By John Johnson
BassFan Senior Editor
Denny Brauer admits there've been times this year when he wished he were still competing on the Bassmaster Elite Series. Those times, however, have been pretty infrequent.
"I do miss the camaraderie and the friends I developed over the years, and the interaction with fans to some extent," he said this week. "But health- and age-wise, my body told me last year that it was time to step back from the rigors of the tour and I haven't second-guessed the decision at all.
"There've been certain places they've gone where I've said, 'Man, I wish I was there,' and then other places where I was extremely glad I wasn't at that one. But even when you're active you have some of those same thoughts – that's just part of the game."
Plenty of Time on the Water
It's been more than half a year now since Brauer, a Bass Fishing Hall-of-Famer and winner of 17 Bassmaster events, and wife Shirley became full-time residents of Del Rio, Texas, hard by the shore of renowned Lake Amistad. He's on the water at Amistad an average of 5 times a week these days and, as can be expected, he catches a lot of fish.
And some of them are quite large.
"The biggest one I've caught from the lake was a little over 15 (pounds) and the biggest one I've caught this year was a 12-06," he said. "The bigger fish slow down at this time of year, though – you can still catch a lot of numbers, but it's hard to get those giants to bite.
"There's a bunch of 2- and 3-pounders running around in schools, working bait, and one day I must've caught 80 of them in a 3-hour period."
He satisfies his competitive itch with Major League Fishing events and Texas EverStarts (he's won once on each circuit within the past 11 months).
"To totally quit competing after that many years (he fished his first pro event in 1980) would've been too big of a drastic change, so I'm staying a little bit involved," he said. "Overall, I'm probably fishing three times more than I was before we left Missouri, and I've also got more time to help my sponsors with things like sales meetings and promotions.
"I've been staying pretty busy with new-product development – most of that with Ardent rods and reels and Strike King. That's something I've always done, but I'm more involved with it now. It's something that's a lot harder to do when you're in a tournament situation."
New Addition Forthcoming
The Brauers are currently on their way to Arkansas to pick up a Labrador retriever puppy that will become the newest addition to their household. Fetching waterfowl will be its primary sporting chore, but Denny anticipates it eventually going along on most of his Amistad fishing excursions.
The dog will be registered as yellow (the breed also comes in black and chocolate), but he said the actual color – and that of its parents – is white.
"I've had Labs for 40 years of my life and when we lived on the farm in Missouri we had a good neighbor who'd keep an eye on them and feed them when we were on the road," he said. "But when the last two we had finally got old and I had to put them down, it just didn't seem right to get a new pup when we were gone so much, so I haven't had one for the last 6 or 7 years."
He's made numerous contacts with landowners during his short time in Del Rio and has received invitations to hunt deer (both axis and whitetail) and turkeys in the region. He also plans to take a few of out-of-state hunting trips – an annual jaunt to Illinois for deer and western Nebraska for pheasant and quail among them.
"When hunting rolls around is the same time of year when some of the biggest fish in the lake are biting, so I kind of get torn between the two. When you live on a lake like this, it's real hard to stay off the water.
"It's easy to take it for granted sometimes when you've had what you consider a bad day of fishing, but a bad day here is an awful good day in most parts of the world."
Notable
> One aspect of his place in Del Rio that Brauer greatly appreciates is the lack of necessary yard work. "It's nice to be almost maintenance-free," he said. "We built the whole yard with nothing but rocks, so all I do is walk around with a sprayer and nuke a few weeds once in awhile. In Missouri, there were 3 or 4 days a month where I did nothing but mow."
> They've made the 14-hour drive to Missouri twice since December to visit son Chad and his family. "With all the activities that the grandkids are involved in, you almost need to schedule an appointment to see them. Fortunately we can stay in frequent contact with Skype and whatnot."
