A near-Hack panic attack

When you look at the final results from Day 1, you can understand why AOY leader Greg Hackney was relieved when his five-bass limit weighed 18 pounds Thursday.

ESCANABA, Mich — When you look at the final results from Day 1, you can understand why AOY leader Greg Hackney was relieved when his five-bass limit weighed 18 pounds Thursday. Hackney thought his total might be two pounds less, after eyeballing what he had in his weigh-in bag.

If Hackney had weighed only 16 pounds, he would no longer be leading the AOY standings. He would be in 31st place in this tournament, tied with Jeff Kriet. Todd Faircloth would be leading Hackney in the AOY standings by 4 points, and Aaron Martens would be 9 points behind Faircloth.

This is a tightly bunched field, which often happens on a smallmouth bass fishery like Lake Michigan's Bays de Noc. Six pounds separates fourth place (Dean Rojas, 22-0) and 31st (Jeff Kriet, 16-0). And two pounds can make a world of difference.

It's important to understand that these daily updates in the AOY standings are theoretical points. Only the final standings produce actual points. If Hackney finishes 15th or better, he will be the AOY champion, no matter what anyone else does. And he most likely has a greater margin than that, depending on where Faircloth and Martens finish.

Bays de Noc fishing small

Greg Hackney essentially predicted this after the first day of practice this week on Little Bay de Noc and Big Bay de Noc: This big section of Lake Michigan is fishing small.

In a telephone conversation early Tuesday morning, Hackney said, "I had a hard time getting on something good that didn't have another boat on it. These are the top 50 bass fishermen in the world. They know where to look."

At the Day 1 weigh-in, angler after angler mentioned either sharing water or not being able to get to their best spot because it was already occupied.

"There's a lot of dead water," Aaron Martens said. "There are little key areas, and that's where everybody is fishing. We all found the same stuff."

Even Faircloth, who made a long run to get to his area, discovered that he wasn't the only pro to find that spot.

"He backed off and gave me my space," Faircloth said. "I really appreciated that."

Faircloth has no backup plan

Twelve anglers weighed bags of 20 pounds or more, including Faircloth's 10th-place total of 20-15. He would have tried to make the long run back there Friday, if the high winds hadn't canceled the day. That spot is essentially all he's got.

"I don't have anything else where I feel like I can do what I did (Thursday)," he said. "I feel like I've got all my eggs in one basket, in one area. If I'm going to do well and potentially win the AOY title, I think it's right there."

Faircloth estimated he caught about 30 keepers on Day 1, but nothing that broke the 5-pound mark. The potential is there for a bigger sack.

"I caught some 5-pounders in practice," Faircloth said. "I saw some more today."

The weights may drop

After the three practice days, the Elite Series anglers had a read on Bays de Noc: 1) it holds some giant smallmouth bass, but, 2) there are not great numbers of 2-, 3- and 4-pounders, like at Lake Erie.

You may start to see that lack of numbers show up on the weigh-in scales the next two days. That's part of the reason why Greg Hackney was hoping to catch 20 pounds on Day 1, then he'd be satisfied with an 18- or 19-pound bag on Day 2.

"It's not going to handle pressure at all because there aren't a lot of fish here," said Aaron Martens at the Day 1 weigh-in. "They are spread out on those key spots. They were feeling the pressure already after (three days of) practice.

"These 50 guys caught a good percentage of the fish that are catchable."

Smallmouth color changes

Jacob Powroznik caught most of his 24-pound, 1-ounce bag Thursday on a shallow sand bar near a deep drop. He could see the fish he was casting to, and when he saw a dark-colored smallmouth, his eyes lit up.

"You can tell by the color of them if they're ready to bite," he said. "If they're real, real black, those are the ones that are fired up. They're up there for a reason."

If you've caught many smallmouth bass, you've noticed how they change colors while in your livewell. They have the ability to blend into the colors of their environment. The dark-colored smallmouth that Powroznik caught had probably just moved up from the depths onto the shallow sandbar.

"These fish are on the bottom," Powroznik said. "You've got to have something that's on the bottom. Most of these guys are throwing drop-shots at them. I'm throwing something a little bit different."