Entry 72-2

Denny Brauer

Me, The Guide

Editor's Note: Denny Brauer, of Camdenton, Missouri, has had has 64-top-10 finishes and 14 career wins in BASS, with the most recent being the Southern Open at Wheeler Lake. Brauer, the 1998 Bassmaster Classic champion and the 1987 BASS Angler of the Year has fished in 17 Classics and has earned over $1.7 million on the BASS circuit alone. Brauer, the first angler to be on the Wheaties Breakfast of Champions cereal box, is one of the most well-recognized and best-known bass fishermen in the nation.

Question: Denny, what was it like to go from being a bricklayer to a fishing guide? How did your life change?

Brauer: I really liked guiding, because for the first time in my life, I could go fishing as much as I wanted to, and go to a tournament and compete. When I’d come back home, I’d be right back to fishing. I’d often guide 30 to 35 consecutive days. I really enjoyed trying to figure out how to find and catch bass and having people pay me to do that, and pay me to help them catch bass. Back then, there were probably only 6 to 12 major tournaments a year, and there wasn’t enough money in bass fishing to make a full-time living at it. So, you had to do something to supplement your income. Therefore, guiding was an absolute necessity for my family’s survival.

Question: What did guiding teach you about fishing?

Brauer: Guiding allowed me to spend a lot of time on the water. It also taught me to catch bass through all types of weather and water conditions. I think one of the biggest things I learned from guiding was how to react to weather, like the bass react to the weather, and be able to find them and catch them regardless of water and weather conditions.

I also learned quite a bit about how to deal with people. When you guide, you meet so many types of individuals, and you not only have to learn how to help these folks catch fish, but you have to try to learn how to make them all happy. Many of them, I could hardly wait until the next time they hired me for a guide trip because I enjoyed being with them so much. And, a few, I wouldn’t accept another guide trip with, because I knew I couldn’t make them happy. Guiding teaches you the politics of dealing with the public.

Another tremendous advantage in guiding was that it afforded me the opportunity to learn to deal with people from a wide variety of social and economic statuses. One day I might be guiding the president of a major corporation, and the next day I might have a client who had worked for several months to save enough money to be able to hire a guide to teach him how to bass fish better. I have seen major business deals take place in my boat when I was guiding, and I’ve seen husbands and wives discussing a divorce while we were out fishing. So, as a guide, you get to see a good cross section of America.

Question: How much do you think you made the first two years you guided?

Brauer: I probably made about the same amount of money, or maybe less, than what I was making as a bricklayer. Back in those days, my family and I were just trying to get by. I was just trying to make enough money to get to the next tournament, put food on the table and try to make a house payment. We were fighting for survival and fighting for the chance to be a tournament fisherman.
 

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