Entry 90-4
Chad Brauer's Life As A Bass Fisherman
With Two Strikes Against You, How do You Win?
Editor's Note: Although Chad Brauer is only 31 years old, he has been tournament fishing for eight years. Married with two children, Brauer will tell us this week about the life of a tournament fisherman as seen through the eyes of an up-and-coming star.
Question: Chad, you've got two problems to deal with that most other tournament fishermen don't have to face. Your father, Denny Brauer, is one of the most-successful money-winning tournament bass-fishing pros in the nation for all times. You have to walk in his shadow. For most of your life you have been known as "Denny Brauer's son" and not as Chad Brauer. The other handicap is that you have to compete against and be compared to your dad. How do you handle these two distractions?
Brauer: I don't view either one of those situations as a handicap. I've always found that being Denny Brauer's son and having the ability to compete against Denny Brauer is a real advantage for me. The most-difficult aspect of becoming a tournament pro is gaining name recognition and having the credibility associated with your name. When I started my career as a professional fisherman, everyone already knew my last name. They assumed, rightfully so, that I would be just as credible a fisherman as my father is. Because of my last name and because I was Denny Brauer's son, I got my foot in the door with sponsors, knew how to work with sponsors and understood what they wanted from a tournament pro and what they expected a fisherman to do for them. However, to be able to maintain those sponsors and continue to grow my fishing business I have to take the ball and run with it myself. I can't lateral it to my dad. But his name and reputation were definitely a tremendous asset to me when I decided to become a pro fisherman.
Another real advantage for me was because I am Denny Brauer's son, I've been the beneficiary of all his 20 years of tournament fishing. My dad has traveled the nation, he has fished hundreds of lakes, he has fished under every type of water and weather condition and tournament situation that I ever may fish. Because we travel together, even before we get to the lake he can tell me what we probably need to do to win the tournament. So because I am Denny Brauer's son, I don't have that long learning curve that many newcomers to the sport have to overcome. For example, I can ask my dad on the way to the tournament, "the water's dropping, it's dingy, and a cold front is coming in, what do you think we need to do?" He can tell me what he's done in the past in those situations to do well in the tournament.
When we're practicing, we can cover twice as much water as a single fisherman can. We can learn twice as much in the same amount of time about the water we are fishing. So, I've always felt that my relationship with my dad has enabled me to become a better fisherman than I could be without that relationship. I've always felt that being Denny Brauer's son and competing against Denny Brauer is a very positive part of my fishing, not a negative. If I don't live up to being the next Denny Brauer, I don't feel like a failure because no one else has ever become the next Denny Brauer. He is who he is, and I am who I am. We compete against the fish not the family.
Question: What's your feelings when you're in a close tournament, and both of you and your dad have a chance to win?
Brauer: We faced this situation in the fall of 2003. Going into the last day of the tournament, Dad was third, and I was sixth. I've found that we both have more fun in a tournament when we both have a chance to win than we do when we both know we're out of the money. Many times when we're in this situation, and one of us has a chance to win, and we're fishing the same type of water, one of us will give up some of that water to try and help the other one win the tournament. Some people may feel that my dad and I have a strange relationship. There's no angler I'd rather beat than my dad, yet there's no angler I'd rather have beat me than my dad. I feel if I go out, fish a tournament and beat my dad, regardless of how I fish in the tournament, I've really had a great tournament. But if the tournament is close, and he beats me, I can't think of anyone I'd rather have win than my dad. Therefore, if either one of us does well in a tournament, we both feel great when the tournament ends.
