As Expected, Hackney Capitalizes on Big Lead and Advances to Sudden Death

In one sense, there wasn’t much pressure on Louisiana angling pro Greg Hackney coming into today’s second day of Round One action on Lake Nacogdoches.

After all, he had a commanding 30-pound or so lead, a rare event for anglers in any form of tournament bass competition.

But then again, maybe there was a little bit of pressure on the “Hack Attack” as he continues to try and win this week’s 2017 Major League Fishing General Tire World Championship in Nacogdoches.

Because if it’s true that few – if any – anglers have ever enjoyed a 30-pound lead, then it also stands to reason that few if any have ever lost such a lead, too.

And Hackney sure didn’t want to become the first to do so.

Fortunately, despite the day being more of a struggle than he anticipated, Hackney capitalized on his first-day success, easily winning the Round One group he was in and moving on to the Sudden Death cut-weight semifinal round later this week.

“You know, I really kind of had a rough go of it today,” smiled Hackney. “I had a lot of fish come off and fish that didn’t commit. I saw twice as many fish today as I did on the first day but they just bit different and weren’t aggressive.

“I hate to say this, but I struggled,” he added with a chuckle. “I caught 116-pounds and it was a struggle.”

The rest of the field might not think so as Hackney’s lead – and his winning of the Round One first group – was really never in any doubt.

Still, even after such a smashing two-day performance, the Hack Attack admits that he really hasn’t done much.

Yet, that is, only advancing to the next round as he continues his quest to win this week’s MLF World Championship.

“I know I’m on cloud nine right now, but I’m really not feeling it,” Hackney said. “Maybe I will when I wake up in the morning, but right now, I’m pretty much spent.”

Why? Because Hackney went after today’s round just as he promised, hard charging and looking to win and win big.

“I felt like I had to go harder today than I did the first day,” he said. “At one time today, I was leading by 40 pounds and I thought I might win by 50. But then it just seemed like they (the bass) died (out there).

“Then they got weird and I couldn’t get them to commit.”

At that point, Kevin VanDam was able to make up some ground, on Hackney, although in the end, there was just simply too much ground for KVD to overcome.

When I mentioned that the slowdown in action – in Hackney’s mind, at least – might have been because of the proverbial day after a spring cold front, the veteran Louisiana pro said that he wasn’t so sure if that was the reason why.

“I was kind of surprised that they bit so good early,” said Hackney. “I really was judging (how) the later part of the day would go by the way that they bit early, but there was like one little flurry when we went back out (and that was kind of it).

“I lost two good ones, I caught two good ones and then we had a technical breakdown (that stopped the action),” he added.

“I was pretty fired up to get back out there, and then again, it was just like it died and it wasn’t the same place it had been 30 minutes before. It was just like they left.”

Hackney spent the last hour of the day searching in a different area and finally got a pretty good bite – his biggest of the day – and finished his Round One effort with a foregone conclusion kind of big win.

But that being said, Hackney cautions that in the next round – the Sudden Death semifinal round – he knows he is going to have to step up his game.

“In the next round, everybody that is there, they have gotten something figured out and have a key (in mind) about how the fish are acting,” said Hackney.

“And that’s regardless of where we go (for the next round) because we’ll at least be within 100-mile radius of here,” he added. “So chances are, the fish will be doing the same thing.

“Unless for some reason it’s a lake where it’s extremely warm or colder. The cover (in the lake) might change, but the fish will kind of be doing the same thing.”

With a day off tomorrow, the Hack Attack plans to tweak his tackle and to get some rest, as much as the television production schedule will allow as the CBS Sports network television cameras keep rolling.

“And then let’s get it on,” smiled Hackney.

Because dominating Round One win or not, there’s still much more fishing action yet to come in Nacogdoches.

As Hackney and the rest of this week’s remaining field seek to claim the first ever and highly coveted MLF World Championship title.