BASSMASTER ELITE: Hackney wins wire-to-wire at Sabine River, pockets $100,000
Published 5:41 pm Sunday, June 10, 2018
Greg Hackney holds up his Bassmaster Elite Series at Sabine River trophy Sunday at the Orange Boat Ramp. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
John Crews of Salem, Virginia, waves to the crowd during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Fans stand on the dock of Sabine River in Orange awaiting the anglers’ arrival for the final weigh-in of the Bassmaster Elite Series at Sabine River. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Fans make noise for the start of the Bassmaster Elite Series at Sabine River final weigh-in Sunday in Orange. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Fans sit on the dock of Sabine River in Orange awaiting the anglers’ arrival for the final weigh-in of the Bassmaster Elite Series at Sabine River. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Shin Fukae of Palestine, Texas, reaches for his fish as he pulls up to the stage for Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Greg Hackney, center, of Gonzales, Louisiana, reacts to winning the Bassmaster Elite Series at Sabine River on Sunday as he surpassed Gerald Swindle, right, of Guntersville, Alabama, to win. At left is tournament director Trip Weldon. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Steve Kennedy of Auburn, Alabama, rides up to the stage for Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Justin Lucas of Guntersville, Alabama, pulls up for Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Brock Mosley of Meridian, Mississippi, holds up a bass during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Brandon Palaniuk of Hayden, Idaho, show off two of his bass during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Skeet Reese, of Auburn, California, talks to Bassmaster Elite Series host Dave Mercer as then-leader Gerald Swindle of Guntersville, Alabama, listens during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Skeet Reese, of Auburn, California, is pulled up for his weigh-in Sunday. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Bradley Roy, of Lancaster, Kentucky, is pulled to the stage for Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Gerald Swindle of Guntersville, Alabama, waves to the crowd during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
Jake Whitaker of Fairview, North Carolina, opens his fish box during Sunday’s weigh-in. (I.C. Murrell/The News)
ORANGE — Greg Hackney felt he had a chance to fish a good Bassmaster Elite Series tournament on the Sabine River.
“I thought I had the opportunity to have a good tournament,” he said. “I didn’t know that I would have a shot to win.”
Hackney, of Gonzales, Louisiana, was hard to beat each of the last four days. He needed only a 3-pound bag Sunday to secure a $100,000 first-place check as the last man to weigh in at the Orange Boat Ramp.
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His final bag — 7 pounds, 5 ounces. With that, the 44-year-old wrapped up a wire-to-wire victory, his sixth win all-time in the series and 20th top-three result.
“I think the big reason I felt I was going to be around a lot of guys was that it’s hard to win in a crowd,” Hackney said. “But, one thing that plays into that is, it’s a tough fishery. It seemed like those bigger fish were a little harder to catch. You could flip and just shell them. If If I had went out flipped today, I’d have gotten 40 bites.”
Hackney led by 3-11 or more after each round. His Sunday bag was 4-6 better than runner-up Gerald Swindle, a Guntersville, Alabama, angler who won the $1,500 Big Bass award with a 4-2 catch.
Swindle, 48, overcame a 2-pound penalty on the first day for having six fish in his live well. The daily limit is five.
But he worked his way to 31st place Friday, which was more than enough to qualify to fish Saturday, and was 10th going into Sunday. His second-place finish netted him $25,000.
Keith Poche of Pike Road, Alabama, was third with 43 pounds even. He pocketed $21,000.
“Anything on the Texas side is fishable water, but [Sabine River] is pretty challenging,” Poche said. “You have to factor in the tide, water going up and down, the fish are moving, [and] they feed at a certain time, so you’ve got to catch them right. So it’s pretty challenging. You’ve got a lot of small fish … and a lot of big fish, but it’s hard to find the bigger ones.”
Bradley Roy of Lancaster, Kentucky, earned $15,000 with a 41-1 finish for fourth place, and series rookie Jake Whitaker of Fairview, North Carolina, earned $14,000 with a 40-5 total.
Hackney said he caught his two best fish on a frog lure. An unofficial leaderboard showed he had caught only two fish several hours into the final round.
“I heard a bunch of guys say in the weigh-in line during the afternoons that it’s hard to catch a 2-pounder,” Hackney said. “They caught some 3-pounders and some little ones, but they couldn’t catch a 2-pounder. I caught quite a few of those little ones. Those 2 1/4- to 2 3/4-pound fish have been my key fish this week.”
And all it took, he said, was 11.6 gallons of gas during the entire tournament to win wire-to-wire. He added he caught 10 “keepers” in a 45-minute span while flipping.
“There were a lot of fish down on this end,” Hackney said while at the ramp. “We’ve been coming here since 2013, and there’s been a bunch of them dumped right here. I heard rumors the flood helped it. It’s Bassmaster that helped it.”
Hackney is third in Bassmaster Angler of the Year standings with 422 points, behind Brent Chapman’s 456 and Roy’s 427. The top 50 in the standings will qualify for the championship tournament in late September on Lake Chatuge on the Georgia-North Carolina border.
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I.C. Murrell: 721-2435. Twitter: @ICMurrellPANews
About I.C. Murrell
I.C. Murrell was promoted to editor of The News, effective Oct. 14, 2019. He previously served as sports editor since August 2015 and has won or shared eight first-place awards from state newspaper associations and corporations. He was born in Memphis, Tennessee, grew up mostly in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, and graduated from the University of Arkansas at Monticello.
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