God, Family and Fishing
The Story of a Smallmouth Guide
By Mike Whitten
Southern Staff Writer
August 13, 2008
The first time I talked to Steve Hacker, I was not sure that I was speaking with the person who is arguably the finest smallmouth guide on the upper reaches of Pickwick Lake.
Our phone call, over ten years ago, went something like this:
“Hello, Steve Hacker.” 
“Hi, Steve, this is Mike Whitten. I’d like to book a trip with you for a Saturday next month.
“I’m sorry, I don’t fish on Saturday.”
“What?! You’re a fishing guide who doesn’t fish on Saturday?”
”No, and I can’t fish on Sundays or late on Wednesday afternoons either. Those days are reserved for my two sons and my church duties; preaching and teaching Bible classes.
After a stunned silence I responded, “OK, well let’s book a trip on a Friday.”
“I’m sorry, I’m booked solid for the next 10 months,” Stever replied. “I’ll be glad to call you if I get an opening.”
I couldn’t believe this guy! “OK, well, how about one Friday NEXT October?”
From that initial conversation, I’ve been blessed and lucky to become close friends with a most unique individual and unparalleled smallmouth guru. No one on the planet, at least not the part of it that includes upper Pickwick Lake, catches more and bigger smallmouth consistently than Steve Hacker. He does it all year long, on both artificial lures and live bait.
I’ve never fished with anyone who had a better (almost mystical) understanding of the habits and haunts of big smallmouth than Steve Hacker. That very first trip with Steve on that long ago October day, my lovely wife Sherry and I had a day that dreams are made of: Sherry had a 5-10 largemouth (durned old green trash fish!) and then we shared a total catch for the day of over 50 bass, with an incredible seven smallmouth bass over five pounds and a big fish weighing 5-10. 
The last two hours of that magical day were spent anchored on a small, horseshoe shaped rock pile that was loaded with quality smallmouth. Each drift of a live shad on a Carolina rig brought a violent response from three to five pound smallmouth. Need I say more?
A day with Steve is more than just fishing. He is a pulpit minister and Bible teacher (now in his twentieth year with the same church) who can discuss philosophy, religion, history and politics with equal ease. He is a gardener, hunter and amateur biologist with a vast knowledge of birds, moths, butterflies, fish and the general flora and fauna of the Pickwick/Tennessee river valley. He is a dedicated and loving parent who will eagerly tell you about the trapshooting exploits of his son Elliot, or the jolting tackles that Jonathan, his younger offspring, just laid on a football opponent. Even if the fishing is slow, the conversation is always interesting, challenging and wide ranging.
With that as an introduction, I thought that the best way to share the knowledge of this incredible guide/angler is to simply ask him some questions and get the straight talk from the man, so here goes:
Steve, you may have caught as many smallmouth over six pounds as any angler on Pickwick—If you had to pick one lure for a visiting angler to consider a must, what would it be?
That could only be thoroughly answered with a knowledge of which season the trip would be in and the current water conditions—probably an entire article in itself! But I can give a summary primer:
In the fall, fish with live bait—unless the water is high and/or “dirty” from recent heavy rains. It's just tough to catch big fish consistently in the fall with artificial baits. Best evidence: a trip you and Sherry and I took a couple of years ago in October. A B.A.S.S. Tournament was being held at the same time, and it only took something between 6 and 7 pounds to make the cut after TWO days! That's with some of the best fishermen—over 400, counting Pros and Amateurs--in the country on the lake. As you well remember, you and Sherry caught 16 smallmouths, with the best 9 weighing 33-8 from the first hole we pulled up to on live shad. Only four limits weighed in by over 400 anglers, and you and Sherry were hammerin' 'em, each with multiple limits in the first hour or so. And that's not counting those four monsters, like the 7-pound class fish that Sherry lost, that didn't quite get to the boat.
