My Second Bass Boat
Dateline 3/30/98
After fishing out of my 16 foot Arrowglass for five years and going from the second biggest motor in the club to the smallest, I got in the mood for a new boat. On the road to work there was a two year old 1977 15 foot Procraft for sale and I couldn't keep my eyes of it every morning and every afternoon.
The Procraft was a "real" bass boat with an aerated live well, bilge pump - and a 115 Evenrude. Although the boat was rated for a 85, I wanted it, knowing it would be a whole lot faster than my old boat. After several weeks I convinced myself to buy it and then put my old boat up for sale - the first of several times, including right now, that I would own two bass boats at the same time.
The Procraft was much faster but I never did get the right prop on it to make it fly. And it would jar your teeth in rough water since it was so short. Every time I stopped I had to watch the back of the boat and give the motor a little gas as the backwash caught up with the boat - the motor was so heavy it really pushed the back end down.
I caught a lot of fish from that boat and kept if for four years. It seemed like I had constant problems with it though. The worst of them was at the 1980 Top Six Tournament. We were at Eufaula and for several trips I had noticed the boat was sluggish coming out of the hole. Once it got up and running it would scream but did not seem to have much power at low speeds. The OMC Service Team was at that tournament and I asked them to check it out. They ran a compression test on the motor, pulled a piston cover off and showed me the broken rings. They told me I could keep running it like it was if I wanted to take a chance on it coming apart. If I did not run it any more it would be relatively inexpensive to fix. They offered to put a new power head on it for $1100 but, since that was about 1/3 of what I had paid for the boat, I turned them down. That is the only year since 1979 that I did not fish the Top Six out of my boat.
I got the motor rebuilt and had no more trouble with if for then next three years. About two years later a new guy joined the club and told me he had the same problems I had with a similar motor. I wrote Evenrude and sent them a copy of the bill and, though it was way out of warranty, the work had been done two years before, and they claimed no liability for the damage, they sent me a check for the cost of fixing it. I have been a dedicated OMC user every since.
One of my favorite memories of that boat was the first Top Six I fished, in 1979. The Top Six is a tournament in which all federated clubs sent their top six fishermen as a team to a statewide tournament. The top fishermen at that tournament go on to a regional tournament and have a chance to fish the BASS Masters Classic. The first one I fished was at West Point and I was thrilled to get to go.
The first day I caught a few little fish and was amazed sitting there in the boat watching other competitors walk to the weigh-in with sacks of big fish. I did not realize the water in the bags magnified the size of the fish, but they did have some nice ones. My partner for the second day had caught 17 pounds and had a shot at making the team. I told him to run the trolling motor all day and I would fish the back of the boat and try to learn something from him.
We went up river to a small creek and he started throwing spinnerbaits by every bit of cover. I followed him using the same thing for a while and then decided to try something different - and started catching fish. He would cast a spinnerbait to a clump of grass and not get a strike. I would cast a worm behind him and catch one. He would switch to a worm, cast by a stump and nothing would hit. I would cast a spinnerbait to the stump he had just fished and catch one! It went on like that all day.
At weigh-in that afternoon I had a sack full of fish. My nine weighed a little over 19 pounds, my best catch ever in a tournament at that point. My partner had about 8 pounds and did not make the team. I just missed finishing in the money, the first of many times I had one good day in a a two day tournament.
Many other trips with my 77 Procraft were also memorable and I enjoyed it until I bought a new Procraft in 1983. Its story next week.
Have you ever owned a boat? What are your experiences? Tell me about it. Do you have some fishing stories related to the boats you use? If so, you can also post information about it for others on my message board - you must register to post but can read the board as a guest. Also, if you have a story about buying a boat, or anything else about fishing, let me know about it at fishing.guide@about.com. for a "Fishtale"or discuss it in the chat room on every night at 8:00 EST. Tell others what you like.
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