The Passing Of A Great Bassin’ Lady
It seemed like every fishing site I looked at today carried the news that Penny Berryman had passed away. I’ll be honest and admit that I had not heard her name before. I do love to fish but I don’t know many of the names out there, even those that were pioneers in the sport, such as Penny. It wasn’t long, however, before I learned what an incredible lady the world is now missing, and how huge her impact is on the sport of bass fishing.
I find you can tell a lot about a person by paying attention to the words that other people use when talking about them. The overwhelming word used to describe Penny is ‘friend’. Even those who had met her only briefly considered her to be a friend.
There are many stories to be found about Penny inspiring women to take up the sport of bass fishing, and helping them feel like they could compete in such a male-dominated sport.
I found a YouTube video where Penny gives some tips for using a buzzbait. Her smile is radiant and her love for the sport shines through.
For an amazing read, check out the article Don Barone wrote about Penny back in 2008. I’m still smiling about the story of Penny catching her first fish:
Well, I could hardly reel it in it was so strong so all the adults were coaching me so he told me to put the reel over my shoulder and run up the hill, so I threw it over my shoulder and just ran. Finally in the distance I hear this yell: ‘You can stop running now.’ This poor old carp, 5-pound carp was getting kind of beat up by being drug across gravel, but all the adults came running up to me, cheering, patting me on the back.
The rest of the article is a sometimes tear-jerking, but absolutely beautiful look at an amazing woman.
I will never understand why it is the brightest and most amazing people that cancer seeks to take from this earth. My thoughts are with those people that were lucky enough to be close to this wonderful lady.
argosgirl
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