A hundred pros came to the then-62-year-old Bull Shoals Reservoir in April 2013, for a Bassmaster Elite Tournament. Fifty of them left there with a paycheck of at least $10,000. The difference between the haves and the have-nots was spelled out in how well they handled the changing water and weather conditions and bass behavior that weekend.
Air temperatures, for example, dropped 30 degrees in one day. Cold rainwater flowed into the reservoir off the Ozark hills. Water temperatures started in the 60s but dropped dramatically, then rose again. Clean water suddenly turned dirty, and the lake level rose three feet between practice and the second day of competition. And, oh, by the way, did I mention that the bass were in various phases of the spawn?
Few anglers in the history of this sport have made a better living by adapting to changes than Greg Hackney (pictured above), Mike Iaconelli, and Kevin VanDam. All of them took home a paycheck from the Ozark Mountain reservoir, which, as the Wired2Fish editors described it, "was metamorphosing like a butterfly."
Hackney, a power angler by trade, started practice with what he feels most comfortable: a 7-foot 11-inch flipping stick and "logging chain worthy" braided line. At 11 a.m. on the second day of practice, however, he picked up an EXO spinning reel and a shaky head and immediately had a dozen bites.
"Obviously, at that point, I knew I needed to change from power fishing to finesse," he said, adding, "I actually went back to power fishing for a while in practice, but I knew the shaky head was really what I needed to do. Honestly, it felt good to catch 'em with a spinning reel. It was reassurance that I'm not too one-dimensional and that I'm as versatile as you gotta be to do well out here. I could have tried to force the flippin' bite, but if I had, I'd already be on my way home," he concluded.
Like Hackney, Iaconelli knew when to put down the baitcaster and turn to spinning.
"I caught 'em the first day with a spinnerbait when the wind blew so hard. Then, the second day, the wind stopped, and it just killed the spinnerbait bite," he said. "So, I picked up a spinning rod and a shaky head and ran to brand new water. You've got to work hard to feel the pulse of the fish."
These fish were moving, and as it worked out, Ike was able to catch them on the second day with a shaky head and light line fished near the bank, where they were wanting to spawn. The spinnerbait was a non-factor that day.
VanDam totally left the areas where he had practiced once the tournament started. Often referred to as the most dominant bass angler in the world, he often boldly anticipates with supreme confidence what the bass will bite two hours from now. On the other hand, he doesn't give a rip about what they bit two days ago.
As he explained, "I looked for spawning bass in the backs of pockets during practice with spinning tackle, but when that wind blew in the first morning of the tournament, I totally scrapped all that and went power fishing with crankbaits, jerkbaits and spinnerbaits. When you're fishing clear-water reservoirs, and that wind blows, you fish the wind," he said. "You don't worry about where they were."
Change like the wind. Adapt or fail. That's why Hackney, Iaconelli and VanDam are among the very best in the world at doing what they do. That's also why they accumulate so many paychecks...as they did that tournament on Bull Shoals.
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