Entry 110-3
Guntersville's Big Boost For Chad Brauer
How to Find Bass When Fish Are Hard To Find
Editor's Note: To make the Bassmasters Classic field is a major accomplishment for any fisherman, and Strike King pro Chad Brauer is excited about his opportunities at the Classic at Lake Wylie. The tournament circuit is grueling. The anglers often fish in bad weather, which means they must read weather and water conditions correctly and pick up on the changes in both, sometimes even on an hourly basis. Some years, because of a quirk of fate, bad luck or just not being able to find fish, some of the best bass fishermen in the nation don't get a Classic berth. This past season has been an amazing year for Brauer, who was in the race for Angler of the Year the first part of the season. Strike King asks Brauer which five events during this past year's tournament circuit does he consider the most important for his making the 2004 Classic.
Brauer: In order of importance, I guess the first two days of the tournament on the Harris chain of lakes were the next most-significant events of my earning a Classic berth for 2004. The first day of this tournament I realized I wasn't finding enough bass to win the tournament. So, the second day, I started fishing a totally different pattern. Both days I caught about the same weight of bass on two different patterns, and I realized that regardless of the lure or the section of the lake I was fishing, more than likely this tournament would be won with a small number and a small weight of bass. This realization was completely opposite of what you would expect from the Harris chain of lakes, great fishing lakes with plenty of good-sized bass in them.
On the first day of the tournament, I pitched a Strike King flipping tube into the Kissimmee grass, and I caught my bass fairly quick, early in the morning, using this technique. The second day when I went back to that same lake and tried that same pattern, I couldn't get a bass to bite. When I realized that pattern wasn't going to work, I changed lakes and lures. Instead of pitching the jig, I started pitching a straight tail worm and caught about the same weight of bass that I'd caught on the first day. Those two days put together moved me up to about 35th place. Because the fishing was so tough, I realized that if I hadn't caught those two small limits of bass on that first day and hadn't given up the tube when it failed to produce and switched to a straight tail worm on a different lake, I very well could have finished up in 105th position.
This knowledge made me realize once again that knowing when to make the change in location and bait is the really critical key to finding and catching bass and performing well in a tournament. Even though I switched lakes and lures, I was still using the same technique and fishing the same type cover. I was pitching, and the bass were taking the bait on the fall. On the first day, they wanted a bulky bait (the tube) that fell slowly. On the second day, the bass were still holding in the same type cover on a different lake. However, the bass on the second lake wanted a smaller profile bait that fell fast, like the straight tail worm.
Once again, knowing when to make the change and recognizing that I knew what change to make and what lure to use was a tremendous confidence builder and kept me from really having the worst tournament of the season. Although I fish to win in a bad tournament, sometimes all you can do is try not to lose any more than you have to lose. In this tournament on this lake, a 35th-place finish for me was really a good finish.
