Entry 333-5
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 5: You’ve Got to Have a Strength – That’s Right, a Favorite Way to Fish
Question: Denny, you’ve always advocated fishing to your strengths, but most of what we read in the magazines and see on TV is about being a versatile fisherman. What do you mean when you say fish to your strengths?
Brauer: The number-one question most outdoor writers ask is, “How important is being versatile to your winning?” On many TV shows, you see the host talking about how important it is to be versatile. I’ve almost come to the point of saying, “That’s a stupid question.” I don’t mean that as an insult. However, any tournament pro who fishes at the BASS Elite level has already proven he’s versatile. If you haven’t learned to fish a wide variety of lures and techniques, you need to go back to fishing bass-club tournaments in your local area. Really, how tough is getting good at casting a spinner bait, flipping a jig, drop-shotting or any other fishing technique? Anyone with a good instructor should be able to become fairly proficient with any of those techniques in about 2 hours.
Any fishermen who fishes at the highest level of bass fishing should be willing to fish any strategies he has to fish to win. But when somebody says, “Boy, look at that angler. He’s really versatile.” Then I begin to wonder if that really-versatile angler ever has won a tournament. If you analyze that fisherman’s record, you’ll probably see that he hasn’t done an awful lot of winning. He may have gotten checks in numbers of tournaments and may have reached the end-of-the-year championship, but has he won many tournaments? More than likely he hasn’t.
Now, if you talk about any fisherman who’s won multiple tournaments, you can tell me a technique he fishes that he’s really learned well. Let me explain. Every fisherman should be versatile. But to win, you need one or two tactics that are really your strong suits. When the conditions get right for that technique, you’re no longer fishing against a 100-man field, but you’re probably only fishing against 10 people in the entire tournament who can fish that technique really well. This is when the odds of you winning the tournament increase. 
To be a winner, you need one fishing method that when the conditions are right, you have so-much confidence that you can win, everything is in your favor.
Remember, I said that we have very-few chances to win in bass fishing. When you’re fishing techniques with which you’re proficient, you should be able to do okay in a tournament, and you may win one. But when you hit that certain lake with everything you need at the right time of year for your favorite tactic to really pay-off for you, that’s when you have that confidence and know you’ll win and should win.
Question: Denny, you’re pretty-much branded as a flipper and a pitcher. Kevin VanDam is branded as a spinner bait and a crankbait fisherman who likes fast-moving baits. Greg Hackney’s a flipper and a pitcher. George Cochran is known for catching bass in places nobody else will fish. 
So, you believe the anglers who win are the ones who’ve defined themselves with one strong tactic or method of catching bass, right?
Brauer: Absolutely. Look at Larry Nixon’s entire fishing career. When you hear Larry’s name, everyone thinks plastic worm, because Larry’s known for his ability to catch bass and win tournaments with a plastic worm. Now, you ask, “Can Larry flip and pitch?” Of course he can, and he does. But if you study the professional fishermen who’ve had multiple wins, you’ll see that most of those anglers have won tournaments fishing the tactics they believe that they fish the best. To win, yes, you have to be versatile, but you also have to have a fishing strategy that you and everyone else know is your specialty. When the water, the weather, the time of year and the conditions are right for that particular tactic, you should win without excuse.
