bass boat 2025
freedomfisher reply :
do you have to have a bass boat to fish in a tournament?
i understand thet a bassboat is not a requirement for tournament fishing but it seems like you would be an outcast if you dont have one. or at least thats the way i fell.
has any of you guys ever fish a bass tourny in anouther kind of boat?
squid reply :
WELL YOU DON'T WANT TO DO A BFL ON LAKE ERIE IN A JON BOAT.
MOST LOCAL CLUBS REQUIRE YOU TO HAVE A WORKING LIVE THAT CAN HOLD 5 - 10 BASS. IT ALL DEPENDS ON THE TYPE OF TOURNAMENT.
SO TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION....NO...YOU DO NOT ALWAYS NEED A BASS BOAT. I HAVE SEEN ANGLERS IN JON BOATS WIN TOURNAMENTS....EVEN IN SKI BOATS...JUST HAVE TO COME IN WITH LIVE FISH.
BUT DON'T BE A BOATER IN A PRO/AM IF USING A JON BOAT....THE CO-ANGLER WILL NOT TALK TO YOU AND WILL PROBABLY NOT HAVE NICE THINGS TO SAY ABOUT YOU EITHER.. :
HOPE THIS HELPS
cabela10 reply :
Squid, you you really need to type in all CAPS. Come on.
I currently fish out of a Lund with a 90hp Merc. I fish tournaments in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They may have nice bass boats and a big motor, but I have a great trolling motor and the best electronics you can find. Gotta get an edge someplace.
Shad_Master reply :
Check out the local clubs in your area - BASS did an article a year or so ago about small boat clubs and the one I belong to was mentioned. When our club was originally started we had everything from high powered Rangers to inflatables and even a kayak. Over time the club has pretty much evolved into mostly bass boats, but this also includes Job Boats and the draw establishes where the non-boaters fish. Rule says you cant fish with the same partner twice in one year. Also, a lot of clubs openly solicit non-boaters to help offset the costs of traveling to the lake, camping/motel, etc. Don't let not having a boat keep you from getting more involved.
HPBB reply :
As long as the boat fits the requirements for the tournament it does not have to be a "bass" Boat
There are many fishing boats that have the same features as bass boats but are not "bass" boats. They maybe "Walleye" boats or just fishing boats.
I fish out of a "walleye" tournament boat.
I can see in big, upper level fishing tournaments like BASS, FLW, pro tournaments everyone uses a "bass" boat.
But in club, weekend, federation style tournaments I know lots of people that use "other than Bass " boats. Me included. Most of these boats are set up the same way a bass boat is anyway.
I used to use a 19 foot Lund pro V with a 200hp merc(uncle's, before he moved) , and now my 17 1/2foot Sea Nymph GLS 175 with 75Hp and my Dad's 17 foot Alumacraft trophy with 125HP (all 3 not "bass "boats, but V hull "Walleye" style boats) when I go to Erie for tournaments.
I alwas hear "that is the kind of boat you want to have up here"
All 3 of those boats have raised front/rear casting decks twin live-wells, TM, GPS /fishfinder. I have fished them all in Bass Tournaments with no problems. Infact there are some places that my boat can go where the big glass boats can't
I know your new to Tournament fishing. I remember one of your other post. Have an open mind. everyone isn't a pro out there. everyone can't afford $50,000 for a new rig. Your young, and new to this. don't be putting people down by call them an "outcast" , guys will remember. Do you have a boat? if not don't be lableing guys "outcast" because of their boats. they have one you don't.You don't want to get a lable as a "snob" it will stay with you.
squid reply :
QuoteSquid, you you really need to type in all CAPS. Come on.I currently fish out of a Lund with a 90hp Merc. I fish tournaments in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They may have nice bass boats and a big motor, but I have a great trolling motor and the best electronics you can find. Gotta get an edge someplace.