Except for the fall (or by client request) I fish artificial baits. The vast majority of the smallmouths we'll catch in a year's time will come on artificial baits, but that is because I fish artificial baits almost exclusively in the spring, summer, and winter. Now to finally answer your question: The one “must have” bait is a jig of some type: hair (bucktail) jig, tube jig, or leadhead jig and curly tail grub. Some evidence of the hair jig's effectiveness: seven March trips with 49 smallmouths that averaged over 5 pounds apiece, including six over 6 pounds, and an open tournament win with a five fish string of smallmouths that weighed 25.89 lbs. (with a 6-9 lunker). March of '97 included a memorable trip with brothers Dave and Paul Mansell. Using a combination of curly tail grubs and bucktail jigs we caught an unbelievable string of fish on March 14 that included the ten best smallmouths weighing over fifty pounds off of one spot!
On a brutally cold day in December, Marlin and Butch Skillern had a five best smallmouth string of an even 32 pounds even with me, caught on a shad body and leadhead jig. Plastic curly tail grubs in the 3" - 5" sizes are good most of the year. I love the Yamamoto 4” Single Tail. The most popular and productive colors are Smoke and Smoke Glitter, Pumpkins and Root Beers, Watermelon with Pepper and/or Red Flake, Pearl White, Chartreuse, Cotton Candy, and a translucent blue color called "Cool Ice" by Action Bait Co. Leadheads ranging from 1/8 oz. to 3/8 oz. should cover most water conditions.
We've also done very well on single tail Yamamoto Hula Grubs (#194, 035, & 187), as a March trip with Dave Mansell and Randy Wiek proved. When things are tough, a 4" finesse worm rigged either Texas style or split-shot rigged can get bites.
Tubes are a tremendous producer for me. I like the 3.5 to 4-inch sizes with a fairly thick wall--but NOT the very heavy flippin' tubes used for largemouths. 90% of the time I'll stuff a 1/4 oz. leadhead inside, but sometimes a 1/8 or 3/16 oz., and occasionally (under flooding conditions) a 3/8 oz. is necessary. Best colors are various smoke glitters, greens, and Cotton Candy.
But if the water is very high or very dirty, we opt for more conspicuous lures: big spinnerbaits and crankbaits. It might surprise some readers to learn that stomach sample analysis done by fisheries biologists on Pickwick show that the average size of baitfish eaten by smallmouths is actually larger than those eaten by largemouths! Those big smallmouths will definitely eat a big bait. We've caught them with shad or drum over 9” long sticking out of their throats!
You don’t spend much time fishing the bank - Describe the “sweet spot” that you look for in your search for big smallmouth.
Except under extreme high water conditions, the actual spawn, or cover of darkness, I rarely find any decent sized smallmouths roaming the banks. One exception would be occasionally near a big summertime Mayfly hatch.
Offshore structure is so varied that it's hard to identify just one “sweet” characteristic common to all, unless it's the words “something different”. That can be a hard bottom shell mound in the middle of the river, or a gravel bar cutting across the river, an underwater ditch - something “different” from the nearby water that draws the fish to this particular place.
“Smallmouth ain’t Largemouth”---As you’ve taught me, the two fish are vastly different in habits. Why do visitors to Pickwick find smallmouth so difficult to catch?
Most bass fishermen are much more comfortable doing primarily two things: fishing shallow water and throwing to something that they can see--“bank beaters” we sometimes call them. Smallmouths may be “structure”-oriented, but not so much visible “cover”-oriented. Bass anglers can catch some largemouths and small spots beating the banks on the eastern end of Pickwick, and maybe even occasionally (under high water conditions or at night) luck into a good smallmouth, but it's not a reliable pattern.
“Current is Key”—So much of the success with big smallmouth is based upon current flow. What does current do to smallmouth, and how much do you like?
We’ve discussed your favorite lure—Can you give us a breakdown of your favorites by season of the year?
