Entry 106-4

Road To The Classic With Denny Brauer

The Santee Lunker

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: On the first day of the tournament at Santee Cooper, I had mechanical problems, and before I could get to the bass I had found and planned to fish, some other contestants had already worked those fish over pretty good. So on the second day of the tournament, I went further back in the creek that I was fishing to start fishing.

On the tenth pitch I made with a 3/8-ounce Strike King Denny Brauer Jig in the black-and-blue color, I had a huge strike. The fish was only in about a foot of water. I could tell as soon as the bass took the bait that he was a giant. If I'd lost that fish, I would have said he weighed between 9 and 12 pounds. He actually weighed right at 10 pounds. That bass would have totally owned me if I hadn't been fishing with 50-pound-test braided line. I'd never fished braided line until this year, but this year I fell in love with that braided line for flipping and pitching.

Braided line is bonded so tightly that it keeps its round shape and doesn't have nearly as much friction in the water as other lines do. I really believe that flipping and pitching this braided line has given me an advantage this year in my fishing. I don't know whether I'd have put that big bass in the boat if I'd been fishing a lighter-pound-test line or if I'd been fishing monofilament line. I think that one bass helped me to see the real advantage to fishing this new braided line and somewhat changed my ideas about braided line and flipping and pitching.

I think, that in the future we're going to see more and more anglers going to braided lines for their flipping and pitching. That braided line gives you more power and more force to get a big bass out of thick cover and out of the grass. That one big fish on the second day of the tournament right at the beginning of the day really gave me a lot of confidence and was one of the defining moments in my tournament fishing this past year.
 

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