Entry 111-2
Chad Brauer On Getting A Berth In The Classic
How to Rebound from a Bad Tournament
Editor's Note: Ruling your emotions and not letting your emotions rule you is one of the major elements of not only being a successful bass fisherman but also a successful person. If two bass fishermen have equal abilities, the one who can shake off defeat, forget that defeat and go into the next tournament will usually outperform the bass fisherman who is still carrying the baggage of a bad finish to the tournament. Today, Chad Brauer will show how he walks away from defeat and goes on to victory.
Question: Chad, how do you come back from a bad tournament?
Brauer: I think the most-important element for overcoming a bad day on the water is to forget the day. Don't assume you've had a bad day. Try to get all of the bad thoughts about the day out of your mind. Then once you've cleared your mind of the negative thoughts, go back, and reevaluate the day you've had on the water in light of, "What did I learn today?" I learn a lot from bad tournaments. When I look at a tournament I've done poorly in, I begin to identify the bad choices I've made that have caused me to do so poorly.
- Did I choose the wrong lure?
- Did I pick the wrong color of lure?
- Did I select the wrong area of the lake to fish?
- Did I choose the wrong type of cover to fish?
- Could the bass have been deeper or more shallow than where I was fishing?
- Was I fishing behind some other angler who had probably caught the fish?
- Did I spook the bass I was trying to catch with my boat?
- Did I make the proper changes in equipment and tackle throughout the day, as weather conditions, light conditions and the current changed?
- Could I have been more successful, if I could redo the day?
After I've thoroughly evaluated the day, I decide what went wrong. Then, I take that information and try and use it in another tournament so that I won't make the same mistakes. One of the most-important things I've learned is that no pattern, no lure, no type of structure and no body of water will always fish like and produce fish like it has in the past. Each day you fish is a different day, and you have to apply the techniques, tactics, lures and strategies that best suit the particular day on that lake.
The other thing you have to remember is, regardless of how good you think you are, you're not going to have a good day every time you go fishing. You have to remember that bass fishing is not a perfect sport, and you're not going to win every time you go to the water. You may have two or three bad tournaments or two or three bad fishing trips consecutively before you hit a really good one. But, that really good day of bass fishing is out there, and if you keep going, you will catch up to it and have a great day of bass fishing.
Question: What new tactic did you learn this year on the tournament trail, or what strategy did you relearn that you had just about forgotten?
Brauer: I learned that when fishing's tough, if I cover less water and fish slower, I will find and catch more bass. As a tournament fisherman, I am constantly conscious of racing against the clock. We have a specific time that we have to get back to the starting line; therefore, we only have a certain number of hours that we can fish. When you are limited on the amount of fishing time that you have in a given day, reason dictates that the more casts you make, the more fish you will catch.
This year we had quite a few winter-type tournaments where we faced cold water and bass that didn't want to bite. I learned that to catch more bass and bigger bass under tough conditions, I should slow my fishing down. Last year I caught myself several times in panic situations when I wasn't catching bass. I would start fishing faster and faster to cover more water to catch more bass. When I would catch a bass, and didn't get another strike, I would move on to another area of the lake in a different cover and not thoroughly fish the place where I'd caught the bass. I wouldn't make repeated casts with the same lure to the same cover to get more bass from the spot where I had caught the bass.
This year, I decided before the tournament season began that when I caught myself in that panic situation, instead of running all over the lake and fishing really fast, I would slow my fishing down. I'd thoroughly work the cover with several lures to try and catch more than one bass out of the same location.
Always remember that anytime the weather conditions cause bass not to want to bite, you need to slow down. These conditions include cold water, a cold front moving onto the lake and a lot of fishing pressure. Factors like these will cause bass not to want to bite, and that's when you need to slow your fishing down. If the region you're fishing doesn't have these factors that will cause bass not to bite, then running and gunning may be the best technique to use. I've also learned this year that fishing slower and more thoroughly will pay off with more big bass than fishing fast does.
