Fear The Beard Or A Hairy Coincidence?

Who is that handsome fellow?

Over the past two months or so I have been letting my beard grow; which got me to thinking about beards and bass fishing (naturally!).  According to thesarus.com, 'beard' is synonymous with words like brave, oppose, and stand up to (verb) and imperial (noun). (http://thesaurus.com/browse/beard?s=t)

Aaron Martens had an rough start to the of the 2012 B.A.S.S Elite Series. To finish A-Mart went on a terror ending with 3 or 4 top tens and winning the All Star Week event in Decatur Illinois.  All eyes were on his beard.

Mike Iaconelli who could usually be spotted with a wicked goatee of one form or another was rather hairless last season... And his performance reflected it.   He only qualified for the Classic because 3 other anglers double qualified, which would have broke his 12 year streak.  In the Bassmaster Classic this past February he finished a respectable 4th place sporting a full hairy man face.  Since then he has gone clean shaven, crashed his boat, and currently sits in 76th place in the AOY standings.
(Notice Ike's chin http://www.bassmaster.com/slideshow/ikes-crash-landing)

'Zen Master' Rick Clunn nearly won on Lake Falcon, and probably would have if they had fished on Sunday. The event was delayed until Monday due to wind and a dust storm that would have mucked up everyone else's water, but he was fishing a protected area.

Do you think the beard is key to bass fishing?  Can the beard comparable Samson's locs?  Share your thoughts in the comments!

Until next time, tight lines.