Entry 288-2
Making Critical Decisions with Chad Brauer
Editor’s Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri, longtime member of the Strike King professional bass fishermen’s team, has competed in numerous bass-fishing tournaments and been in the outdoors for most of his life. Most anglers want to catch the most bass and the biggest bass in the least amount of time, whether in a tournament, filming a TV show or just hanging out with their buddies. This week, Brauer will tell us how he makes critical decisions while bass fishing and hosting the “Academy Outdoors Show” on TV.
Part 2: Change Lures to Find or Catch Bass
Question: Chad, how do you decide to change lures?
Brauer: You never know for sure what to do. If I’m catching fish for a couple hours and not getting a bite, but the bass are still holding where I’ve previously caught them, I’ll change lures. Regardless of how many bass a lure has produced, bass may become sensitive to that lure and may not take it, if they see it too often. However, if you cast a lure different in size, color or action, the bass may begin to aggressively feed again.
If I haven’t located the fish yet, I’ll pick from three lures I’m confident in fishing, depending on the weather, the water clarity or the season. I’ll continue to fish those three lures until I locate the bass. By using more than one rod with different lures on each, changing lures just means changing poles for me. I may fish all three lures at one target and let the bass tell me which lure they prefer at that time. Once I pinpoint the bass, I start narrowing my lure selection to see which lure gets the most bites in the shortest period.
Many Strike King Pros will use search baits like buzzbaits, spinner baits or lipless crankbaits, like the Red Eye Shad. 
All these lures will cause reaction strikes from the bass. So, once I locate the bass with these lures, I may slow-down my fishing and work the cover more thoroughly and slowly. If I’m using the Red Eye Shad and catch two or three bass, I may begin to slow-down by using bigger crankbaits, flipping lures like the Zero or changing the size of lure I’m using to catch more bass with a smaller lure or more bass in a larger school. The primary job of the lure is to find the bass. After you’ve learned where the bass are holding, you may need to switch lures to fish the cover more efficiently and catch more or larger bass.