When I am at work....YES! already went through this in another thread. At work my keys are permanently in the locked position. So if ya all could just read the message and not go deaf from how loud I am typing please forgive me when I am at work........GEEZ!! Some of you are too into the computer geek thing for me..... >
freedomfisher reply :
first of all i wasent trying to put anyone down , or even calling anyone an outcast. i was talking about how i felt. i do have a boat . i have an 1980 starcraft tri hull. i understant that everyone in here is not a pro. and that we all cant aford a new bass boat. just wanted to know if i was the only one that felt like i was at a disadvantage becouse i cant aford the new boat.
i was down at the lake today wathing all the pro,s come in from pre fishing the flw for this weekend . fells weard wanting to compeate and not own a bass boat .
abe
northgabassfisher reply :
dont feel at a disadvantage. the fish dont care what boat your in, so what if you cant go 90 mph down the lake that dont mean you can catch fish, just show them that you can catch fish who cares about advantages and disadvantages JUST FISH.
cabela10 reply :
QuoteQuoteSquid, you you really need to type in all CAPS. Come on.I currently fish out of a Lund with a 90hp Merc. I fish tournaments in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They may have nice bass boats and a big motor, but I have a great trolling motor and the best electronics you can find. Gotta get an edge someplace.
When I am at work....YES! already went through this in another thread. At work my keys are permanently in the locked position. So if ya all could just read the message and not go deaf from how loud I am typing please forgive me when I am at work........GEEZ!! Some of you are too into the computer geek thing for me..... >
It has nothing to do with thinking your yelling or me being a computer geek. I just hate seeing all CAPS.
cabela10 reply :
FreedomFisher, Here is something for you to read.
STEVE KENNEDY'S WILD RIDE
Story by Brent Conway
In today's high-octane adrenalin-charge environment of professional bass fishing, the status quo for choice of boats is fiberglass rigged with a big time go-fast motor with a minimum of 225 horses at the propeller. Imagine backing your $50,000 rig into the water the morning of a tournament only to look over and see a fellow competitor slowly backing his aluminum boat in beside you.
To take this one step further, imagine that the guy who's running the aluminum boat with a 50-horse motor on it actually went on to win the event? Sounds a little far-fetched, right? Everyone knows that serious bass fishermen wouldn't be caught dead a tournament of any size in a rinky-dink aluminum boat. Only a few years back, this was a reality for the reigning CITGO Bassmaster Rookie of the Year Steve Kennedy.
The Alabama pro is now a familiar name in the sport after being a frequent visitor atop the Elite Series leader board all season. 2005 was indeed a storybook season for Kennedy, and like any good book there's an equally good beginning.
Kennedy is, as many fans of the sport may know, the son of Van Kennedy who earned a page in the annals of professional bass fishing back in the 80s. Father Van passed his competitive passion and knowledge of everything bass onto son Steve, and together they began fishing (and winning) in BFL events throughout the southeast.
Kennedy made a promise to himself after graduation from college in 1992 that he'd someday make his living by bass fishing. So, he stuck with his program, and chalked up 15 top-10 finishes in the BFL and the EverStart Series as well as five out-and-out BFL wins over the next ten years. By 2002, he'd earned a third-place finish and $10,000 at the All-American.
What's truly gripping about Kennedy's record though, isn't the volume of victories or upper-echelon showings, but rather how he went about his business. For the better part of eight years, Kennedy competed as a non-boater, relying on the glass and muscle a boater would provide to supplement his own talents with rod and reel.
Kennedy was content with fishing as a non-boater and quite satisfied with his winning ways too, but the status quo screeched to a halt with the introduction of the boater/co-angler format. Kennedy jumped into the Boater Division and never looked back. In 2000, or somewhere in there, they came out with the pro/co format, Kennedy explained.
All of a sudden, there were non-boaters everywhere, and for the first time I was on the waiting list. The second event of that year at Eufaula they told me that I could fish on the boater side, so that was pretty much the start of being a boater.
It's at this point in the story where things get interesting. The boat Kennedy had to fish from in that event was his 17-foot aluminum BassTracker rigged with a 50-horse motor (which had recently been upgraded from a 40-horse power plant). I won the Super Tournament at the end of that year in the Bama Division, and won the first tournament of the following year in the Bulldog Division, he said.
I fished nine tournaments that year in two different divisions and won two Super Tournaments back-to-back in 2001 out of the Tracker.
