My favorite memory of dealing with the recently retired Denny Brauer for the past 7 seasons occurred shortly after a 2007 tournament in which he didn't fare well. I don't recall the basis of our conversation, but somehow it drifted to the Bassmaster Elite Series event at the Potomac River that year, which was won by Skeet Reese.
Brauer, who finished 69th in that derby, mentioned that he'd found the same fish during practice that Reese exploited en route to victory. But instead of divvying them up or bickering over them, he conceded them to the Californian and went and fished (not too successfully, obviously) somewhere else.
Then he added that if the same situation ever arose again and Reese didn't return the favor, Reese would "have a different color of hair." I laughed audibly, but Brauer didn't.
What he'd threatened to do was obviously figurative, but he was dead-serious about the point he was trying to get across. He'd made a sportsmanlike gesture toward Reese, and he fully expected the latter to remember it and repay it in kind if he got the opportunity. It didn't seem like it was anything personal against Reese – he just happened to be the other principal in that particular situation, and the hair thing (Reese sported a spiky blond 'do back then) was just a way to further emphasize how adamant he was.
Brauer, like a lot of pros who entered the game prior to the advent of six-figure winner's purses and the idea that anglers needed to put on a show for the TV cameras by doing something other than just catching fish, believes in a code of ethics that includes invisible lines in the water that should not be crossed. Perhaps there are some much-younger Elite competitors who are secretly glad to see such a "dinosaur" go.
His absence alone will blur some of those unseen lines considerably.
--John Johnson
--BassFan Senior Editor
Snapcasts are brief opinion pieces produced by BassFan staff members. The views presented are the author's alone.
