Entry 32-2

When Strike King Saved the Day and Other Pertinent Fishing Information with Denny Brauer

Square Bill Saves The Day

Editor's Note: Fifty-three year-old Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, has competed in bass tournaments professionally for 23 years. He won the BASS Masters Classic in 1998 and has had 61 top-10 finishes. An avid angler of Strike King Lures, Brauer has helped Strike King design some of their most-popular products.

Question: Tell us about another time when Strike King saved the day.

Brauer: I was fishing on the Potomac River during a tournament, and I found a stretch of bank that had laydowns. I started flipping to the laydowns with a tube. I felt I was going to do well. But that tube gained a lot more attention from two other tournament anglers who were fishing the same bank, using the same technique. I knew between the three of us the fish would be split up beyond the point of me doing as well as I wanted. So I picked up the Strike King Series 1 Square Bill Crankbait and started to fish the same laydowns after the two other anglers had already fished them.

It seemed like I was fishing for totally different fish than those that were biting the tube bait. The fish were conditioned to the tube since we all had fished it. But nobody else was fishing this Square Bill Crankbait, and this enabled me to catch a good limit of fish every day. Probably 75% of my fish during that tournament came from the Strike King Square Bill Crankbait. I don't remember the weight of all my bass in that tournament, but I know I wouldn't have received a check if I'd stuck with the tube.

Question: Is defensive fishing (thinking about what the other anglers are fishing) something all anglers should think about and then try to do something different?

Brauer: It is something you need to think about now, especially from the Midwest south. Many bodies of water get large amounts of fishing pressure per acre. In the north the seasons are shorter, so the fish don't get as conditioned. Northern anglers can get by with traditional baits and traditional retrieves more often than in the southern parts of the country where the lakes get an immense amount of fishing pressure.
 

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