RAY SCOTT OUTDOORS™
Presents
Bob Cobb

  Remembering Charlie Brewer:
Crazy-head Lure Innovator  

 “Slider System at Hands of the Master”
 

Macho is the association with the masculine pride in a hard hookset.  It’s the bass angler’s guy thing.  Set the hook hard enough to cross a largemouth’s eyes, generally, is the rule in plastic worm fishing.

 “Forget it.  Forget everything you’ve ever been told, taught or experienced in setting the hook,” advised Charlie Brewer.  “`Listen to me, now.  Don’t set the hook…sweep it…sweep the rod.”

 The master of light-line Slider fishing was telling us one more time.  Part coaching, part scolding his class, spawned on heavy line, pool cue rods and whip-lash hooksets, trying to alter the basic behavior on an old school worm fisherman.

 To prove the point, Charlie Brewer produced a worn canvass bank bag filled with pennies.  “This is a five-pound bass,” suggested Charlie, “and I want you to stick him good!”

 Not being an Albert Einstein, by any stretch of the idea, there’s no explaining the physics, but allow us to explain:  Charlie slipped the worm hook into the bag, told us, “back off a good cast and set the hook.”   Result?  The monofilament stretched like a rubber band.  The bag barely moved.

 “Okay,” grinned Charlie.  “Now, sweep the rod and start reeling as I showed you.”  

THE MASTER AT WORK – Charlie Brewer, the innovator of the Slider System, is caught in the act on a smallmouth bass fishing trip at Three Mile Lake in Ontario, Canada.  Brewer, who defined small, natural-acting lures as head of the Crazy-head Lure Company, died April 7th,2000.

Alright, move the rod – sweep it in a long, sideways arch and apply hooking pressure by reeling.  Result:  the bag moved, sliding easily across the blacktop driveway.

 Charlie Brewer, the slow talking, sly fellow from Lawrenceburg, Tennessee, changed a lot of viewpoints on bass fishing in the late-1970’s.  His Slider rig and fishing system didn’t impress hairy-legged bass anglers of the day.  

 The pencil-thin, worm-looking lure wasn’t really meant to be a “worm” imitation, but a minnow.  The flat-headed, open-hook rig was appropriately named for his “Crazy-head Lure Company.”

 Another of Charlie Brewer’s well-thought out theories is to mimic Nature in a lure presentation. “You don’t need to whip your rod tip around like a music conductor,” he said.  “There’s enough nervous energy in your body to make this lure wiggle.  Watch the minnows in the water.  When they move, they glide and slide along.  Just reel and let the lure act naturally.”

 As the editor of “BASSMASTER Magazine,” at the time, we spent several hours in the Charlie Brewer “Slider School,” working to edit a how-to book, simply titled: “Charlie Brewer on Slider Fishin’”

 For sure Charlie wrote the book on this unique technique.  But, most times his message failed to turn the heads of muscle-bound bassers.  The signs of the time were Shakespeare “Ugly Sticks” and 25-pound test line.

 Ray Scott, as founder of the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society (B.A.S.S.), was the principal preacher in the public pulpit of piscatorial pride.  And, Charlie Brewer made it his mission to convert “Mr. Bass” to the finesse fishing sidelines.

 But, Ray Scott refused to cross the line, however, in a weak moment: when “they weren’t biting” he dug out the Slider pole and dwarf worm rig.

 “That’s not fair to try a new lure – when it’s a dead time – but I couldn’t buy a bite with a VISA card,” recalls Ray.

 No, the “Crazy thing” didn’t produce a magic switch that turned the bass on, but Scott did get a couple of bites that changed his opinion of the Slider rig.

 The light did snap on inside Ray’s bassin’ brain.  Coming up was a smallmouth fishing trip to Campbell’s Cabins in the north woods above Crane Lake, Minnesota on the Canadian side of the border.

 Charlie Brewer was quick to agree to go along and serve as a personal Slider teacher for Ray and bassin’ buddies, John Nichols of Montgomery, Alabama and

Pete Nosser of Vicksburg, Mississippi.  They nodded sure to the idea of giving the funny-lookin’ lure a try.

 But, when the party met the float plane at the dock, Nichols and Nosser showed up armed with their big bad tackle.  Scott and Brewer packed special Slider rods and spinning reels for the group along with a small box of Slider heads and plastic worms.

 As the float plane was loaded for the flight to Three Mile Lake, Scott sneaked around and deposited the big bad bully sticks back in the cabin.  Only after the seaplane lifted off, did Pete Nosser realize his bassin’ gear was not on board.

 “Well,” said Scott, “you agreed to give the Slider a try, didn’t you?”

 “Yes,” pleaded Pete, “but what if they don’t bite this darn, crazy thing?”

 For years, Charlie Brewer and Ray Scott enjoyed telling how they duped their friends into learning – out of necessity – to fish the Slider System.  As the story was told, the brown bass went wild, eating the odd-looking bait like, well, crazy.

 Once the success of the Slider system surfaced – and Charlie’s book hit the press – tricking folks into fishing the crazy-looking rig wasn’t the case.  But, reading about it didn’t compare to hearing Charlie repeating over and over…”Don’t set the hook…sweep the rod.”

 Charles S. Brewer contributed to the modern-day evolution of bass fishing, shared his know-how and himself with the sport.  Charlie Brewer died April 7, 2000.  His friends and fishing fans will miss him.

 Cutlines w/Remembering Charlie Brewer

  THE MASTER AT WORK – Charlie Brewer, the innovator of the Slider System, is caught in the act on a smallmouth bass fishing trip at Three Mile Lake in Ontario, Canada.  Brewer, who defined small, natural-acting lures as head of the Crazy-head Lure Company, died April 7^th.