The Tracker certainly never rumbled at takeoffs or impressed anyone with its blistering top-end speed, but its sneaky disposition kept Kennedy in uninterrupted contact with fish, and his winning ways only proved it. I'd won $25,000 or $30,000 in two years fishing out of my little boat, so I had absolutely no qualms with fishing anywhere against anybody in it, he said.
I'd put off buying a big boat because I'd just got married and my wife was still in school. That same year, I decided to quit my job and go do this fishing thing full time. Buying a big new boat just wasn't in the cards.
It was in 2001 that Kennedy, then working full-time as a mechanical engineer, decided to part ways with the nine-to-five world and emerge as a full-time professional angler. That decision was made with the full knowledge, too, that his beloved johnboat would have to move over and make room for a Ranger if he wanted to move up to the FLW Tour.
I bought a used 354 Ranger out of the paper for $1500 before signing up for the FLW and Everstart events so that I could get priority entry, he said. The boat didn't have a motor on it, the livewells didn't work, and it didn't have any carpet at all. It wasn't in any kind of working order, so I just kept using what I had but I was a Ranger owner, which gave me priority status.
In 2002, Kennedy fished the first four FLW Tour events, pocketing more than $6,000 and landing a third-place finish at Santee Cooper out of the Tracker. I had won four BFL tournaments the year before fishing out of the aluminum boat, so moving up a couple levels in terms of competition wasn't that big of a deal to me, Kennedy explained. I didn't really have a hang up with fishing out of the Tracker because I knew I had been able to catch them so well in it for years.
While the Tracker fit Kennedy like a glove and he had all the confidence in the world in his abilities to perform from within the comfy confines the boat provided, the same couldn't always be said for his co-angler partners. Of all the guys that I fished with in the Tracker, there was only one guy that had any issues with it, he said.
I told him at the pairing meeting that we'd be in the Tracker, and he was like, What?' He thought I was kidding with him! He was the only guy that ever said a word about it to me, everyone else didn't seem to mind or at least they didn't say anything.
Heading into the fifth event of 2002, Kennedy knew that he was going to have to get the Ranger up and running for the big water he knew he would be facing at Champlain. I put a 90-horse motor on the back of the Ranger that first year to go to up there, he said. There was no way that I was going to go up there and fish out of the Tracker. I wound up finishing out the season in a very used Ranger 354 with a 90-horse motor on the back of it.
Steve was content to fish another season in the 354 with the 90-horse brute hanging on the back, but things took an unexpected turn for the worst at the first stop in 2003. The first tournament of the next season was at Okeechobee and I burned up the 90-horse in the grass, he said. Dad gave me a 150 that he had, so we hung it on the back before the next tournament and I kept right on trucking.
Kennedy was now in the game in terms of his ride. He'd upgraded motors from the meek 90-horse to a state-of-the-art 150, plus he'd carpeted it from stem to stern (though he admits there were still a few old patches mingled in with the new), and all of the boat's electronics and livewell systems were working tip top. One would think that moving from an aluminum boat into a Ranger would be a huge boost to his ego.
That assumption would be way off base. Looking back, to go from a 17-foot aluminum boat to a Ranger with a 150, you'd think that I felt like I was in tall cotton at that point, he explained. But, you have to understand that I'd been around tournaments and tournament fishing my whole life. The boat was just another tool to meas long as it worked, I could work.
By the beginning of that 2003 season, Kennedy (still in the Ranger 354) was closing in on nearly $100,000 in career earnings. That year the 354, just like the aluminum skiff before it, was retired when he landed a sponsor team deal. The third year on tour FLW put me in a team deal, which got me into a big boat; but the boat was never primary to my fishing, he said.
I'm out here to catch fish, not win a beauty contest. When I started doing this, I knew that once I put my boat in the water I could go in any direction and catch some fish as long as I was fishing the conditions that were in front of me.
During the 2003 season, Steve won his first FLW event and the rest is, as they say, history. Based on the accolades that his inaugural season of fishing on the Elite Series provided, the promise of someday earning his living by bass fishing that he'd made to himself back in '92 after graduation from college had come true.
