Entry 360-5
Professional Bass Fisherman Chad Brauer Fights for $47,000 and Wins on the Red River in 2010
Editor’s Note: Chad Brauer of Osage Beach, Missouri, recently won the Bass Pro Shops’ Bassmaster Central Open on the Red River near Shreveport, Louisiana, taking home a check for $47,000. This win was great for Brauer, who took time off from professional fishing to work on a fishing television show. But Brauer has proven that he’s back with a vengeance. This week, we’ll look at how, like most Strike King pros, Brauer has bounce-back ability.
Part 5: Chad Brauer’s Final Fight on the Red River’s Skinny Water
Question: Chad, on the last day of the tournament, you said you knew you had more than 20 pounds of bass in the boat with only five bass. But there were still 30-more fishermen who had to weigh-in.
Brauer: Everyone had to be in by 2:15 pm, and the weigh-in was at Bass Pro Shops in Shreveport. They held out the top-five competitors until the end of the weigh-in. The top four and I were chit-chatting at the dock, and when they asked me how I did, I said I had a pretty-good day. The other four knew how big my lead was, and they all kind of knew that I probably would win. I didn’t really know for sure how much weight I had, but I thought I had about 18 or 19 pounds, which was a pretty-good weight.
When I started taking the bass out of the live well and putting them in the bag for the weigh-in, this was the biggest bag I’d caught for the tournament. After I looked at them, I thought I had about 20 pounds. Since the other four weighed-in ahead of me, I only needed 5 pounds to keep the lead. I had more than 5 pounds.
Question: What did you think when they weighed your fish, and you realized you’d won?
Brauer: In a bass tournament, oftentimes you’ll have a chance to win, but there are so many variables that actually winning is really difficult. However, in this tournament, everything I needed to go right for me to win happened. Everything worked out right for three consecutive days, which is one of the rarest occurrences in tournament fishing. I’ve never had that happen before in a tournament.
I’ve won tournaments before, but everything never went perfect for those wins. This was one of those dream tournaments that every fisherman who competes hopes he’ll experience at least once in his life. This probably will be one of the only tournaments I’ll ever fish when at 10:00 am on the last day I’ll know I’ve won.
Question: Did you have a different partner every day, and if so, what did they think when you went up that skinny-water creek?
Brauer: My partner the last day was a local who lives on Pool 3 of the Red River, so he’s accustomed to going-up skinny-water creeks. 
If you fish the Red River very much, you know that it’s not a big deal to take chances to get in backwaters no one else can fish. So, my partner on the last day didn’t think too much about going up that creek. My partners on day 1 and day 2 were really surprised at what we had to do to reach a place to fish. But I don’t think anybody was really surprised about the chances we took.
Question: What does it feel like to win $47,000 in a tournament?
Brauer: As a tournament fisherman, any time you bring home a paycheck, you get a great feeling. If you’ve been a tournament fisherman for a few years, however, you really gain a greater appreciation for how rare everything going right is in a tournament. But I got spoiled my first couple of years of tournament fishing, because I finished high in the standings in quite a few tournaments. Then I went through a period where I felt like every decision I made on the water was wrong. I also went through tournaments where conditions would change, and even though I had the bass figured out, the bass weren’t where they were supposed to be. So, I gained a deeper respect for having a good day of fishing.
Having three days when I seemed to make all the right decisions on the water was great. I enjoy it a little more every time when I make right decisions and those decisions are reinforced by my catching a good bag of bass. 
Now, don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the money, but more than the money, I appreciate how rare making 3 days of right decisions of bass fishing really is, and how good you feel when you have one of those three-day tournaments and everything you’ve planned, hoped and prayed for comes together in a win.
Question: What’s in the future for you now, Chad?
Brauer: I’m going to finish-out the FLW season and the Bassmaster Open. Also, Dad and I are working on a TV show together. We’ve finished our work on a pilot TV show, and we hope it will be on TV by 2011.
Contents:
- Part 1: Chad Brauer's Secret Place on the Red River
- Part 2: The First Day of Chad Brauer's Competition on the Red River - Rodent and the 4S
- Part 3: Chad Brauer's Second Day of Competition on the Red River - the Rage Thumper Worm, the Rodent and the 4S Crankbait
- Part 4: Chad Brauer Tells About His Final Run on the Red River
- Part 5: Chad Brauer's Final Fight on the Red River's Skinny
