shot at making it via the Bassmaster Central Opens and Jaime Laiche stands a chance to make it for the second year in a row through the BASS Federation Nation.

> He made another prediction regarding the '09 Elite schedule: He doesn't think there'll be as many monstrous bags caught as in past years. "It's going to get back more in the realm of reality, where 20 pounds is a good day instead of 30 or 40. Amistad might be the only place where you'll see those huge sacks. It has the same fish it had the first time we were that, but they're smarter now. I like that because it keeps everybody on their toes."