Entry 251-2

Fishing Lake Amistad with Denny Brauer

Editor’s Note: Fifty-five-year-old Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, has fished professionally for bass for 25 years and has earned more than $2 million during that time. A past Bassmaster Angler of the Year, Bassmaster Classic winner, the FLW Angler of the Year title, and an inaugural member of the Professional Fishing Hall of Fame, Brauer fishes year-round, except when he’s hunting. This week, Brauer will tell how he won $13,500 on Lake Amistad in the spring of 2008.

Part 2: Let it Fall

Question: Denny, what was the first day of the Lake Amistad tournament like?

Brauer: My day started out fairly fast. I was catching large numbers of 2- to 2-1/2-pound bass. I was catching and releasing about 50 fish each day of the tournament. The weather was sunny with a light wind.

Question: Why did you decide to fish the Strike King Football Head Jig?

Brauer: The Football Head Jig was the perfect jig for the depth that I was fishing. It would get to the bottom quickly and fall the way I wanted it to fall. The bottom had a lot of cover on it also. There were a lot of rocks, trees and bushes on the bottom. I knew that if I drug the Football Head Jig, I’d stay hung up in the bottom quite a bit. But, what I learned was that I didn’t have to go to the bottom to catch the bass.

The water was really clear, and most of the bass I caught were coming up from the bottom to take the jig in mid-water. I was fishing the Football Head Jig as a fall bait, rather than a drag bait, the way most fishermen fish the Football Head Jig. If I didn’t get a bite on the fall, I’d let the bait hit the bottom and shake it a few times. Then if the bass didn’t take it, I’d quickly reel the lure in and cast it out again rather than drag it on the bottom.

Question: What percentage of your bites were coming on the fall?

Brauer: About 99.9 percent of the bass I caught took the jig on the fall. When I learned that the bites were coming on the fall, I tried to fish more efficiently by staying in contact with the jig as it fell. When the jig reached the bottom, I’d quick reel the bait back in, pitch it out and let it fall again. This is a super-good technique when you’re fishing in gin-clear water, because the bass can see the bait from about a 30-foot radius around their location. If the bass are hungry, they are going to meet and take that jig as it falls to the bottom, rather than waiting on the jig to get to the bottom before they eat it. I had to make long casts and use 15-pound-test fluorocarbon line to get the fish to bite.

Question: What color did you use to get the fish to bite, Denny?

Brauer: Strike King has a new color that is half green-pumpkin and half brown. On that 3/4-ounce jig, I was using the Rage Chunk in a green-pumpkin color. I like that Rage Chunk because it has the best action of any trailer I have ever seen in my life. It has the same action as the Rage Craw, but it’s just a shorter version of the Rage Craw.

Question: Denny, when did you figure out that the bass were taking the bait on the fall?

Brauer: I found that the bass were taking the bait on the fall at the first deep-water place that I fished. When I had a 7-pound largemouth eat the Football Head Jig before it reached the bottom, I knew that the bass were coming up from the bottom to take the bait. It didn’t take me more than one fish to figure out the way the bass were going to take the bait.

Question: So how did your fishing go on that first day?

Brauer: On my first pass, at my first spot, I caught a limit. Within 2 hours, I got my first big bite. I stayed in that general area, until I culled a 4-1/2-pounder. I decided to get out of the area about 12:00 noon because I didn’t want to wear the fish out, and I already had a couple of 7 pounders in the live well.

Question: So what was your weight of bass at the end of the first day of the Lake Amistad competition?

Brauer: I had 27 pounds and some change.

Question: Did it blow your mind that you were culling 4-1/2-pounders?

Brauer: Not really. I had one bass that weighed 7 or 8 pounds that jumped off my jig when it came to the surface. That bass would have probably helped me upgrade my string by about 3 pounds if I could have landed it. That was the only bass I lost all week. After my practice I thought I could weigh-in from 28 to 32 pounds each day at the weigh-in. So that first day’s catch was right in the target weight I was shooting for, but those weights just didn’t hold up for me in those next 2 days.

Fishing Lake Amistad with Denny Brauer

Part 2: Let it Fall

Next: Proud to Be a Jig Man

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