Brauer On Season, Winning And More

Denny Brauer, who will fish the Bassmaster Elite Series next year, is still atop the BASS all-time money-winner list. But he had a tough Bassmaster Tour season this year. He was never a visible threat – even in the Elite 50s.

He finished a dismal 113th in the Tour points and is only ranked No. 87 in the State Farm World Rankings. So what's up? BassFan sat down with him to find out.

BassFan: How do you feel about your year?

Brauer: I was very disappointed. Looking back over the years, I've had some bad years, but I felt that this last year was sort of the worst year I ever had – or I felt the least satisfied with it. Some of how we do is obviously dictated by conditions, schedules – things out of our control. Some of the bad finishes you just take with a grain of salt and move on. But some I just got bullheaded in. I thought some areas had more potential than they wound up having. So I had no one to blame other than myself.

Florida has always been tough for you. Are you glad to see no Florida events on next year's Elite Series schedule?

It's just so wonderful not to have to go there. You know, I go there and I feel like I'm going to win. It fishes the way I love to fish and I've had a few good tournaments there. But I've never been able to win down there. My problem is it's where you always start the season. When you have a bad one, which you're subject to have down there, maybe you start pushing too much.

So I'm certainly glad we're starting in Texas, and that there are no Florida events at all.

How do you like next year's Elite Series schedule? Does it set up well for you?

You never know how you're going to hit these different places – whether we'll get a few weeks of warm weather ahead of time, or a big rain, or a drought which could make the water real clear. As far as the fisheries themselves, yeah, I really like the schedule big-time. But you can't predict how you're going to do.

I'm about as exited as I've ever been about a schedule. And some of those places I have some history on. I've been able to win there before, and that's always a confidence-plus – to be able to go back to where you performed well.

You had some tough finishes this year – three times you finished worse than 100th. Some might assume that's because the flip-bite wasn't there. Is there something more to it?

I think you get noted, when you do win multiple tournaments, for being not really an expert, but being known for a certain thing. But the reality is, if you're going to fish on the Tour, you'd better be able to fish all kinds of ways.

If I have one huge weakness, it's finesse-fishing. When I pick up a spinning rod, I feel like I'm fishing to be consistent – I'm not fishing to win. At this point in my career, I'm fishing to win. If I finish last trying to do that it's okay, but to be conservative and finish 2nd, I'd be really mad.

I'm not real sure that's a smart way to go about things, but the money's always been so top-heavy in 1st place. You can win one and finish last in all the others and probably come out on top of a guy who finished 3rd or 4th in each tournament. You just kind of look at is as a business in how you adapt your style of fishing.

You talk about finesse-fishing as a way to gun for consistency instead of victory, but a number of tournaments this year were won on finesse.

Well, back in the '80s when I was trying to win Angler of the Year (AOY), and when I did win it in '87, 30% of the fish I caught using spinning tackle and finesse-type baits. I used to fish that way a bunch when I had different goals. I just think my goals have changed. I think my financial situation has changed. It's not critical that I get a paycheck in each tournament.

But with the money they're starting to get in AOY, at least it's making me put my spinning rods back in the Suburban.

It's interesting that you're still using the same flipping rods you've used for years. Hasn't technology improved, or is that just a comfort factor for you?

Line is the only thing we changed. (My son) Chad and I switched over to Mustad Ultra Line last year. We felt the line we were using was always good with Stren. But we feel the Mustad line was an improvement. We get better casting distance and we're totally happy there.

For rods and reels, I still use the same Daiwa stuff I have for years. I designed exactly what I wanted back in the '80s. It had a certain action, and they changed the style of that action three different times over the years. Then they did away with that exact action rod – the S-Series – about 5 years ago. I got a stockpile of them.

Recently, Daiwa wanted me to redesign the rod. I said it would be the same as it was. I felt what I had was the perfect rod. They saw that they were selling on eBay for $250 to $300 and decided to bring them back this year. I think they're available right now.

There was quite a black market for those things. It seemed like any seminar I was at, I'd have several people ask where they could get one. That says a lot about a discontinued rod right there.

Given the year you had, what's your mental attitude about next year? Are you okay with it? Do you want to turn things around?

It's not okay. It's really not. I expect a lot more out of myself. Even though I wasn't winning, I was still trying to make intelligent decisions. In some of those tournaments I was struggling to get anything going. I just didn't put it together. And yeah, it does bother you. But I know what I can do – it's not like I'm trying to figure out if I can catch enough fish to win tournaments.

So maybe I have too much confidence. I know it's just a matter to of time, so I don't want to get overly discouraged. Sometimes, I just got really unfortunate. A lot of people don't know how close I come to winning when I finish 17th or 30th. A lot of times, I'm just a couple bites away from winning.

Not to get into a long tour vs. tour discussion, but you used to fish the FLW Tour, and you were the first angler to appear on a cereal box. What went into your decision to fish the Elite Series this year?

The plate almost got too full there for a while. I was fishing FLW, fishing BASS and trying to do TV. It was totally out of control and I felt I had to cut back somewhere. So I cut back to BASS and TV.

Now that television has gone away, it would obviously open up a little more time, but by the same token, BASS has expanded its schedule. So I'm back to a full plate tournament-wise.

The new circuit FLW came out with, I feel it's a wonderful opportunity for fishermen. But Anheuser-Busch has been a big supporter of mine. They're a great sponsor. And in that tour (the FLW Series), they did not allow any type of alcohol patches at all. That left me on the sideline. It really hasn't been an option for me.

I thought about trying to fish the regular FLW Tour and BASS, as hectic as that is. I'm still very competitive. I have no thoughts of retiring. But I would like to see my grandchildren at least twice a year.

And you like the Elite Series format?

I can't say I've been totally happy with some of the stuff BASS has done, and I think a lot of it's totally been aired by fans. I think a lot of people have been disappointed by the television end of things. There's just some general issues there.

But I just feel this is kind of almost like doing a 1-year pilot. Let's see what happens – see how this materializes. I think it has a real upside to it too. But BASS has a little bit to prove to us too.

I love the smaller-field concept. You know, so much of the rule changes BASS made are exactly what we asked for. I've been on BASS's board since day 1. We got what we asked for. Unfortunately, we got some things we didn't ask for too.

Notable

> Brauer used to run a Busch beer wrap, but isn't sure what wrap he'll run next year. "At this point I don't know what I'm going to run, to be brutally honest," he said. "I'm still in the process of trying to have someone make that commitment. Maybe we're asking for a little too much, but we're waiting and hoping. Obviously, it's something we're going to have to do. I do have some options to have a wrapped boat, but we're trying to leave that open right now and feel things out."

> ESPN recently canceled his TV show, Schooled by Denny Brauer. A number of BassFans wrote to say they were disappointed with the decision. "Yeah, obviously I was kind of disappointed," he said. "I've been on television with ESPN for 8 years. I really thought the programs we had were based toward making the average anglers better anglers. I really appreciated the support fans gave us when we were doing TV. Maybe some day it will work out to where we can do more."