Entry 97-2

Denny Brauer - Back On Top Again - The Heart Of A Champion

Tournament Day 1

Editor's Note: Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, never fishes for second place. He always competes to win. Brauer has developed a strategy that has made him one of America's top professional-bass fisherman. In one year, Brauer earned $1 million in competitive bass fishing and endorsement money, made appearances on television and became the first professional angler featured on the Wheaties - Breakfast of Champions - cereal box. But in 1999, Brauer sustained a back injury that many believed would destroy his career.

From then until 2002, Brauer had several operations and many months of rehab that most thought would signal the end of his bass-fishing career. But Denny Brauer and his family never gave up. Brauer always has been determined not only to win bass tournaments but also to win at life. He stands today as an example of just how far a man can go when he won't quit. In March 2004, Denny Brauer won the Bassmaster Tour Tournament on Lake Eufaula in Eufaula, Alabama, and took home $100,000 in prize money.

Brauer: On the first day of the Lake Eufaula tournament, I returned to the little area where I'd fished during practice days with my Pro Model jig and 3X chunk trailer. I'd noticed that just about every bass I caught the day before had taken the jig on the fall. Although I preferred to fish a 1/2-ounce Pro Model jig because I could cast it more accurately and fish the cover more thoroughly, I learned from the bass that they preferred a slower-falling jig. I got far more strikes on the 3/8-ounce jig than the 1/2-ounce jig. So, rather than be stubborn and fish the jig I wanted to fish, I fished the 3/8-ounce jig the way the bass said they preferred.

I caught a 6-pound bass and a 7-pound bass on the first day and enough 4 and 5 pounders to total 22-1/2 pounds of bass. I finished that day in second place. I was really feeling good at the end of that first day.
 

© 1996-2008 Strike King Lure Company