Entry 251-4
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 4: Fish Magic Trees with the Shadalicious
Question: What was your game plan for the final day?
Brauer: I really thought if I could fish as well as I had the previous days, I’d surely luck-up on one of those big schools of bass, but I couldn’t do better than catching five, 4 pounders that weighed 20 pounds. Although, I did have a 2 pounder that followed me to the weigh-in, and there was a bass behind him that weighed 10 or 12 pounds, but I never got the bass to bite. At Amistad, you can see a lot of big fish in the clear water, but most of them will be following bait, and not interested in eating the bait.
Question: Was Amistad as good for you this year as it was last year?
Brauer: I fished better this year than I have in past years, but I think overall the bite was off from what it has been in previous years. But we were there at a different time than we have been in previous years. We’ve always fished Amistad during the pre-spawn, and this year we fished it in the post-spawn.
Question: If you had to fish Amistad over again, would you still fish it the same way that you did?
Brauer: If I had known before I went in to the tournament what was going to happen, I would have spent more time trying to find one of those magic trees that was holding a bunch of big bass, so that I could use a swim bait like the Shadalicious to get one of those big bites. 
It seems like every time we go to Amistad, the winner usually catches a couple of really-big fish.
Question: You’ve mentioned the Shadalicious twice this year, what do you think of that bait?
Brauer: I think it’s one of the finest swim baits that I’ve ever seen. Strike King has three excellent sizes of the Shadalicious, and if you rig those baits properly, you should catch a lot of big bass on them.
Question: How do you rig the Shadalicious properly?
Brauer: You need to fish it with a belly-weighted hook. You also need to make sure that when you put your hook in the bait, the hook is sitting straight in the bait and not off to one side. If you have it rigged right, the Shadalicous has that rocking-type motion that really looks good in the water.
Question: Why didn’t you think the bass came to take the Shadalicious in this tournament?
Brauer: Probably because I didn’t fish it enough. When you’re throwing swim baits, you’ve got to fish like you’re fishing for big bass. You have to commit to it and plan to fish all day long, regardless of the number of bites that you’re getting. I’m truly convinced that if I had committed enough time to the Shadalicous as I did to the Football Head Jig, I could have caught as many fish, and even bigger fish. But putting the Football Head Jig down and tying on another lure when you’re catching 50 bass a day is tough.
Contents:
- Part 1: Try the Ledges and Drop-Offs
- Part 2: Let it Fall
- Part 3: Proud to Be a Jig Man
- Part 4: Fish Magic Trees with the Shadalicious
- Part 5: What I Learned at Lake Amistad
