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Camdenton,
MO – Denny Brauer likes to be at the Bassmaster Classic, but he wants it to be as a competitor, not working the show floor for his sponsors. So it’s pretty obvious that he’s not happy with the fact that when the boats blast off on the Red River in February, he’ll be back on shore in Shreveport.
From 1991 to 1999, Brauer was a regular fixture at the Bassmaster Classic field. He was certainly no slouch before that, either. Indeed, but for a miss in 1990, he would have made 18 Classics in a row. And he wasn’t just happy to be in the field. In addition to his win in 1998, he had top five finishes in 1984, 1992, 1994, 1997 and 1999.
But this decade has not been kind to him. The only Classics he has fished since 1999 were 2004 (Lake Wylie) and 2007 (Lay Lake). Classic appearances have accordingly become increasingly precious.
“That’s the big show,” he said. “It really bothers me (when I don’t make it).”
Oneida Ups and Downs
Going into the last event of the 2008 Elite Series season at Oneida, Brauer was right on the bubble for Classic qualification. He had 15 pounds the first day and sat in 11th place, but a second day collapse left him outside the cut.
“It was probably the most disappointing tournament of my career,” he said. “At least I felt that way at the time. But you can’t blame it on one day. I had a great first day and thought I could win the tournament. I didn’t think my main area was getting a lot of pressure, so I reversed my order on the second day and went to some areas where I saw a few boats. By the time I got to my main area, Kelly Jordon had already caught 15 pounds there.”
He dropped to 60th place in the tournament and 43rd in the AOY race but he refused to make excuses: “You could blame it on the small lake, a lot of things really, but the bottom line is that you can’t let it get down to one day. I knew at the beginning of the season that I couldn’t let it get down to Erie and Oneida. There are just too many variables there with the weather and smallmouths are not my strength.”
Too Many Low Points
Many anglers, including most of the sixty-plus who finished behind him in the AOY race, would love to have the three top twelve finishes he achieved in 2008, but he remains peeved by the seven tournaments where he failed to make the money and went home after two days.
Despite being one of the top anglers and top money winners of all-time, Brauer has experienced disappointing seasons in the past, most recently in 2005, when he finished 113th. Notably, he bounced back the next year to finish 14th and win the BASS Horizon Award.
“I’ve had worse seasons (than 2008),” he said. “But I don’t ever remember one that was stranger. There was just a bunch of fluke stuff that happened. I had a six pounder and an eight pounder that I had my hands on that got away. At the Harris Chain I hooked an eight or nine
pounder, got it out of the heavy cover and into open water and my line cut in half on something.”
He had three finishes in the fifties and two in the low sixties, and “that’s half the season right there.” In each of them, he said, there may have been “one crucial bite where something bad happened, or several crucial bites. If I had executed and possibly popped a big stringer on day three, I could have been able to turn some of those into 25th or 30th place finishes.” |
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“But that’s part of the game,” he added. “Some years everything goes right. And I think that when things aren’t going well, sometimes you end up trying too hard.”
One low point was Falcon, where he finished 88th, despite the fact that prior to the event he had pinpointed it as the one where he thought he had the best chance to win. Another downer was the season-opener at the Harris Chain.
“I felt that I was around the fish to win at the Harris Chain,” he said. “And the way that the weather played out, I’m pretty sure that I would have won had I made it to the final day.” As it turned out, he missed the cut to day three by two spots. “That drove me nuts,” he added.
Winning Attitude
While his 74th place finish at Kissimmee and 88th at Falcon may seem anomalous for a living legend like Brauer, he’s had his share of low finishes in the past, not by design, but he recognizes that they come with the territory.
“I fish tournaments to win and because of that attitude sometimes I bomb,” he said. “Now that I’m out of the Classic looking in, I kind of wish I had been a little more conservative on occasion.”
His last victory was on Champlain in 2006, but he said the two years without a win don’t weigh on him. “I try not to get too pumped up or too down,” he said. “There have been other periods in my career where I went two years without winning. It doesn’t matter who you are. Look at VanDam a few years ago. Each year the competition gets better and some of it is scheduling. It’s harder for me to win fishing ledges.”
But he has made it clear that he’s healthy, hungry and will be back on the prowl in 2009.
“I had a horrible year in my opinion,” he said. “But there are 60 or 70 guys who did worse than I did. That’s one of the tough things about having a good career. It can be a hard thing to have to live up to. I should probably be a little bit more lenient on myself.”
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