If you look at the points, this year Chad Brauer had his best Bassmaster Tour season ever. He finished 11th – way up from the 92nd, 60th, 77th, 46th and 85th of the prior five seasons – and was in the running to win two consecutive events, at Guntersville (4th) and Table Rock (12th).



As importantly, he had no finishes below 100th. His worst was an 87th at Eufaula, and after that it was a 58th at Santee Cooper. (Coincidentally, those also were consecutive events, and were right after Guntersville and Table Rock.)

His performance helped him jump a whopping 111 spots in the State Farm-BassFan World Rankings this year, from 151st to 40th, and of course gives rise to the question: what was different this year?

"It's hard to put a finger on what makes a difference between a great year and a poor year," he said. "But if I had to put it to one thing, it was that the schedule and places we hit fit a lot of the styles of fishing I like to do.

"Through the first four or five tournaments this year, we had a lot of cold fronts and cold water – a lot of winter time-style patterns, and that's something I like to do and have confidence in. I think that played a big part in the consistency I had this year. But I'd also been sick of not catching fish, so I put quite a bit more work into what I did this year."

Work means preparation, and it started when he got the Tour schedule. "When I got schedule, I went through each tournament and physically wrote out on a piece of paper the patterns, lures and everything down to the line, rods and reels I thought I'd need for each tournament – the different scenarios I thought might come into play, whether we might get rain or whatever. I made sure I was prepared for everything I could think of, and I felt like it paid off.

"I always thought I was prepared (in past years)," he noted, "but I took it a step farther this year. I felt I was more prepared, and that it helped out on the confidence a little bit."

He also prepared for the tour season by getting in shape, something that more and more tour pros are doing. "I spent a lot more time on fitness, to be prepared for a 3-4 month fishing trip – actually January through June," he said.

"I was a little bit more prepared this year than in the past couple of years, and it just fell into place. If we'd have been 2-3 weeks later on a few tournaments, it probably wouldn't have been as good for me. We would've been on some spawns, some things I don't do as well on as other guys – like the last two tournaments were my two worst.

"But that's the way it goes. You don't have any control over it. You have to be able to be consistent to make the Classic or have a shot at Angler of the Year (AOY)."

Last Year vs. This Year

But 2003 was full of cold fronts and colder-than-normal water too. What was different?

"Right off the bat was Florida, and that's never been one of my strong areas," Brauer said. The first two tournaments really got me in a big hole. I finished in triple digits in both of them. (Editor's note: Actually it was 98th at the Harris Chain and 150th at Okeechobee.) I did really poorly.

"When you get off to a really bad start after a couple of tournaments, you kind of press it because you know you need all good tournaments from then on. So you're more aggressive. You go for the big bag instead of a secondary pattern you can fall back on and maybe finish in the 40s or 50s.

"You're basically stuck trying to get at least two or three Top 10s or Top 20s, and a lot of times when you do that you have that one bad day and it knocks you out of a tournament. That's how it happened that year."

But at the Harris Chain this year he finished 36th. "The Harris Chain and the Toho-Kissimmee Chain haven't treated me as poorly as Okeechobee," he said. "Those two chains of lakes are a little more my style. You don't have to hit a particular spot – maybe you can run a little pattern – whereas in Okeechobee, you find where the fish are and just stay there. And you end up fishing around a lot of boats, which really isn't something I like to do."

His worst finish this year was at Eufaula, which seemed to line up pretty well for him, and he was on a roll at the time. But he said: "It's another (lake) that I've never done really well on. On the second day I got a little bit too aggressive.

"With dad catching them (Editor's note: Denny won that event), I knew what pattern he was running. He warned me not to spend too much time doing it because he wasn't catching a lot, but I got it in my head and ended up wasting half a day doing it. I went back to (his other) pattern and caught a few, and if I'd done that all day I probably could've had a decent finish.

"But that's hindsight. If I got information from my dad that (a pattern was) really working, why would I try to finish 50th when I could fish aggressively and finish in the Top 20? That was the one instance where us working together probably ended up hurting me because I knew too much. If knew a little less, I probably would've ended up finishing better."

One semi-bad tournament out of a tour season isn't bad, and that's why he considers 2004 "a good year. For me it was my best points finish overall. But if I would (rate) it on how good I think I could do, I'd probably say it was about 80 percent.

"Three days stick out in my mind on the year. If I'd fished a little better or found something out (on those days), I could've won AOY. But I didn't do that and finished 11th.

"That's what AOY is all about," he noted. "You have to catch them every day. So I think if I can correct (those mistakes), I have a chance at winning it next year."

> Those three days were:
1) "The first day at Smith Lake, when I zeroed."
2) "The second day at Eufaula, where I tried to do too much. I fished dad's pattern rather than what I knew how to fish."
3) "The last day of the year at Santee, where I just didn't make the right adjustments to catch the fish."

Carrying Confidence Into 2005

The biggest thing Brauer said he got out of this year was: "a big confidence boost – knowing that I could single out 3 days where I couldn't have done too much worse, and I still had a chance to finish up in the standings. I'll try to tweak it to get near 100 percent. I feel like I have the ability, and a shot to have the AOY title, if I can do that.

"It's the first time in a few years that I've felt that way," he said. "The last 3 years were so poor for me. I was just trying to figure out to catch them well enough to keep fishing. When I first started out, I felt I had the ability and the skills to do it, but I probably didn't have enough experience. Now my ability and experience might be starting to combine a little bit to where I'm a little more consistent on the water. Evidently I'm a slow learner (laughs).

"Next year I'll just try to repeat what I did this year," he said. "Once we figure out what the schedule is going to be, I'll get in as good shape as I can get. Hopefully I'll fish well enough to get in the E50s again and keep the ball rolling with what I started this year."

Notable

> He finished 15th at Seminole last year. What about the Florida jinx? "I fish on the Georgia side," he said.

> What did his father say to him when he wasn't catching them during those bad years? "The biggest thing he said was to stick with it and keep at it. He's always told me that I had the ability and skills to fish with anyone out there, but your confidence gets low after a few bad tournaments and you start to wonder. He was always supportive. He was always big on getting your butt out there and catching some fish, and not worrying about it. He said, 'Eventually you'll get back out there, get in the groove and catch some fish,' and I finally did."

> Chad is fishing the Central Opens this fall.