Denny Brauer

Glenn: Hi, I'm Glenn May, with BassResource.com and I'm here with Denny Brauer. Denny, it's great to have you here today.

Denny Brauer: I appreciate that.

Glenn: Denny, how long have you been fishing?

Denny: Well, I've been fishing, since I was eight years old, for bass. As far as fishing, professionally, I fished my first Bassmaster event in April of 1980. So I've been at it a lot of years.

Glenn: Of all those years of fishing, what would you say is your most, memorable bass?

Denny: Probably winning the Classic. You try so hard to win that event, I've been close a lot of times. And it was the one thing missing from my resume, so to speak. When I finally did win that, it was very, very rewarding.

Glenn: Now being the jig fisherman that you are, I'm just curious, how do you deal with really thick wood cover, how do you get through that, and haul the big bass, out of that?

Denny: Well, first of all, you've got to really learn to fish a jig, correctly. You don't force it through the cover; you kind of finesse it, through the cover. And once you learn how, to get the feel, and manipulate the bait, through that really thick cover, you won't be so intimidated by it. You'll put it in places that you really need to put it. But, a lot of it, is setting yourself up with, the right line, and the right rod, the right reel. So when you do get the bite, you've got the opportunity, to really get that fish out of that heavy cover.

Glenn: Do you have any little jig tricks that, you would like to share with us?

Denny: Well, I do certain things to jigs, that I think the majority of people are probably aware of. They've either seen diagrams, or have seen articles of me tricking out baits, and of course we've done a lot of videos over the years. And some of it, just depends on the cover scenario, but the bottom line of it is, if they just go and buy one of my Strike King jigs, it's going to be right out of the package, and they can just take it from there.

Glenn: Okay. Besides fishing, what other things do you like to do?

Denny: Well, I do a lot of deer hunting in the fall, trophy deer hunting. And both on my farm in Illinois, Kansas, and Texas, Canada, Mexico, I travel around, and I really get serious chasing them big white tail. That's kind of a passion of mine, and it's a release from the fishing side of things. You can get in a tree, with out a cell phone, and have a good time. But other then that, that's it, I take some fun fishing trips, when I'm away from the tournament trail. We go down to Mexico, to El Salto, and places like that, but if it's not centered around bass fishing, or centered around white tail deer hunting, as far as a hobby, I'm not interested in it.
Glenn: What would be your dream vacation?
Denny: Oh boy, my dream vacation would probably be, to go down to Falcon Lake, and catch me a bunch of eight to ten pound, fish. And then slide right over, to one of my buddies' ranches down there, and shoot about a 200 inch white tail. That would be a fun week.

Glenn: That would be a blast. What's one thing that the fans out there, might not know about you, that you can share with us?

Denny: Those are things that they're still not going to know about me, because if I wanted to share them, they would already know about it. There really are no secrets that I want to share.

Glenn: Okay. What about, what's your favorite ice-cream?

Denny: I don't eat ice cream.

Glenn: Well there you go, that's one thing that maybe we didn't know about you [laughing].

Denny: I'm just kidding, Blue Bell without a doubt, can't you tell, I love ice cream.

Glenn: Okay.

Denny: No, there really are no real bizarre secrets out there. I mean we've been interviewed so many times, that I think if there were any secrets they would've been exposed by now.

Glenn: All right. When you're targeting trophy bass, what would be your favorite tactic, or you most unusual tactic?

Denny: Oh boy, when you target trophy bass, a lot of it has to do with the bait that you use, itself. You're going upscale the size of bait, you're going to go to heavier cover, or you're going to go deeper. If the water clarity really calls for that, so it's a common sense approach.

I don't have any real secrets, I just look at the body of water, look at what the body of water has to offer. Look at the season, at the conditions, and I probably use bigger baits on an average, then a lot of anglers do. And I probably seek out heavier cover than a lot of anglers are comfortable with fishing in. If there is a secret, it probably lies somewhere in there.

Glenn: Okay. Sounds good, and thank you for your tips. And thanks for spending some time with us today Denny, I do appreciate it. We're looking forward to seeing you out on the water.

Denny: Thank you.