Entry 89-1

Chad Brauer’s Favorite Five Baits

New Baits

Editor's Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri, is only 31-years old but has been tournament fishing for 8 years. Married with two children, Brauer chooses for us this week his favorite baits and tells us why he enjoys fishing them.

Brauer: I grew up fishing the jig, which was the first bass bait that I ever fished. Too, the jig was the lure I fished the most while growing up. Most of my life I've been fishing behind my dad, Denny Brauer, and at this point in my career the jig is my number-one confidence bait. I believe I can catch more fish on a jig than I can any other type of bass bait. The jig is the first bait I fish in a tournament and is the bait I depend on if I can't get bass to bite any other way. Generally you won't catch as many fish on a jig as you will on other baits, however, you most often will catch big bass on a jig.

I believe the jig is one of the toughest lures for an angler to learn how to fish. The reason I say that is because often determining what a strike is and is not can be extremely difficult. Often when fishing the jig, you won't get a tap, tap type of bite like you will with a worm. Nor will you get a violent strike like you will with a spinner bait. Often you'll just pick up the jig, feel something different on the line and realize that's the bite. The bite will often feel like you've picked up a blade of grass or a leaf making the bait feel just a little bit heavier than you think it should feel.

I've been in tournaments before and gotten 15 bites on a jig and my partner only get two bites. I know I'm not catching all the bass out in front of my partner, but the bite on a jig is so subtle I often think my partner just isn't feeling the bite. I think that when the bass picks up the jig, the fish just holds the jig in its mouth. Probably you won't feel the bass pick the jig up but actually will feel the jig in the fish's mouth. Because the bite is so light, many times you'll mistake your picking up trash on your hook, the point of the hook touching a limb or the lure coming in contact with other debris on the bottom as a bite. So, when you're jig fishing, you'll set the hook many times on objects in the water that aren't bass. But often that funny feeling on the line is a bass. The real secret of jig fishing is knowing when to set the hook and when not to set the hook.

This year Strike King has come out with a new Denny Brauer trailer for the jig. The trailer is bigger than any other jig trailer and is made out of 3X material, which makes it better, more durable and more lifelike than plastic trailers. Traditionally, you can only catch one or two bass on a trailer for your jig without having to replace the trailer. However, with the new Denny Brauer jig trailer, you can catch many more fish than you can with the plastic trailer. Because the trailer is constructed of such a sensitive material, you get much-more action out of the trailer than you will from a plastic material.

The new Denny Brauer jig trailer is big but not as big as the really big trailers. This trailer will fit most bass-fishing situations and most times of the year when you're jig fishing. We really feel that this new Strike King Denny Brauer trailer will not only increase your catch rate, but it will reduce the number of trailers you have to take with you on any fishing trip.




 

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