Before his second birthday, Beau Browning was on the front deck “chunking and winding” under the tutelage of his father, pro angler Stephen Browning.
With fishing “bred into him,” Beau, now 22, is attempting to follow dad’s footsteps on the Bassmaster Elite Series. He hopes to be among the nine who advance through the Bassmaster Opens Tackle Warehouse Elite Qualifiers to B.A.S.S.’s top circuit.
If that happens, it would put the shoe on the other foot in the Browning family.
“Beau told me if he makes them, he would help me the following year to try to requalify,” Stephen Browning, 58, said. “I said, ‘Well, that’s awful nice of you.’ I would love to fish the nine events with him, and he be the one helping me out, not me being the one helping him out.”
Despite his wealth of knowledge after 283 B.A.S.S. entries, Stephen can’t provide any fishing guidance to his son — rules don’t allow that from noncompetitors. His fatherly advice is relegated to some logistics and strategy for Beau and his road roommate Easton Fothergill, the 2023 Bassmaster College Classic Bracket champ.
“I don’t help him out at all. I really don’t,” he said. “The only thing I help him and Easton with is to find the right hotels to stay, places I’ve been to.”
Stephen has offered simple strategic advice — make sure to earn points — and it seems to be working. After three of nine EQ events, Beau stands 11th in the overall standings, with stop No. 4 this week in the St. Croix Bassmaster Open at Logan Martin Lake presented by SEVIIN. Fothergill is fifth in points, 17 ahead of Beau.
With four Bassmaster wins, 37 Top 10s and $1.4 million in career earnings, Stephen surely could provide the juice at many venues, Logan Martin included. That’s where Stephen earned his only $100,000 payday in winning the Alabama Top 150 three years before Beau was born.
Loose lips would sink their ship, so Stephen knows he’s limited to suggestions, like being safe and avoiding bombs.
“I told him, ‘Look for 13 to 14 pounds a day.’ I said you need to figure that’s what your goal in practice is,” he said. “You do that enough times that 13 or 14 will turn to 16 or 17 every once in awhile, and you’ll get lots of points and be fine.
“His mentality, I think he knows there will be, out of nine events, maybe a couple that he really has an opportunity to win. The rest of them he’s got to get his points. He can’t do stuff that’s stupid. You’ve got to get your points.”
Dad’s counseling sent Beau, whose successes include the 2014 Junior Bassmaster Championship and two high school state titles, into the EQs emphasizing that strategy, but there are audibles.
“It changes. You have a good finish, bad finish, it can dictate certain things,” Beau said. “My goal this year was to make a check at every tournament, and I’d have a chance to make the Elites. If I can get myself in a few Top 10s, that’s a bonus.”
Browning and Fothergill, who were roommates at college fishing powerhouse Montevallo, both made the Top 10 in the season opener at Lake Okeechobee. The second event was on Browning’s home waters of Arkansas’ Lake Ouachita, which he was fishing for the “967th time.”
“Before Okeechobee, this was going to be my determining tournament,” he said then. “If I had a bad tournament at Okeechobee, I was going to swing for the fence. A Top 10 at Okeechobee put me out ahead, and I knew I just had to coast through this one, especially when we got these conditions.”
Browning tempered expectations under the bluebird skies, knowing his usual tactics there wouldn’t work.
“I can’t get caught up trying to win it because it’s about points at the end of the year,” he said. “I had a good one at Okeechobee. I was in the hunt. I didn’t want to go in swinging for the fence and fall on my face and knock myself back out of the race as quick as I got in it.”
The pressure of fishing an EQ on his home water did hit Browning, especially during his long trek to his Day 1 spot.
“People don’t understand how stressful this game is when you’re trying to qualify, especially coming on your home lake,” he said. “I was running up the lake dry heaving the whole way. I got halfway up and starting crying because I was so jacked up I was here.
“It was an emotional roller coaster. Thank the Lord I caught some fairly quick. I caught a 3-pounder and just was like, ‘Whew.’ I could take a breather.”
After settling in, Browning caught almost 14 pounds to start 32nd. However, a stingier second day dropped him to 53rd, and he fell to 16th in points. His 56th at Santee Cooper Lake moved him back to 11th in the season-long race.
Fothergill, who had a big second day at Ouachita, missed his second Top 10 by an ounce, finishing 11th to climb to second in points. An 83rd at Santee Cooper only pushed him back to fifth in points.
The young anglers said they appreciate having a confidant to compare notes. There are 152 anglers in the EQ field, including more than a dozen current or former Elites. Each of the first three events were won by anglers fishing their home waters. Elite pro Scott Martin set weight records in his victory at Lake Okeechobee, and Kyle Austin put his name in the Opens record books with his Santee Cooper Lakes title.
With the EQ standings already experiencing some wild swings, Browning and Fothergill appreciate any advantage their collaboration creates.
“The competition is just so much better, you have to have someone to compare notes. That’s what it takes to compete on this level,” Fothergill said. “Beau and I work really well together. We come from different backgrounds. He’s from (Hot Springs) and I’m from Minnesota, and we both went to school in Alabama, so we kind of have every corner of the country covered.
“We’ve seen a lot the past couple of years, and just putting our heads together has been a really cool experience so far.”
Both are looking forward to Logan Martin, just an hour from Montevallo. The Coosa River impoundment was where Beau earned his first Bassmaster check. Still in high school, he finished eighth as a co-angler in the 2018 Open while dad took 80th on the pro side.
Hmm, would Beau even heed pop’s tips? That’s a moot point as Stephen will keep mum, but he was vocal about the young men’s chances to make the Elites.
“It’s good. The reason being is because he and Easton work really good together,” Stephen said. “Easton is from the North and has a lot of history on some of the northern lakes. Beau has a lot of history on some of the southern lakes. It’s a good team.”
Beau said he appreciates his dad’s breakdown of the numbers and arming him with the best strategy how to make the Elites. After all, father does know best.
