JoAnne O’Bryant, marketing manager for Skeeter Products, will retire in May of 2023. She plans to spend more time with her family, including her grandson that will be graduating high school at the end of this month and the two youngest grandchildren, ages 4 and 11. She calls them her “littles.”
“I value every relationship I’ve made in the fishing industry, O’Bryant said. “I’ve been blessed.”
The countless bass pros, vendors and manufacturers who’ve had the opportunity to work with O’Bryant will miss her humility and enthusiasm.
“I’m a worker,” she said. “I like to be behind the scenes and let everybody else be the hero.”
While growing up as the youngest of six children in Mobridge, S.D., it was unlikely she would have a career so intensely involved with fishing. Her parents, Tom and Dolores Radabaugh, owned and operated a restaurant. No one in the family was keen on fishing.
As a tad, O’Bryant became enamored with horses. Besides riding them for pure enjoyment, she competed in timed barrel racing and pole bending events at rodeos. The latter involves riding a zigzag course through a series of poles. She stopped racing in her mid-teens, “when I became interested in boys.”
She was a high school junior in 1977 when her parents sold their restaurant and moved near Kilgore, Texas, the home of Skeeter Boats. Her Midwest accent had little in common with the slow, Texas drawl.
“Moving to Texas was like going to another country,” O’Bryant said. “I couldn’t understand a soul.”
After graduating from high school, she enrolled in business school and undertook a variety of jobs, from waitressing to office work. Skeeter hired her in 1986 to be a receptionist. While there, she took accounting and college courses, married in 1989 and brought two daughters into the world.
Her receptionist position at Skeeter evolved into accounting duties, which lead to her becoming the accounting manager in 1994. Although the men in the company were invariably avid anglers, O’Bryant had not yet joined them with a rod and reel.
“At that time not many women were fishing,” she said. “We had families to raise and didn’t have a lot of free time. I felt like the gates of heaven had opened when the company gave me my first Skeeter shirt.”
She left Skeeter in 1997 and moved to Pierre, S.D., where she was an assistant to Lelia Hood, “a very fine attorney/public defender.”
Five years later she returned to Texas and contacted Skeeter’s Jeff Stone, the person who had hired her in 1986. She asked if she could use him as a reference while she searched for a job.
She worked several jobs and finally secured an accounting position at an oil and gas firm. Two years later Stone called her and asked if she would like to work at Skeeter.
“Even though the job I had paid more, I told Jeff I would be there in 20 minutes,” O’Bryant said. “I was thrilled. I started at the very ground level of the marketing department.”
She began by “pushing a lot of paper.” This involved doing rebates and sending team apparel to Skeeter’s pro staff anglers.
Due to her positive attitude and do-anything work ethic, she was given more responsibilities. This included physically setting up displays at sport and industry shows and tournament weigh-in stands at tournaments. It surprised no one when Skeeter made O’Bryant the marketing manager in 2018.
She treasures the personal relationships she has developed with Skeeter’s bass pros. This includes helping them order their boats and supporting them at Bassmaster tournaments.
“The passion these anglers have is amazing,” O’Bryant said. “They knew they wanted to be professional anglers when they were 8, 10 and 12 years old.”
She finally got hooked on fishing when Skeeter sent her to a writer’s conference in Florida. While there, she tangled with tarpon during a guided saltwater outing but had trouble landing them.
She had never dealt with these high-leaping fish and didn’t know that you have to “bow” and drop the rod tip when they jump.
“I got into a lot of trouble with the captain,” O’Bryant said. “With other fish you keep the pressure on, I couldn’t stop doing that.”
Despite losing the tarpon, she hugged all of her bosses for sending her to the conference when she returned to the office. She regards it as her best trip ever and now prefers saltwater fishing to freshwater.
“I love to fish saltwater,” she said. “You know when they’re on the end of your line. Those bass are tough to catch.”
Another memorable Skeeter outing took place when she traveled to Mobridge, S.D., to attend an Elite Series tournament on Lake Oahe in August of 2022. She stayed with her sister, who never left South Dakota and lives in Mobridge.
“Our whole family pitched in and cooked a picnic dinner for all the Skeeter pros, Yamaha pros and their families,” O’Bryant said.
As O’Bryant closes the Skeeter chapter of her life, it’s unlikely she will become a couch potato. Her boundless energy will crave an outlet. Even now she voluntarily picks up trash along the roads she drives to work every day.
The police sometimes call her daughter because they worry about O’Bryant walking along the roadside.
“I’ve been asked many times if I’m doing community service,” O’Bryant said. “Some one’s got to pick that trash up. It looks terrible.”
She got emotional when she emailed the Skeeter pros to let them know she was leaving.
“The anglers come and go, but I remember all of them and think the world of them,” O’Bryant said. “Working with the pros, B.A.S.S., our vendors, partners and so many other people in the fishing industry has been enormously fulfilling.”
Skeeter pros wish O’Bryant well
Mark Menendez
JoAnne is the greatest cheerleader, motivator, and person I know. She’s the one who rolls up her sleeves and says, “Let’s go to work!”
It didn’t matter if it was cleaning up the grounds at the Skeeter Owner’s Event, tearing down the Skeeter booth, or wiping down boats for catalog photo shoots. She was right in there with us getting the job done.
I am grateful to her for attending the funeral of my wife Donna. Her kind words helped motivate me to keep putting one foot in front of the other at that time.
Even though she has been my boss for years, I will always remember the “Skeeter Lady” as the woman who was a friend to all.
Brandon Palaniuk
I first met JoAnne when I was 16 fishing the BASS Nation tournaments. She was at one of the Regional qualifiers. I had seen her each year after that leading up to 2010 when I won the Nation National championship on the Red River.
She and Dave Ittner (who recently retired from Yamaha) were both there. I told them I would be fishing the Elites but wasn’t sure how I would afford it. Before the night was over, they made me a deal on a boat and kick-started my Elite Series career.
She’s been there since anyone knew who I was and has always been in my corner. I hate to see her go, but I’m also happy for her to start her next chapter and getting to spend more time with family.