As mentioned earlier, in cold weather/water conditions, I want to be throwing some type of jig. Jigging spoons (or "casting spoons", as some prefer) in the 1/2 oz. and 3/4 oz. sizes have accounted for a ton of late spring, summer, and fall smallmouth. I always throw something with chrome to imitate the shad.
Bring an assortment of your favorite crankbaits. I've done well on the Norman Deep Little N, Bomber Model A (6 or 7), Shad Raps, Fat Free Shad, and (when I can get 'em to run straight) Poe's 300. The new DT series Rapalas are one of my new deep running favorites. The Strike King Pro Model Series 3 is a dynamite mid-depth bait, as is the Bandit 200 Series--and their new Flat Maxx has been getting raves around here lately. Reds and Fire Tigers work well in the very early spring. I go more natural (usually) as the water warms, then transition back as the water cools. I usually do better on crankbaits when the water is high and has some color in it. Deep divers like Norman DD 22's can work well in the late spring/summer on mid-river humps.
For big fish, a spinnerbait would be my second choice behind a jig. December 16, 1993 was a day to remember: clients Jim Walker, Tom Orr and I got on a bunch of big--no, HUGE--smallmouths with big willow-leaf spinnerbaits. Our ten best weighed 56-10, and our six best weighed 37-4, an incredible 6-3 average! Tom got a 6-12 and Jim had a monstrous 7-9 that was only 21 1/2" long (Yes, both smallmouths!). I fish a lot of 1/2 oz. double willow-leaf, like a Nichols Pulsator, or Stanley Wedge, or Strike King; and the big 1 oz. spinnerbaits like the Whitten Special from Bill Dee and the big Sloan's Aggravator. I really do like that titanium shaft on the Terminator, too. I'll throw other sizes as the water conditions warrant, all the way from 1/8 oz. to 1 1/4 oz. or more . For colors I usually prefer whites or white/chartreuse, with nickel and gold blades in combination. About half the time I'll trail my spinnerbait with a complimentary color split-tail, but only rarely use a stinger hook.
Slug-goes, Fin-S-Fish, Flukes, & Senkos are great choices for soft plastic jerkbaits. I use these from spawn through summer when the current is not too heavy.
I've come to the conclusion that, as far as topwater baits go here on Pickwick, two baits excel: the Baby Torpedo and full-size Zara Spook. The best numbers day I can recall on Pickwick (with artificial baits) was in May of '95 when Larry & Trey Nolan (from Memphis, TN) and I put 91 in the boat (but probably lost 30 or 40 more), most on Baby Torpedoes. And they weren't "dinks", either; we had a lot of 3 and 4 pound fish. The full size Zara Spook still reigns supreme for me as the big smallmouth catcher. Sure, I've had days where the Puppy outproduced it, and the Spittin' Image does fine, too, as do the Chug Bug and all the others. But side-by-side, when those big smallies are on a real topwater bite, that Spook works best for me. May 21, 1998, I took out Mike and Kathi Hurst (Ripley, MS) when those big brownies were blastin' the top. Our five best weighed over 27 pounds, and Kathi and I each boated smallies over 6 pounds on the Spooks--lost some more giants, too. My favorite colors are the Silver Flitter and Chrome, but I've seen the Black work best on some days, too.
Though I don't fish them as much as I used to (don't know why), I have done well on Little Georges. I'm definitely partial to the Lucky Craft jerkbaits (the Pointers and 110 Flash Minnow are dynamite baits) and we've caught some big fish and big strings on them in recent years, usually pre- and post-spawn fish.
I'll usually use big grubs or lizards on my Carolina rigs, a late spring through summer presentation for me; sometimes craws or Centipede-type baits. For night fishing (most July trips), I like bucktails tipped with a frog chunk. I really like that Lunker City PiggyBack, and also use Zoom chunks.
The ONLY scent product I use is Kick 'n Bass, usually the craw, occasionally the garlic or shad.
Next: Steve's Tackle Collection (click here).