Entry 226-2
Fishing the New 2008 Lures with Denny Brauer
Editor’s Note: One advantage Strike King has over other lure companies is that its professional fishermen design and test new products before they hit the market. In most instances, Strike King pros, like Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, fish with the new lures for a year before the lure is introduced to the public. For this reason, the pros can speak with a great deal of knowledge about the new products they’ve helped create and test before the public sees them. This week, veteran Strike King pro and world-champion fisherman, Denny Brauer, gives his view on the new 2008 Strike King lures.
Part 2: Let’s Play Football
Question: Denny, you’re the jig specialist among the Strike King pros. Where did the idea for the Football Head Jig come from, and what makes this jighead design better than other jighead designs?
Brauer: Traditionally, jigs are viewed as shallow-water baits. Most people fish jigs in waters 10- to 15-feet deep, mainly because there aren’t as many heavy jigs available. Strike King makes the traditional Denny Brauer Premier Pro-Model jig all the way up to a 1-ounce size. In deep-water areas where someone will fish the Carolina rig with a heavier jig, I still can cast and retrieve the Football Jig. My normal jighead isn’t as efficient when I’m dragging the jig in deep water as the Football Head Jig, especially when I’m using lighter line.
There’s a fine balance between the depth I’m fishing the jig, the line I’m using and the diameter of the hook. The bigger the diameter of the hooks, and the lighter my line, the more difficult it becomes to get a solid hook set. If I’m using a light wire hook on heavy line in shallow water, I’ll probably flex or straighten the hook. The fish will get off the line easily if I use lighter line. The Football Jig is designed for deep-water fishing like structure fishing and where I’d fish a Carolina rig or a plastic worm. The Football Jig can be swam or drug on the bottom, but it’s primarily designed to give fishermen the ability to fish a jig in really-deep water where you generally had to fish other style lures.
Question: What’s your favorite color Football Jig?
Brauer: I mainly like natural colors because a Football Jig style of fishing primarily applies in clear water. If the water’s really dirty, the bass will move up shallow. In the summertime or the wintertime, when often the water will be really clear, and the bass hold on ledges, humps and deep-water structure, you want to fish the Football Jig.
Question: What kind of trailer do you use on the Football Jig?
Brauer: I’ll use the Strike King Rage Tail Chunk or the Rage Tail Craw. Brown and peanut butter-and-jelly seem to be the most-productive colors for both the jig and the Rage Chunk or the Rage Craw.
Next: A Raging Brauer
Contents:
- Part 1: Bass Prefer a Cup of Coffee, Too
- Part 2: Let’s Play Football
- Part 3: A Raging Brauer
- Part 4: Chunk It
- Part 5: What About the Rage Toad?
