In 1984, a young Greg Hackney, just a few weeks shy of his 11th birthday, sat in the stands and watched as Rick Clunn claimed his third Bassmaster Classic crown.
“I knew at that time, that’s what I wanted to do with my life,” Hackney said more than four decades later, sitting on his boat at media day for the 2025 Bass Pro Shops Bassmaster Classic presented by Under Armour. “I knew that I needed to be there, to be part of it all. I saw a piece of what is now 55 years of B.A.S.S. history.”
Hackney’s name is certainly etched into those historical tablets. This will be his 19th Classic, he’s won six B.A.S.S. events, an Angler of the Year title and he’s nearing $3 million in lifetime winnings, but all these years later, he still hasn’t conquered the Classic.
“I’ve been here a lot,” he said. “And I regret every one that I did not win, which is all of them.”
He’s finished in the top ten three times, and said he was “one bite away” from winning at Hartwell in 2008, where he ultimately finished fifth.
“I’ve been my own worst enemy,” he explained. “There were a couple where I fished clean, like twice at Grand Lake, and just didn’t win. But there were also so many where I left behind the fish that I found in practice because I assumed they weren’t good enough to win.”
Now, as the lion in winter sees his peers leaving the sport or failing to qualify, he’s competing against a group of pros who are younger than all but his youngest child. He’s the oldest Elite angler fishing this Classic, having seen fellow AOYs like Clark Wendlandt and his original hero Rick Clunn leave the tour after last season. Hackney has trophies to commemorate his Elite AOY title, his FLW AOY title, and his Forrest Wood Cup championship, but the Classic victory has slowly and painfully eluded him.
Scott Martin, just a few months short of 50, feels the pull, too. He’s called it “unfinished family business” because not only do Classic dreams carry the burden of his own near misses, but also those of his father Roland. The elder Martin won nine Bassmaster AOY titles and nine individual events. He left it all of the table and was a shoo-in for the Hall of Fame, and yet his son can feel in his bones that there’s something missing from their combined resume.
He wouldn’t say it, but it’s almost as if he fears the family burial plot will have a plaque stating, “They did everything except win a Classic.”
Scott, named for B.A.S.S. founder Ray Scott, is no slouch either. He’s won a Forrest Wood Cup and an FLW AOY title. His Open win to start 2024 qualified him to fish this Classic, but getting there is only half the battle.
“I’ve got to win this Classic,” he said with determination. Then his voice quickly shifted to resignation. “But the reality is that it’s very hard to accomplish. If it never happens, that’s the way it is.”
Hackney likewise said he’ll feel a whirlwind of emotions this week, starting with the initial blast off on Ray Roberts, and then perhaps wishing he could catch that fire and hold it a day, a week or a month or more.
“We spend all year trying to get here, and then it just seems like a blur when it’s over,” he said. Indeed, 19 Championship derbies, spread out over the period from 2003 until now, and they’re reduced to one big Texas tumbleweed in his mind.
Martin missed last year’s Classic, which was part of why it was such a relief to qualify so early for this year’s tournament. Hackney took a brief sabbatical to another tour and said it was gut-wrenching to be away from the big dance for so long.
“It’s just a really bad feeling,” he said. “I don’t know which is worse – trying to make it and missing it or not having a chance to make it at all.”
Brandon Lester agrees that you don’t miss the water until the well runs dry. He made six Classics in a row, and eight of nine, before missing last year’s event on Grand. That’s a good batting average, and a fine level of accuracy for horseshoes and hand grenades, but it didn’t put him anywhere closer to a Classic win. He’s not yet 40, and he came back feeling grateful, wistful and like something of an elder statesman.
“I feel like I’m one of the oldest guys in the Classic, and it took missing one to fully understand the magnitude of the event. It means so much because with a win, if you play your cards right, you can ride it for the rest of your career.”
One angler who has yet to miss a Classic for which he’s been eligible is Jacob Powroznik. Like Hackney, he left the Elites for a few years, and the Classic was a driving force for a return to the Elites.
“This is going to be a mind deal for us here,” he said, channeling as much veteran mojo as a 46-year-old is capable of generating. “It’s going to get snottier and snottier every day. There are not going to be a lot of limits, so it’s important to keep your mind in it. This one sets up well for a guy like Greg Hackney, someone who always gets five bites.”
Indeed, Powroznik is well aware of how many small factors influence a Classic outcome. He’s twice finished 5th on Hartwell, in 2015 and 2018. The former, his first Classic appearance, was undone by something out of his control.
“I was on a great bite first thing in the morning, and the first day we were delayed two and a half hours,” he explained. “I ended up with 8 pounds and then had 18 and 20 and lost by 4 pounds. I don’t know if I would’ve won, but I would like to know how it would have turned out.”
Indeed, while the Classics themselves move by in a blur, no one forgets every cast, every good decision and every one that went slightly awry. Whether it’s their first or their 19th, whether they’ve never missed one or fear never qualifying again, the sport’s single biggest title is both a motivating factor and an albatross for those who’ve never won it, always just out of reach but waving in the wind, ready to be grabbed.
