Stephen Browning, shown at a 2017 tournament, was a 10-time Bassmaster Classic qualifier during his first stint with B.A.S.S. and now he hopes to get back to the Elite Series to compete alongside his son.
January 15, 2025
By John Johnson Truth be told, Stephen Browning isn’t crazy about returning to a five-fish limit tournament format this year. Weight-determining procedures, however, were low on the priority list in regard to his decision to leave the MLF Bass Pro Tour and attempt to requalify for the Bassmaster Elite Series via the Opens.
The move was purely a family matter. The Arkansas veteran’s 23-year-old son, Beau, will be an Elite Series rookie in 2025 after gaining a berth through last year’s Opens. The elder Browning would like to spend the latter part of his career traveling and competing alongside his offspring and aiding in Beau’s professional development after missing out on a lot of his childhood endeavors due to tournament schedules.
“To be honest with you, (MLF’s every-fish-counts setup) is probably my favorite format for competitive fishing, and I had quite a bit of success with it,” the 58-year-old Browning said. “It wasn’t that tough of a decision, though, because it involves family.
“As a father-slash-pro, we miss out on a lot of the things our kids do when we’re out there on the road. Technically, we don’t have a choice – when the tournaments are scheduled, we have to be there.”
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In addition to fishing competitions, Beau was also heavily involved with golf and baseball as a youth. Browning’s wife, Tammy, took on the lion’s share of the responsibility for getting him to and from practices and competitions and even served as the boat captain for some high school fishing events.
Beau finished 8th in the 2024 Opens Elite Qualifiers points standings, posting four Top-20 finishes in nine outings. His best showing was 9th in the opener at Lake Okeechobee and then, after a string of decent but unspectacular placements, and he got hot in the final third of the campaign to earn a slot on B.A.S.S.’ top circuit.
His father, who topped a Bassmaster Top 150 field at Logan Martin Lake all the way back in 1998 and was a three-time Open winner from 2013-18, qualified for 10 Bassmaster Classics before leaving the organization in the mass exodus to form the BPT 6 years ago. He made four REDCREST Championships on the BPT and the same number of Heavy Hitters all-star events.
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He’ll compete in both divisions of this year’s Opens and strive to finish among the Top 50 in the points in at least one of them, which would advance him to the three EQ tournaments under the revised structure for 2025. The Elite Series newcomers (or possibly one or more returnees) will be determined by the points standings from that trio of events.
Five of the eight divisional tournaments will be in the books by the end of April, followed by a break until late July prior to a northern swing to conclude the schedules.
“The times I’ve been fishing good, I’ve always wanted to keep fishing as much as I can to stay on that momentum train, but I think it’ll be okay,” he said. “I’ll have some time after the first five to assess where I am and determine whether I need to gamble at the last three or whatever.”
He hopes that he and Beau can become the third father-son duo to compete on the Elite Series, joining Denny and Chad Brauer and Alton Jones Sr. and Jr.
“If I don’t make it this year, I’ll be back again next year,” he said. “I’m all-in – I’m bound and determined to get back to the Elites and be right there with Beau so I can enjoy the beginning of his career and he can enjoy the end of mine. For a long time Beau wanted to be like me, and now I want to be like him.”
He has no trepidation about competing against extremely large fields of talented anglers, many of whom are less than half his age but well-advanced in fish-finding capabilities due to their foundation in modern electronics technology.
“I’m not an old guy who’s sworn off (forward-facing sonar),” he said. “I’ve embraced it and I’m constantly out on the water using it. I think it’ll complement what I do; when the shallow pattern kind of faces, I can be confident enough to move out and get the two or three bites or however many I need to do well.
“I’m ready.”
