Whatcha Watching?

Dissatisfied with a two-month pause in his tournament schedule, Greg Hackney wanted to fish more. “I’m like, why? We don’t have a true season that way.”

His solution: sign up for the NPFL. The events would fill the void and come with a $100,000 top prize. A full field fishes all three days – the format Hackney favors – and the traditional five-fish limit fits his style. The decision to give the NPFL a try was all but assured.

Oh, and there’s no forward-facing sonar.

“Yeah, you still have to guess where some of them (bass) are,” Hackney chuckled. “It fits the way I learned to fish.”

After three events, Hackney’s strategy is paying off. He notched a win at Lake Norman and earned quality checks at the other tournaments. Compared to his sub-par Elite Series performance this season, I wondered if he would be jumping ship permanently.

“I’m not going anywhere from the Elites.” Hackney assured me that he was a B.A.S.S. angler for the long haul. A few poor performances were attributed to lost fish, something that just happens and anglers find the need to work through.

Still, Hackney is a long way off from a normal Hackney season. Remember, this is the guy who qualifies for the Classic like clockwork, won the B.A.S.S. AOY in 2014, took down FLW and MLF World Championships and racks up six figures in earnings without changing his line.

In today’s world of tournament bass fishing, Greg Hackney is legendary.

Holding near the bottom of the B.A.S.S. standings can’t sit well with him. Perhaps Hackney should change his approach?

“I’m still traditionally bass fishing,” he assured me. With the exception of the Lake St. Clair Elite event in 2024, Hackney’s never used FFS in competition. “I don’t have anything against it (FFS), I just prefer not to. You can’t be against something and then go use it when things don’t work out.”

Well said. In all of my interviews on forward-facing sonar, from the guys who love the technology to those who simply tolerate it, no one has ever mentioned pure principle as the driving force behind their choice.

Then again, no one else is Greg Hackney.

Hackney’s’s also a student of the game; perhaps more so than any pro out there. “I’m not as good as I want to be and, as long as I use that, I’ll never get any better,” he claimed.

Tournament success lies partly in efficiency, something Hackney is well aware of and has refined through 30 years of competition. Lost fish have always been a curse, but today’s game has raised the stakes.

Here, I was taught an overlooked lesson:

“You can’t have a bad day against (FFS). On the average day, I’m only gonna get seven or eight bites. The scopers are going to get 30. Even if they lose half their fish, they still catch more than me.”

Looking at it this way, Hackney is simply at a competitive disadvantage. Incredibly, he sticks to his guns.

Hackney’s career has spanned three decades and, in that time, he’s seen the sport change dramatically. His most recent win paid the same amount as his first back in 2004. While the participation in tournament bass fishing has grown, more tournaments and more “pros” have taken away from the true professional ranks.

But Hackney’s career is in a good spot. Despite a poor Elite Series season, he’s still found a way to notch a win and grab as much media attention as ever. Younger anglers, whether they support the new format or not, don’t have a choice.

“The biggest thing I have to do,” he reminded me “is make a living. I don’t have to make it as a professional.”

"I’m just staying away from it, is all. I still have to stand for what I want to do. I’ll survive.”

Of course he will. Greg Hackney will always be a feared competitor. For now he’s waiting it out, something that appears to be a successful plan given the recent buzz of FFS limitations on the horizon.

Perhaps, someday, we’ll have put this all behind us, and we can look back at the words of Greg Hackney as the ultimate in irony.

“I’m watching TV. And you don’t get to watch TV. But you can watch me, watching TV. How fun is that?”

(Joe Balog is the often-outspoken owner of Millennium Promotions, Inc., an agency operating in the fishing and hunting industries. A former Bassmaster Open and EverStart Championship winner, he's best known for his big-water innovations and hardcore fishing style. He's a popular seminar speaker, product designer and author, and is considered one of the most influential smallmouth fishermen of modern times.)

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