Entry 89-2

Chad Brauer’s Favorite Five Baits

The Denny Brauer Tube and How to Fish It

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: In 1997 and 1998, my dad and I really started experimenting with tube baits. We knew that the tube would catch a lot of bass when you flipped and pitched it, but we also realized that the tube had quite a few design flaws that could be improved on. By making the head of the Denny Brauer tube solid instead of hollow, we made the tube much more durable and the tube's ability to hold the hook much better.

We also learned in those early days that the lengths of the tubes we were buying were very inconsistent. In a bag of tubes, you might have some tubes that were 3-1/2-inches long and some tubes 4-inches long and perhaps a few 5-inches long. We decided that the 4-1/2-inch tube was the perfect size because it could carry a No. 4/0 hook and was about the right size to imitate many baitfish in most areas of the country at various times of the year.

When we developed all these design features into the Denny Brauer tube, we produced an extremely-effective bass-catching lure that could be fished with a wide variety of techniques to catch bass anywhere at anytime of the year. When I go fishing, regardless of the time of the year, the section of the country I'm fishing or the water and wind conditions, I've always got a Denny Brauer tube tied on one of my rods.

Paired with the tube, I'll use a Mustad tube hook. You can use a No. 3/0 hook, but I prefer the No. 4/0 hook. The No. 4/0 hook gives you a little bit more power to set the hook and get the bass out of really thick cover than the No. 3/0 hook does. This hook sits all the way back in the tube and comes out just ahead of the tentacles, which helps to catch bass that may bite short. When an angler uses this hook, the bass doesn't have to inhale the entire bait to get the hook.
 

© 1996-2008 Strike King Lure Company