Throughout the long history of Bassmaster, there have been numerous father/son pairings who’ve experienced great success: Guido Hibdon and son Dion both won Bassmaster Classics; Denny Brauer, the 1998 Classic champion, saw his son Chad win a tour-level event the year before; and 2008 Classic champ Alton Jones saw his namesake son Alton Jr. win an Open before spending a couple of seasons on the Elite Series.
Usually, it’s the father who arrives first on tour and then guides his son’s path up the ladder.
For pros Stephen and Beau Browning of Arkansas, it sort of worked that way, until it didn’t.
Stephen, now 59, started fishing Bassmaster events in 1995, six years before his son was born. He’s won four B.A.S.S. events – three Opens and a Top 150 – and competed in 10 Classics. He signed up for the Elite Series in its inaugural 2006 season and stayed on the tour for 13 years for departing to chase other opportunities.
Meanwhile, Beau, now a few months shy of his 24th birthday, came up through the college ranks and in his first season of Opens qualified for the Elites. He just competed his rookie season, and he’ll spend the offseason, such as it is, trying to make sure dear old dad can join him there next year. That joint quest hits the next level this week at Lake Champlain, as both of them compete in the first EQ of the 2025 season.
“It’s neat,” Beau said. “Having him as my number one cheerleader as I went through the Opens and making it. Now I’m his number one cheerleader and what I’ve noticed about him is that it’s like he got a second wind. He’s got a little more pep in his step, and it’s inspiring to see him working his butt off every day.”
They’ll be careful not to share information about Champlain. The Elites will visit the big lake next August, and neither of them wants to risk a rules infraction. Still, the notion that a year from now they could put their two brains together toward mutual career success is tantalizing. They recognize the incredible accomplishments of Chris and Cory Johnston over the past several years and would like to use that model as a template for success, albeit one with their own stamp on it.
“Chris and Cory are both great anglers, but I feel that their styles are very similar,” Beau said. “The neat thing about me and dad is that while we have similar work ethics, our styles are very different. We’re both river rats, and we both like the grinder aspect of tough tournaments, but while he’s a shallow water power fisherman, a lot of my accomplishments have been with a spinning rod. I think those two things could play hand in hand.”
The elder Browning last qualified for a Classic in 2015, one of five in six years. Beau has yet to make it, and both have openly spoken about the desire to walk across the same stage, whether that be in Knoxville next year or somewhere else down the line. Or better yet, perhaps they’d be in the Classic Super Six together.
“My dream is to be on the Classic stage with my dad and he wins, and I get to be a part of it,” Beau said. “I’d give it all up to see him win, and he’d probably say the same thing about me.”
He recalls proudly watching his father compete in the Super Bowl of Bass Fishing, but said that as he matured, and then embarked on his own professional career, the Classic itself became less of the focus.
“As I got older I looked to my dad for the type of person he is,” Beau said. “He’s a role model. You’ll never hear someone say a bad word about him. To me, being a good guy is a lot cooler than being someone with every trophy on the wall.”
Nevertheless, despite the modesty, they both are fierce competitors. From the time Beau was in his teens, up through college and until about two years ago, they didn’t fish much together. “Not as much as people would think,” Beau explained. Now, though, they’re competing in team tournaments together at home. The revived “pep in his step” that Beau has seen in Stephen flows both ways.
Indeed, Beau went through an up-and-down rookie season that left him 74th in the points race – perhaps another reason to keep fishing through the EQs – and now looks to his father to shore up some of the weaknesses in his still-young skillset.
“My tough season was the result of my own distractions,” Beau said. “I was in awe of being a rookie on the Elite Series and sometimes I got too caught up in that. Sometimes my head was not where I needed it to be. Dad is a seasoned veteran. He’s definitely better at the mental side of the game. He’s more confident walking across the big stage because he’s done it a thousand times.”
Still, Beau will cheer on his father over the next couple of months, while also watching nervously from beside the stage. He’s not quite a Little League dad or a soccer mom, but the feelings of wanting something badly for someone else pervade his every thought.
“I’ll bite my fingernails off until the end of it,” he said.
And then, he hopes they’ll celebrate together. As equals.
