Tourney Patterns

Greg Hackney cranked ’em at the Atchafalaya

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Bassmaster.com photo

Greg Hackney finished 2nd at the Atchafalaya Bassmaster Central Open doing something most wouldn’t expect: cranking. Winner Cliff Crochet flipped to some of the zillion targets there as did many others, but Hack found that crankin’ was more productive. Here’s how he did it.

Where he fished

> “I had some past experience there. I know the areas that produce when tournaments are won in the spring when they’re spawning, and I just fished connected bodies of water.

> “The river was down, the water color was good. I just tried to fish stuff with flowing water — places where they summer. The fish were still on the summertime stuff. The water had been hot.

> “I stayed away from dead-end stuff. I wanted to be where the water was moving, had good depth and the water quality was good.

> “The area I fished had matted vegetation, but they were on stuff that was vertical. I didn’t find them relating underneath vegetation. Everything I caught came off wood.

> “They were on cypress trees, stumps, wood — cypress were key.

> “I was keying on stuff sticking out a little farther — not necessarily a little point, but something sticking out from the rest of the cover. Could be an isolated piece of cover, a point, a mouth of an indentation, a ditch mouth…typical summertime stuff. The fish had made no transition.”

How he caught ’em

> “Most fish were suspended on cover in 1.5′. Some cover was in 5′, some was in 1.5′. None were relating to the bottom — they were all high in the water column.

> “The clearest water where I was fishing was about 10″. Most of it was only 4”. I’m not a big fan of water that dirty, but when I was practicing I kept open mind and it just seemed like they were very responsive in that dirty water. They are dirty-water fish. That’s one of the reasons I used a reaction-style bait.

> “I caught 2 fish flipping, but the majority came on a Strike King 2.5. The fish were suspended, so cranking to keep the bait in the strike zone was more efficient than flipping. I caught the same-size fish flipping, but it was slower and I had to cover lot of water to catch my fish.

> “With the crankbait I used a slow to medium retrieve and made repetitive casts to cover. I made 5′ to 20′ casts — the water was dirty so I could be close to the cover. I used 20-lb Gamma fluorocarbon, and I held up the rod so the bait wouldn’t get too deep.

> “A lot of the trees were big. Just to fish around them one time I’d have to throw 3-4 times. If they weren’t biting, I’d have to throw multiple times at the exact same spot to get a bite. You’d have to deflect the bait off cover to get a reaction bite.”

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He fished the Strike King KVD 2.5 squarebill (chartreuse/black back) on a 7′ Quantum Tour KVD Tour crankbait rod, Quantum HD 200 reel (6.6) and 20-lb Gamma Edge fluorocarbon.

The jig was a 3/8-oz Strike King Hack Attack Heavy Cover Jig (black/blue) with a Strike King Rage Craw (black/blue flake). He fished it on a 7′ 10″ Quantum PT flipping stick, Quantum 200 HD reel (7.6) and 50-lb Gamma Torque braid.

More

> He wanted to shout-out his Phoenix boat, a 920. He feels it’s faster than other boats, which increases his fishing time, and helped him agilely navigate the channels to get to his spot.

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