Boats Galor

I have heard that the boating industry has been having a difficult time over the past few years. Probably that has a lot to do with the price of gasoline. But think for a minute about how many boats there are out there on inland waters across the country and in Canada. If you want a boat today, and want a bargain, you can find one. There are a ton of pre-owned boats for sale.

I only owned two fiberglass bass-boats in my life and that was a long time ago - they weren’t anything like today’s bass tournament boats. Both were very small, but that was thirty some years ago. Have you ever heard of a Kenzie-Kraft boat? It was a great fishing boat, made by a company in Oklahoma, but again, it was small enough to maneuver into flooded backwaters and heavy timber, and easily handled by a foot control trolling motor. I had a 70 horsepower motor on it, and that is the biggest motor I ever used.

I decided about thirty years ago that I wanted a lake boat that I could use for all the things I did, and I started using aluminum lake boats through the Lowe Boat Company in Lebanon that were capable of anything. I put a deck on the front of them, with a trolling motor and seat for fishing, which I could remove quickly when I wanted to use that same boat for duck hunting. Because I was an outdoor writer, I got special discounted writer’s prices, and usually sold the boats every two years and replaced it with another improved model, so therefore, I never had any money invested I couldn’t get back fairly easily.

But the idea of a boat for any type of outdoor activity, from bass and crappie fishing to trotlining and duck hunting, stayed with me. About ten years ago I started using War-Eagle boats which are all camouflaged, and I don’t ever worry about getting mine scratched up a little. It does a great job of putting me in a situation to fish for anything, or use it for hunting in any season. Because of that versatility, I can do more outdoors with my boats than those who own the metal-flake fiberglass bass boats can do, and for far, far less money. That may be the reason that today’s bass-tournament boats could fade away someday, to be completely replaced by metal. Cost, weight, versatility, and a fading popularity of fishing tournaments all play a part in that.

When the brightly colored metal-flake fiberglass bass boats began to come out, I lived in Arkansas, near Bull Shoals Lake, and I remember seeing those bright new boats sitting in front of mobile homes and small houses where a family did without a lot of things, or lived on government assistance. I knew a fellow who financed one of them with a 50-horsepower motor, and he had never owned a pick-up in his life that was worth more than a thousand dollars. It was something to see him pulling that bright new bass boat to the lake every Sunday with an old clunker needing a muffler, with rust spots on the fenders.

Those bass boats from twenty years or so back are still found all over the Ozarks, some sitting in a barn or a pasture with weeds growing up around them, and truthfully, though they aren’t very shiny any more, they still are just as good on the water as they ever were, if there’s a good motor with them. If you go out and look, you can find some of those bass-boats that aren’t much different in style from the new ones, for only a few hundred dollars. With some work, you can make them look really good again, and some of them have motors that can be repaired fairly easily as well.

Less than 75 years back, they were making little 4- or 5- foot aluminum V-bottom boats that were not very fancy at all. You could power one out on the lake with an 8 horsepower motor and go really fast, (at least for that time) find a good place to catch crappie, and feel like you were the luckiest fisherman in the world. There are thousands of them sitting around today in the Midwest, on old rusty trailers with flat tires. With aluminum prices as they are, they may be worth quite a bit at metal salvage places.

In Canada though, those little aluminum boats are still valuable, because outfitters can secure them to the pontoons of airplane and fly them out to little remote no-name lakes, and have a boat everywhere they want to take fishermen. Last August we visited several small lakes like that in Ontario, always with a little 9-horse motor you could carry around in the plane, and run all day on a gallon of gas. There was always great fishing, just because some old aluminum boat was there waiting, perhaps not used in months, but always dependable. I paddled two or three of them around fishing for bass and walleye and northerns, in waters where no big bright fiberglass bass boat will ever be able to go. Canada, and northern waters in states like Minnesota and Wisconsin, are not very good places for fiberglass boats because those lakes have rocks everywhere, just below the surface, and rocky reefs which appear out of nowhere in the middle of lakes so wide you may only be able to see one shore. Fishermen who come to Canada in the southern bass-boats sometimes don’t know what to expect, and over the past twenty years, thousands of fiberglass boats have been ruined on those rocks which northern lakes are famous for.

If the economy ever gets so bad no one can afford to buy a new boat, those of us who fish and hunt have little to worry about, there are enough good sound boats sitting around which haven’t been used in years which will do the job. They are not so pretty, but I learned years ago that it isn’t “pretty” that catches fish. The uglier my boat, the less I have to worry about it when I tie it up on the shore to hunt deer, or turkey, or run a trapline. The drabber it is, the more likely I am to be able to hide it when I am hunting ducks and geese. And it hasn’t depreciated much. I am thinking that the future of hunting and fishing boats made of fiberglass is not good. I believe if common sense prevails, fishing boats of the future will be made of metal.

I am looking forward to building the wooden johnboat down at Bull Shoals State Park in Arkansas in a couple of weeks, remember that we are looking for folks who want to come and sell old time fishing gear, or items which relate to the outdoors, like quilts or carvings, canned goods, paddles, old magazines, art, etc. See my website for details about that day-long event on July 9, at www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot. com http://www.larrydablemontoutdoors.blogspot.com

I would like to thank everyone who sent messages of condolences to our family over the death of my father. We received e-mails and cards in overwhelming numbers, and they will be kept and treasured. Thanks to you all for and outpouring of prayers and sympathy. E-mail me at lightninridge@windstream.net or write to me at Box 22, Bolivar, Mo. 65613.