Take a quick scan of the BassFan World Rankings and Toyota Tundra BASS Angler of the Year (AOY) race and several names stick out. No, not the perennial guys like KVD, Reese, Ehrler or Jones. It's the guys who haven't been up there in a while that might turn more heads right now.
Two of them –
Greg Hackney and Mark Menendez – are in the midst of their best fishing in a while. In the case of Hackney, many BassFans might view his present stats (7th in the points, 20th in the world) as closer to the level expected of him. After all, he was once the No. 1-ranked angler in the world.
Menendez, on the other hand, is more clearly at some form of peak. He's always been a solid, threatening stick, but rather than haunting the top of the points and World Rankings, he's more traditionally been positioned toward the 30s and 40s in the points, and around 100th in the Rankings. He's fished only three of the 10 Bassmaster Classics so far this decade, but boasts a total of 17 Top 10s and three wins across his 18-year career.
With both anglers now in overdrive and climbing, it's interesting that each attributes his renewed success to different factors.
Hackney Gets 'Out'
Hackney described his improved fishing in David Dudley-esque terms. Remember that Dudley used to despise offshore cranking. But he went back to school, forced himself to learn the technique, and won with it at Ft. Loudoun-Tellico last year.
For Hack, though, the turnaround started recently. In fact, he didn't have much confidence with offshore fishing until a few weeks ago at the Guntersville Elite Series, where he finished 13th with an offshore crank bite.
"I'm a good shallow fisherman, so it's easy for me to run back in the bushes and catch some fish," Hackney said. "It seems like I always go out for a little bit, not catch them quickly enough, then go back to my strengths. But I don't want to be a labeled fisherman. My whole deal now is, I don't care if the fish are 80 feet or 2 feet deep – I want to be one of the ones who catches them.
"Last year was my worst year ever, and the deal was, all those tournaments were won 'out.' We didn't have any shallow tournaments. I don't want to fish that way anymore. Most all the guys have more experience at it than me, but I'm learning."
He does, admittedly, have some history against him. When he broke into the tours in the early part of this decade, both leagues fished largely spring-loaded schedules that were winter and pre-spawn with some spawn. David Fritts' dominance had disappeared, and the crankbait was all but forgotten.
But now that BASS stretches its schedule across summer and the FLW Tour reaches into July, cranking's made a huge comeback. Trouble is, of course, Hack's roamed the sidelines.
Given his Guntersville results, he plans to commit to the offshore bite next week at Kentucky Lake – a lake he's had some success on, but notably, that success had entirely been shallow.
"In the past, I didn't have any offshore experience and took a pretty good beating there," he said of Kentucky Lake. "Can I change at Kentucky Lake? I'm going to try. I'm going to fish out, regardless of how I do. I know how I'm going to fish because that's the way the tournament's going to be won.
"I've got as good of equipment as anybody on the planet, so it's me that's the hold-back factor. My goal is to become a factor everywhere we go."
Menendez Points To Three
Interesting about Menendez is not only the reasons he cites for his upswing, but also the fact that three of his four most recent finishes were 6th, 8th and 1st, and next week the Elite Series visits his home lake (Kentucky).
Mark Menendez says his hot streak is the combination of three factors that include finances and tackle.
"I think it's a three-fold deal," Menendez said of his upswing to 18th in the world and 8th in the BASS points. "First and foremost, it's getting that financial boost from winning Dardanelle. That clears one's mind and allows you to think about what your next move is. You make better decisions with a clearer mind than one with clouds.
"It's freed me up from fishing for checks to looking at the whole outlook. With a 200-plus point cushion just for the Classic, you can go out and take some risks, and that's happened."
Parts two and three of the turnaround, he noted, involve equipment. He said straight-up that "it'll sound like a commercial," but he was emphatic that it's made a big difference. And after all, it is a sport. Racecar drivers need the right engine components, and several anglers have boosted their performance through the years with equipment changes.
A major factor this year, Menendez said, was a change in rods. He was previously with All-Star (a graphite company) but now fishes for Power Tackle (a graphite and glass company).
"Ever since the switch, I can't recall losing any fish that would have changed the outcome of where I am in the standings right now," he said. "I've always been a guy who liked to use tackle that was affordable to the everyday guy, and I went along the lines of promoting that way – using the same stuff you can buy off the shelf.
"But with Power Tackle rods, I'm not saying I get more bites, but I land more fish. The concept in design is the rods are a lot more moderate in action, and that allows for more hiccups because the pressure remains constant on the fish. I wish you could see the graphite rods, and the glass rods are perfect. There's a perfect parabolic bend. That's what I cranked in 96 pounds with at Guntersville."
The other tackle factor is his baits, he said. And that stems from serious feedback and concept work that Strike King received from its pro staff 2 years ago. He's fishing the new wave of baits from last year, as well as prototype stuff that's not to market yet.
"I've caught well into the 90th percentile of my fish on Strike King lures," he said. "The pro staff gave its input, the powers that be implemented all the things we put down on paper and they really stepped up the quality of the lures and baits. The Series 6 put me in 2nd at Wheeler for the Open, I won with the plastics at Dardanelle, and the Series 5 and 6 caught a lot of my fish at Guntersville. It's really made a big difference for me."
Notable
> Like Hackney, Menendez plans to fish offshore next week at Kentucky. "I've watched the weather to see what weights are being caught here, and I've designed a plan on what I think is going to happen," Menendez said. "It'll be won offshore. Shallow water's going to play a heavier role than expected for the guys getting 50-cut checks, but it's not going to be won shallow."
