Hackney's slow-but-steady Day 2 morning

After a strong showing on Day 1 of the Guaranteed Rate Bassmaster Elite at Santee Cooper Lakes with 27 pounds, 14 ounces, Greg Hackney settled in early near the same area that he did his damage yesterday.

The theme of the morning for Hackney was slow. Not the fishing necessarily, or the number of bites he was getting, but the pace in which he fished was extremely slow.

The Louisiana pro wasted no time by hooking up early and often in the first 30 minutes of the morning.

Hackney hooks this fish way back in the thick stuff, but managed to wrestle it out.

This fish came from back behind this massive laydown. Needless to say, Hackney took his time to retie after boating the fish.

Moments later he hooks up with a good fish.

In typical Greg Hackney form, he flips the fish in the boat despite the fact that it was likely over five pounds.

As previously mentioned, Hackney was moving at an extremely slow pace. He told reporters on Day 1 he feels that the fish he’s catching are in some phase of the spawn, but he’s not visually looking at them on beds.

Santee Cooper is a target rich environment with endless cover to fish, but Hackney would spend upwards of 10 minutes on the high percentage targets.

Hackney gets a bite on one of those high percentage targets, but unfortunately, it’s not the right quality.

Needless to say, this fish never stood a chance against Hackney’s mighty hookset.

Hackney didn’t catch many males, but when he did, he certainly made several more pitches to the same area in hopes of boating the female.

Roughly 10-feet further down the bank he hooks up again with a better fish.

Another competitor was in the area, so Hackney wasted no time putting the fish in the box.

Despite the fact that he was getting a good number of bites over the first couple of hours of the morning, Hackney would go on to not boat another fish for roughly an hour.

Hackney began rotating through a few different baits during the lull in the morning.