RIDGELAND, Miss. — Stephen Browning tipped his cap to a cat Thursday. It was a cat that failed in stalking a squirrel, and it proved to be an invaluable lesson for Browning about the importance of patience. The Hot Springs, Ark., angler, who will celebrate his 51st birthday Friday, survived a 6 ½ hour dry spell on Ross Barnett Reservoir, thanks in part to the cat.
Browning was one bass short of a limit for that long dry spell on Day 1 of the Academy + Sports Bassmaster Elite at Ross Barnett. But he finished with a limit totaling 15 pounds, 13 ounces and stands in 17th place.
“I had five keepers all day, and caught only three or four short fish,” Browning said. “For people watching us, if you’ve never walked in our shoes nobody understands it. There are only 109 of us this week that understand what a mental challenge this is.”
You can’t appreciate it by just looking at the standings, where Browning’s ranking inside the top 20 looks like success, and it was. But the mental pain and physical stamina it took to accomplish that are hidden. Going 6 ½ hours without a bite sends most anglers home in frustration.
But Browning kept thinking about the cat. He and his Marshal had paused to observe it about 8 a.m. Thursday as it was creeping up on a squirrel – slowly and silently closing the distance between them. Then it jumped and missed the squirrel by about six inches.
“I told my Marshal if that cat had just been more patient, and crept up just a little closer, he’d have got him a squirrel,” Browning said. “I told him to remind me all day to be patient. My patience got tested to the max.”
Browning endured a day when he caught a 6-pounder and a 5-pounder in the first hour, then never found a significant bite or pattern the rest of the day. It’s that ability to stay in the game when nothing is going your way that separates the survivors from the failures in professional bass fishing.
“I had 12 rods on the deck, and I used every one of them,” Browning said. “And every one of them got used multiple times. All I knew to do was keep my head down and keep chunking and winding.”
Browning’s patience finally paid off. After 6 1/2 hours with only four keepers in the livewell, he finally landed No. 5. It was the last bass caught by anyone Thursday, according to BASSTrakk.
When this tournament ends, especially with Ross Barnett’s reputation as a fickle fishery, it’s likely to be won by a survivor, an angler like Browning who hung on during a potentially bad day and stayed focused enough to catch that fifth fish.
“I’m very happy,” Browning said. “My goal was 15 pounds. I felt like if a guy could catch 15 pounds a day the first three days, he’d have a chance to win. I’m right where I wanted to be.”
He is correct. Unless you’ve walked in his shoes, it’s hard to imagine spending 6 ½ hours on the water without a bite, and going home happy. But Browning did exactly that Thursday.