Entry 106-2

Road To The Classic With Denny Brauer

The Okeechobee Disaster

Editor's Note: In every season of tournament bass fishing, several events generally occur that either can make or break a fisherman's opportunity to participate in the biggest fishing tournament of the year, the Bassmasters Classic. This week, Strike King Pro Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, will share with us the times over this past year that he's been at the "make it or break it" point with the Classic, and what tactics he's used to ensure his place in this year's Bassmasters Classic.

Brauer: I really thought I could win the Lake Okeechobee tournament. I'd found a large number of really-big bass and caught them in hyacinth mats in practice. I could go to my spot, catch a big limit of those very-big bass and get way out in front during the tournament. However, the night before the tournament began, the lake had some high winds that blew those hyacinth mats all over the lake.

When I arrived at my spot I planned to fish on opening day, I didn't even recognize the area. My spot had been blown away. So, once again, I had to go to my backup plan. However, I still finished 5th or 6th in that tournament. I believe that if there's a key to doing well in bass tournaments and to getting a berth in the Classic, it's to always have a backup plan that you can fall back on and catch fish, if the tournament-winning plan you've set up gets blown away as mine did at Okeechobee.

I did use the same tactic of fishing hyacinths that I'd planned to use to win the tournament. I located an area that had some hyacinth mats in protected water that weren't affected by the winds. The first spot where I'd planned to fish to win the tournament was really well-defined and had a lot of giant bass in it. My backup spot was less defined and was more of a spread-out area with bass not as big as those in my first choice place. I was pitching the Strike King Denny Brauer Tube with a 1/2-ounce slip sinker up the line. I was using 50-pound-test Stren Super Braid Line. The bass were all suspended under the hyacinth mats that were in water about 4-feet deep. I caught my bass on isolated mats. When I did find the bass, they'd hit my tubes as soon as the tubes started to fall.

If my bass would have held up in that area on the final day of the tournament, I really believe I could have placed much higher. But this is another example of why you have to have a backup plan to win a tournament when your number-one plan doesn't work. Weather, water and fishing conditions can and do always change. If you're going to make the Classic cut, you have to know where to go and what tactics and lures to use when those changes occur.

I always set out at every tournament to try to win the tournament with more than one tactic and in more than one location. You can never tell when the technique you've planned to use to win is no longer appropriate or available. I don't believe any coach goes to the Super Bowl with only one strategy he thinks he can win the game with, and I don't think any tournament fisherman should go out on a lake and only have one game plan to win the tournament. Having backup and alternate plans and a variety of ways to catch bass on the same lake are how you stay in the hunt. This reason is why you need to keep numbers of rods and reels and plenty of tackle in your boat.
 

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