On one of my first trips to Japan (2006) I was lucky enough to spend some time touring the local tackle shops and boat dealerships around Tokyo.
Category: Old Bass Boats
Are you interested in looking back at the dawn of the bass boat age? Interested in seeing the history about how bass boats came to be? Did you own a 1971 Ranger and want to find more information on it or just reminisce about the good old days? Well, you’re at the right place.
The Bass Fishing Archives Old Bass Boats section is the place where the history of bass boats come alive. Chronologically ordered, we go though every year and nearly every company who has been in the bass boat business since the inception of boats built specifically for bass fishing.
Looking at old ads placed in every bass and fishing magazine published, we dissect the the history of the bass boat and their evolution. Skeeter, Fisher Marine, Loweline, MonArk, Ranger, Tide Craft, Bass Cat, Tracker and Ouachita are only a few of the companies we look into.
Keep coming back as we update the list of boats, the companies and what they had to offer as well as the evolution of the boats from tiny 14-foot tubs to the 20-foot high-performance boats we have today.
Old Boat Ads – 1972
The second ad makes my back hurt. I’m reminded daily what it’s like to be in a boat of this hull configuration when they got air like this.
1971 – A Bad Year for Boat Manufacturers
What many may not know is there was another Arkansas boat company, MonArk of Monticello, AR, that got hit by a flash fire on the same day. Here’s the news clip from the 1971 July/August issue of Bass Master Magazine.
Old Boat Ads – 1971
The last time we looked at bass boat ads from 1970. This time we move a year later to 1971 and check out what had changed in a year. Although there were only five boat ads in the 1970s Bass Master Magazines – Master Molders Kingfisher, Ranger, Terry Astroglass and Ouachita
The Horsepower Race – 1971
William L. Mason Jr., a lawyer from MO, actually had one of the best comments and one that must have reverberated strongly at B.A.S.S headquarters when he said, “We are about to have the ‘books’ thrown at us in both State and Federal courts on account of our racing tournament ‘starts’ and general reckless behavior in getting from one good spot to another.
Old Bass Boat Ads – A Family Tradition 1979
“Yep, 1978 and to the right is my 20 or 21 year-old bud Steve Eastwold. Steve’s Mom and Dad had Bull Shoals Lake Boat Dock. We shot the image after leaving the drain plug in and pumping it full or water till it ran out over the splash well. We pulled the drain plug to help get it to come up, so we were carrying water.
Don’t Kill You Catch – Kill Your Motor
Two such lethal incidents with anglers prompted a Louisiana doctor by the name of Allen Tomlin to develop the first outboard motor kill switch. He not only designed a simple switch that could be used on any key-ignition outboard motor, he also sent in the design plans to Bass Master Magazine so others could fashion one for themselves – even though he was in the process of getting a patent.
Build Your Own Bass Boat 70s Style
Besides “Dry Dock Talk,” there was also a series of articles through the 70s on how to rig a boat for bass fishing – again pertaining to small boats. These again showed the ingenuity of anglers and their desire to make their experiences on the water more enjoyable.
Old Boat Ads – Bass Cat
The ad also shows our anglers at the time,” Pierce said. “We had Tommy Martin, Jerry Crowell and Basil Bacon, all 1974 Champions for their respective trails. Of course Tommy won the Bass Master Classic in ’74 and that really elevated him as a professional angler. Then there was Jerry Crowell who won the Bass Casters of Association (BCA) Tournament of Champions and Basil who won the Project Sports INC (PSI) Tournament of Champions. Most people don’t know that at this time there were a minimum of three other major circuits running.
Old Boat Ads – 1970
Although the boat manufacturers came up with a lot of advances, it was the anglers themselves that developed improvements in the boats. For example, the Flipping Deck was a result of someone wanting to be higher in the boat in order to better position themselves for the cast. The outlawing of bladder tanks (extra fuel tanks stored on the deck between the rod lockers that would collapse as the fuel was consumed) gave rise to larger stock fuel tanks.