Just goes to show you that where there's a will, there's a way!
HPBB reply :
freedomfisher
Sorry, you made some wave with another post you had, and didn't want to see this one go that way.
You said it better in you second post. don't feel at a disadvange. I felt this way the first year or two I started fishing tournaments. Now, I like the boat i have I would rather be in my boat that other. I know where my boat can go and can't. I compete with guys with the big boats all the time. don't bother me anymore. I am confident in my fishing skills.
There are no disadvantages.
OK speed and size, but not always. Other than that a boat is a boat.
I fish out of boats that are not "bass'Boats and compete very well. I have finished in the top 5 in my club every year but one. First year I finished 7th. and have fished several state regional tournaments and state classics with my boat. and in all those tournaments I only had one guy complain about my boat., and he didn't even own a boat. most guys had a boat like mine in the past and most wish they never got rid of it.
My boat is 17years old now, and I don't see me getting rid of it anytime soon. I just had to repower it. I will fish many more tournaments out of it for years to come. I have good equipment in it. great TM, good fish finder/GPS, good livewells.
years ago. I had a 12 foot startcraft with a 6hp on it. I was about 17 years old. I was putting the boat on the trailer after a good day of fishing and this guy was putting his new ranger on the trailer to. I was talking to him. saying I wish I had a boat like that so then I could fish right. He said "the fish don't care what type of boat your in. Its how you fish. the only difference with your boat and mine is my price per fish is more"
cbfishalot reply :
Cabela10
Very nice artical!!!!
I fish tournaments as a non-boater by choose. I have a boat set up for walleye that I have fished out of in tournaments. I pre fish out of it all the time and don't have any problem catching fish. It's the fisherman not the boat that makes a good angler.
freedomfisher reply :
wow that was a good artical cabela10. ty i intent to go full foward in competeing with boat in hand. but i also hope to beable to conpete as a co-angler as well .
thanks for all the input guys
abe
squid reply :
QuoteQuoteQuoteIt has nothing to do with thinking your yelling or me being a computer geek. I just hate seeing all CAPS.
ME TOO...BUT I HAVE TO LOOK AT IT ALL DAY LONG AT WORK, 9 HOURS OF IT...HOW DO YOU THINK I FEEL? IF I CAN GET OVER IT....SO CAN YOU BIG GUY.. :
Ky_Lake_Dude reply :
You don't have to have a bass boat but trails like the BFL do require ur boat to be at least 16 feet long.My dad and I fish tournaments out of an 18 foot camo aluminum triton with a 90 horse Johnson on it.
Gatorbassman reply :
I fished a local pot tourny two years ago out of a 14ft jon with a cooler as a livewell. Some of the other anglers included some Stren Series pros and many local guides. And believe it or not I never finised worse than 5th out of an average of 25 boats.
Just read the rules and make you boat work with the rules. For BFL tournies you need a boat that is at least 18ft and has a back casting deck and a split livewell. I think there is a min motor size to.
-badhabit- reply :
All FLW tournaments require: "All boats must be a minimum of 17 feet in length and have a rear deck." and "Maximum horsepower for all outboards used in tournament competition will be 250 horsepower...". No minimum hp requirement listed that I can find.
I fished my first tournament by invitation of a local club on John's Lake just west of Orlando ( only a few miles from where I grew up). We got there 20 minutes late and everyone except the person taking registration was gone fishing already.
We unloaded and went out not thinking we had a chance against the mega $ bass boats with a 45 min head start. So we just went fishing to have fun and even went swimming when it got hot.
We each caught 4 keepers and missed a few right before weigh-in. So we tied up at the dock to watch the 35+ other teams weigh in. When it got close to the end and I looked at the #'s the other teams had and I mentioned to my partner that we had more than that on our "stringer".
So we got the stringer of fish off of the boat. We won total weight by 3 lbs and I won the big fish pot with a little 4 lb'er ($500 + $250 bf).
Not a bad day for a 12' aluminum v-bottom, 35lb minkota, a stringer, and 20 hp Merc that we hauled in the back of a truck because we didn't have a trailer.
