Entry 333-4
How to Win a Bass Tournament with Denny Brauer
Editor’s Note: The first week of November, 2009, Kevin VanDam of Kalamazoo, Michigan, told us the five things he believed were important to winning bass tournaments. VanDam mentioned that one of the people who taught him the mindset required to win a bass tournament was Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri. So, this week, we asked Brauer to tell us his five most-important keys to winning bass tournaments.
Part 4: Execution, Focus and Education
Question: Denny, what does execution and focus mean that you mentioned yesterday?
Brauer: Many tournament anglers go through the motion of fishing, but they’re not focused on fishing. This causes them not to execute the cast or the hookset, and it affects their ability to land the fish and keep their emotions under control. Many times, you can be fishing and doing everything right, but when you get the bite, you’re not really expecting it, and you miss the bass. Or, you get the bite, and you panic. Instead of thinking, “What do I need to do right now to play this bass down and get it alongside the boat where I can lip it,” you’re thinking, “I’ve got to hurry-up and boat this bass, so I can get another one.”
You have to concentrate and focus on each bite you get. Think about what you need to do to play the bass to give you the best advantage, so you can get it alongside the boat. Then take your time, and make sure you pick the bass up correctly, either by the jaw or under the stomach, or you jerk it into the boat. After you’ve got that bass in the boat, then the time has come to start thinking about the next bass.
You can see exactly what I’m talking about on many of the TV fishing shows. A fisherman will get a big bass on the line. 
Then the angler goes brain dead and tries to jerk and swing a 7-pound largemouth over the gunwales and into the boat. Perhaps he breaks his line or pulls the bass off the line. That TV personality panics. You see it, he sees it, and everybody knows what’s happened. Well, that same panic instinct often occurs in a tournament. You’re behind, and you’re trying to hurry-up and catch-up. Or, maybe you’re ahead, and you want to hurry-up and catch some more bass, so you can win.
Therefore, you don’t concentrate and focus on each bass that takes your bait. We had our last BASS Elite Series tournament on Lake Oneida, and one of the contestants had a really-good chance to win the tournament. However, he made bad mental decisions. He tried to swing a big bass into the boat that would have won the tournament for him. But instead of winning the tournament with that bass, he lost his focus and made a bad decision, which cost him the win.
Now, don’t think I’m Mr. Perfection. I’ve been guilty of doing the same thing. Every tournament fisherman will make poor decisions at some time. But the more experience you have, and the better able you are to control your emotions in those situations, the better your odds are of winning the tournament. Being in the right position when the bass takes the lure to get a good hook set, being focused on landing that bass, knowing how you should land it, either by swinging it in the boat or lipping it, and not losing your focus until the bass is in the live well are the ingredients required to win.
Anybody can make good decisions when adrenaline isn’t involved. 
But to be a consistent winner, think through those emotion-packed situations, and make the right decisions in the heat of battle. Too, I’ve learned that the tougher the fishing and the fewer bites you get, the more you have to be focused and concentrated to keep from blowing an opportunity when you get one.
Question: How do you stay focused when you’ve got a big bass on the line and a chance to win the tournament? How do you make that decision, “Here’s what I need to do,” and not just react.
Brauer: I’ve tried to look at tournament-bass fishing as a job. Each tournament I go to, I view as another week at work. The more things I do right, the better my week at work will be. The more things I do wrong, the worse my work week will be. I try to keep my emotions from getting too high when I get a good bass on the line, and I don’t jump around, scream and go nuts when I get that big strike that may move me up in the standings. Too, when I have a train wreck, and a bass gets off, which will happen, I try not to get depressed. I just take the position of, “Okay, I got that bite. 
Now, all I’ve got to do is get another one.” My next thought is, “Hey Denny, you just thought you lost a bass. That didn’t really happen.”
This practice allows me to clear my mind and start looking for the next bite. But I also try to learn from the bass that got away. How was it positioned in the water? How and when did the bass hit the lure? What was the bass trying to tell me that will help me get another bite? I always try to use a negative experience as a positive experience. When something goes wrong, instead of concentrating on what’s gone wrong, I concentrate on what I’ve learned. If you can turn those negatives into positive learning experiences, you generally won’t continue to make the same mistakes.
