Click the photo above to launch Denny's photo gallery
No. 4 - Denny Brauer
Hometown: Camdenton, Missouri
Born: Seward, Nebraska
Birthday: 2/23/49
Family: (Wife) Shirley; (Children) Chad
Hobbies: Deer hunting
Favorite Food: Seafood
Favorite Music: Country
Favorite Book/Movie: The Perfect Storm (book and movie)
Why He Fishes: "Initially I did it as a hobby because I enjoyed it. Then I thought, maybe I can support my family doing this. The neat thing is that I never lost the enjoyment of it, even with the pressure of making a living. I enjoy it even more."
Hometown: Camdenton, Missouri
Born: Seward, Nebraska
Birthday: 2/23/49
Family: (Wife) Shirley; (Children) Chad
Hobbies: Deer hunting
Favorite Food: Seafood
Favorite Music: Country
Favorite Book/Movie: The Perfect Storm (book and movie)
Why He Fishes: "Initially I did it as a hobby because I enjoyed it. Then I thought, maybe I can support my family doing this. The neat thing is that I never lost the enjoyment of it, even with the pressure of making a living. I enjoy it even more."
Career Stats
Scorecard:
15 BASS wins
68 Top 10 BASS finishes
15 Top 10 FLW finishes
18 BMC appearances
BASS Times in money: 154
BASS Total Entries: 240
BASS Total Weight: 6,369-8
BASS Career Winnings: $1,8994,376.80
Former Job: Masonry contractor for 13 years
Turned Pro: 1982
Career Earnings: $2.2 million
Titles/Honors:
1998 BMC champion
1998 FLW Tour AOY
1987 BASS AOY
1992 MegaBucks champion
1993 BASS SuperStars champions
1987 Super Invitational champion
1985 U.S. Bass AOY
Two-time qualifier for the BASS Chapter Championship (before it was known as the BASS Federation Championship)
Top Single Season BASS Money winner (1998, $347,000)
BASS All-Time Leading Money Winner
Second in BASS tournament wins
Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame inductee
Notables:
For Denny Brauer, it was memories of a disappointing defeat nearly three months earlier that the stage was set for the 1998 BMC. It was on that rainy May afternoon on the shores of Tennessee's Old Hickory Lake where Brauer made a brutally honest assessment of himself and his future. He had just let a seemingly insurmountable 31-point lead in the BASS AOY race slip from his grasp during the final event of the 1997-98 Bassmaster Tournament Trail.
"This is probably the most frustrating week of my fishing career. Bar none," he lamented to himself on that day. "I don't like not finishing things. There have been so many AOY races I've let slip away. This is the third or fourth one I've lost that I could have won. And that takes away from all of the good that has happened to me this year."
"I'll tell you this, though. This makes me angry. And historically, when I get angry, I come back with a vengeance. Those guys had better watch out because now I'm mad."
Brauer made the above quotes in the September 1998 issue of BASS Times.
Timeline:
1978: Nebraska BASS Federation State Champion
1980: Nebraska BASS Federation State Champion
1981: Moved to Lake of the Ozarks and started guiding on Truman Lake
1982: Goes pro full time
1982: Qualifies for first BMC
1984: First BASS win
1985: U.S. Bass AOY
1987: BASS AOY winner
1998: Wins back-to-back BASS tournaments
1998: Wins BMC
1998: Wins FLW Tour AOY
2001: Inducted into Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame
Defining Moment:
Winning the BMC after 16 years on the tour.
Claim To Fame:
His uncanny ability to fish a jig and/or his 1998 blowout year.
Mentor: Larry Nixon
Strengths:
Flipping and pitching a jig.
Nuggets:
Moved from Nebraska to Missouri in 1980 after high interest rates forced him out of a job in Nebraska … that year, he took up guiding on Truman Lake and Lake of the Ozarks to supplement his construction income
Host of "Schooled By Denny Brauer on ESPN2
Leads Bassmaster Tour wins with four victories
Two appearances on "Late Night with David Letterman" following BMC win
1990 back problem kept him out of the BMC that year …
Founding member of the Blue Valley Bass Club, named after a chain of watershed lakes in Nebraska. The club still belongs to the BASS Chapter Federation and has won BASS Chapter of the Year.
First angler to appear on a Wheaties cereal box … told by General Mills that 75 percent of the 2 million boxes printed were sold in three days … did a photo shoot for Sports Afield Magazine in New York's Central Park …
Influential People:
Larry Nixon: "He's been a good friend for many years. But I had a lot of respect for him before that. He's a good all-around example of what a pro fisherman should be." Complete BASS statistics
15 BASS wins
68 Top 10 BASS finishes
15 Top 10 FLW finishes
18 BMC appearances
BASS Times in money: 154
BASS Total Entries: 240
BASS Total Weight: 6,369-8
BASS Career Winnings: $1,8994,376.80
Former Job: Masonry contractor for 13 years
Turned Pro: 1982
Career Earnings: $2.2 million
Titles/Honors:
Notables:
Timeline:
1978: Nebraska BASS Federation State Champion
1980: Nebraska BASS Federation State Champion
1981: Moved to Lake of the Ozarks and started guiding on Truman Lake
1982: Goes pro full time
1982: Qualifies for first BMC
1984: First BASS win
1985: U.S. Bass AOY
1987: BASS AOY winner
1998: Wins back-to-back BASS tournaments
1998: Wins BMC
1998: Wins FLW Tour AOY
2001: Inducted into Professional Bass Fishing Hall of Fame
Defining Moment:
Winning the BMC after 16 years on the tour.
Claim To Fame:
His uncanny ability to fish a jig and/or his 1998 blowout year.
Mentor: Larry Nixon
Strengths:
Flipping and pitching a jig.
Nuggets:
Influential People:
Larry Nixon: "He's been a good friend for many years. But I had a lot of respect for him before that. He's a good all-around example of what a pro fisherman should be." Complete BASS statistics