I agree 200% that fishing skills are not included with a $50k price tag.
cabela10 reply :
Badhabit, you should have DQed yourself for leaving the boat.
-badhabit- reply :
QuoteBadhabit, you should have DQed yourself for leaving the boat.
I don't think that was a rule because we also had the registration guy that was also watching trucks/trailers watch the boat while we went to BK for lunch. We really didn't think we had a chance and all of this is very true (and funny in a way).
HPBB reply :
You where late, left your boat and didn't have a live well, just a stringer. any tournament I have every fished, no matter how small, any of those 3 would have been a DQ
-badhabit- reply :
QuoteYou where late, left your boat and didn't have a live well, just a stringer. any tournament I have every fished, no matter how small, any of those 3 would have been a DQ
HPBB - This was when I was in my 20's around 1989-90 and way before bass fishing was as big as it is now (da... I'm getting old ).
Do they have a Geritol Tour for us ancient ones?
CJ reply :
There are no rules that say you can't leave your boat.Only that you can't leave your boat to fish.Clay Dyer fishes the FLW and Stren.He has to jump in for a swim to cool off because of his disability.In the BFL you are not allowed to leave the sight of your angler or co-angler.You are also allowed to be late as long as you are paid up and even some open tournament directors will stick around for tardy anglers.
I haven't fished a tournament that would allow you to use a stringer.
fishbear reply :
He said he went to BK for lunch not DQ,,, lmao..
;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
cabela10 reply :
QuoteThere are no rules that say you can't leave your boat.Only that you can't leave your boat to fish.Clay Dyer fishes the FLW and Stren.He has to jump in for a swim to cool off because of his disability.In the BFL you are not allowed to leave the sight of your angler or co-angler.You are also allowed to be late as long as you are paid up and even some open tournament directors will stick around for tardy anglers.I haven't fished a tournament that would allow you to use a stringer.
Sorry buddy, but you need to re-read all those little rules, and make sure you read them over a second time. It clearly states that you CAN NOT leave the boat for any reason except an emergency. Clay Dyer is a special case, if he didn't take a dip in the lake during tourney hours, the poor fella would probably die because his body doesn't have the ability to cool himself down like ours do.
Like for an example, during one of the tournaments recently, Ike jumped out of the boat to catch his line that snapped. He kepted his hand on the boat, if he did not keep a single nail on that boat, he would have been DQed for that day's catch. It's a simple rule. You can NOT leave your boat for anything, no matter what. And usually, if you have to use the bathroom, the only place you can use is the place where the tournament weigh-in site is at or a pre-determined location by the director.
HPBB reply :
I don't know CJBasswacker, maybe your tournaments
In most tournaments I fish there is check in time and if your not there, even if you paid up front, by the end of check in time you don't fish. don't they do a boat check? even my club. there is a set check in time if your late for that, even if we haven't launched yet, your DQ from the tournament.
If you fish a state federation tournament there has to be a owner and a rider. they are ussially set up before . your late the have to re-set the field, if they can't your owner or rider is dq too.
and you are not aloud to leave your boat either.
cabela10 reply :
Your right HPBB, If you attended the meeting the night before a tournament and were late for take-off, you are DQed. That's if they all left. The eaze-off in the morning is exactly like the weigh-in, you have 15 minutes to get there for morning take-off. Then your DQed.
Rattlinrogue reply :
As a teenager,I once fished a local yokel tournament in a canoe!Boy,did I hear some laughs from the "pros" in their bassboats.My livewell was a cooler with a portable aeriater(sic).I did win biggest trash fish(a big 'ole jackfish...LOL).I had fun,and that's what counts for a teenager fishing a tournament in a canoe.
freedomfisher reply :
well mike goodwin wan the flw national gard here at lake havasu and he was using a small alum. boat i dont think it was bigget then 14 ft . he took it into places where his ranger wouldent fit. used it for 2 days i think.
cabela10 reply :
Quotewell mike goodwin wan the flw national gard here at lake havasu and he was using a small alum. boat i dont think it was bigget then 14 ft . he took it into places where his ranger wouldent fit. used it for 2 days i think.
I believe the minimum boat length is around 17 feet.
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