tradesman in the Midwest who practiced flipping in a corner of the living room of the Brauer home under one of Shirley’s potted plants. Shirley tells of the wall being beaten paintless and the plant being minus its foliage after the winter was over. That was how Brauer passed the winter months and became a better angler.
Fast forward to October of 2009 , it is the day before the annual Strike King lure Company Writer’s Conference and myself and two other photographers decide to get a head start on the work week by taking Brauer, Greg Hackney and a regional Strike King staffer named luke estel to the wash before dinner to get some photo shoots out of the way early. We made our first rotations and my second one was with denny. i - in the water - climb into a submerged bush and ask him to position his boat so that he can pitch his signature 1/2-ounce denny Brauer Strike King Premier Pro Model Jig and 3X Chunk trailer towards the lens with some of the branches in the lens out of focus in the foreground, a perfect setting for one of the best flippers on the planet. Brauer, 30-feet away on the deck of his ranger, asked me, “do you want me to pitch it at the lens, or splash it in front of it?” i respond by telling him, “go ahead and do the first one at the lens so that i get a clean first shot.” He said that was okay and asked if i was ready, to which i told him, “go ahead.” He wound up and let the jig fly with a whoosh of his rod and reel; the sounds of the action being augmented by my shutter bursting at more than six frames a second. But, instead of stopping in front of my lens, the jig proceeds past it, and bounces off of my forehead next to the flash mounted atop my
Canon camera body and falls into the water next to my right arm.
“Doink... bloop,” were the sound effects I heard in my mind as i’m sure a more than puzzled look came across my face. Then, all i could hear was the guttural chuckling coming from Brauer as he tried to subdue his amusement with the result. “oops... sorry,” was the response i heard from him between chuckles as he retrieved his jig for another pitch. “oh, sure Mr. accuracy, like that was an accident,” i said while giggling myself.” “Yeah, it was, i didn’t mean to do it,” he said as his giggling turned to laughter. “SSSuuuurreee,” was my response, and we both began to laugh aloud before finishing the photo shoot in time for dinner at Blue Banks resort.
Such is the way of a Hall of Fame bass angler and a Hall of Fame person. i know that he is not gone, but the sport will certainly not be the same without him on a day in and day out basis. it will be hard to begin the 2013 Bassmaster elite Series schedule knowing that he won’t be in the field to have a chance to whip up on all of them youngins. But, he has left us with a career full of memories both on and off the water. While he is busy saying thank you to everyone that has made his career so special, it is us that should be saying thank you to him, for giving us so much of himself.
Some memories are from his competitive career and public for all, some are private for individual participants, but nonetheless, they are all mental images of a career and a man worth remembering.
And I’ll take with me the memories To be my sunshine after the rain It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday. And I’ll take with me the memories To be my sunshine after the rain It’s so hard to say goodbye to yesterday.
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