Top Bass Fisherman Denny Brauer Tells How He Picks the Lures He Fishes Year-Round
What Denny Brauer Considers When He Picks a Spinner Bait for Bassing
 Editor’s Note: Denny Brauer of Camdenton, Missouri, one of the most-successful tournament bass fishermen in the world today, has earned over $2 million in tournament winnings from fishing BASS and other tournament circuits. Although there are many great flippers on the BASS circuit, Brauer is known as one of the all-time best. “I flip because I want to fish spots most bass fishermen won’t fish,” Brauer says. “I fish to win every tournament I enter, and fishing thick cover with big baits gives me the greatest odds to catch big bass and win tournaments.” But Brauer also flips tubes, creature baits and many other types of lures to catch bass. To become a better flipper, we asked Brauer to tell us how  e decides when and what lures to flip.
Question: Denny, how do you decide on the size of the spinner bait you’ll fish, the size and the color of the blades, the color of the skirt, and if you’ll use a trailer, the type of trailer you’ll use? There are so many-different types, sizes and colors of spinner baits, oftentimes an angler can become confused about when he should use what lure when the word spinner bait is mentioned.
Brauer: I particularly like two new spinner baits – the Burner and the Bottom Dweller. So, I see how you can get confused when trying to decide which spinner bait to use at certain times of year under specific conditions. But don’t feel like you’re the only one who feels this way. Sometimes I get a little confused about which spinner bait to choose. I keep my spinner-bait choices fairly basic. I base my spinner-bait selection on water color, water temperature and the type of cover I’ll be fishing, and how fast I want the spinner bait to run. Here are some suggestions for how to make effective spinner-bait selections.
1) The colder the water you’re fishing, you probably will need to use a Colorado blade combination on your spinner bait.
2) I’ll choose either Colorado blades or Indiana blades in dirty water because they’ll disturb a little more water than a Strike King Raz-R-Blade or the willow-leaf blade will.
3) I prefer a Colorado willow-leaf blade combination if I’m fishing a spinner bait slowly through the grass.
4) I’ll use a gold-colored willow-leaf blade on the back of my spinner bait to give the bait some flash, if I’m fishing fairly-stained water
5) I’ll use double willow-leaf blade combinations if I want to move the spinner bait fast.
6) I’ll use a double willow-leaf blade combination because I can make those blades dance and do different motions that look like shad if I’m seeing bass busting the surface and feeding on shad.
After you determine which blades you need, then you have to start considering what weight of spinner bait you need to select. Strike King makes spinner baits that will run in water from 1- to 20-feet deep or more. That Bottom Dweller will really get down deep and keep the blades turning while you’re fishing deep. So, here’s the way I make my spinner-bait choices. When I open my spinner bait box to choose the spinner  bait I’ll fish right now, the first thing I do is look at the water color, which will tell me the color skirt I should choose and the color and the type of blade I need. For instance, in dirty water, I’ll have a white or a chartreuse skirt, and I’ll probably lean more toward gold-colored blades. In clear water, I’ll choose a more-translucent skirt and nickel-colored blades. Next, I look at the type of cover where I’ll be fishing the spinner bait, which tells me the weight of the spinner bait I need. If you’ve got cold weather, you know you’ll need a spinner bait that moves a little slowly, so you may choose a 3/8-ounce rather than a 1/2-ounce spinner bait. If you have warm weather, you may choose a 1/2-ounce spinner bait, so you can retrieve it faster.
The bottom line is you need to set-up a specific tackle box as your spinner-bait box. You have to look at the spinner bait as tools for different fishing situations. And, you need to set-up your spinner-bait box to have various types of spinner baits in different colors, weights and blade combinations for any type of water, weather and cover situation you may fish. This way, you’re not switching blades, skirts and sizes of spinner baits in the boat when the conditions change or when you go to another lake. Most bass fishermen won’t go fishing with only one crankbait or one size and color of plastic worm. You have to look at your spinner baits the same way as you look at your soft-plastic lures and crankbaits. Remember, spinner baits are set-up for different types of fishing conditions, so have at least two or three for any type of fishing condition you may encounter.
Tomorrow: How to Choose a Big Worm for Bassing with Denny Brauer
|
