early days of bass tournaments...

Prior to the early 70's,every lake had boats for rent generally at several landings and you would carry your own small motor and rent a boat.....as a kid,I fished with my parents on TVA lakes in east Tenn in the 40's and 50's with an occasional trip to other parts of the country..most fishermen on the lakes in those days were fishing for crappie or bream and you might go all day and not see another bass fisherman...the older wooden boats with pointed bows didn't lend themselves to sculling well so in the area i lived,we would fish topwater early..putt-putting along the bank and casting then stopping to fish the points or creek mouths then troll throughout middle of day...the plastic worm changed all that and allowed us to cast for bass in middle of day but we didn't have trolling motors so we had to anchor the boat to fish a worm.......
Dad owned several wooden boats, couple of which he built himself and he would get somebody to take it to the lake in a truck and leave it chained (and locked) up at one of the landings..nobody trailered boats back then and few people had pickup trucks either except farmers..
I recall a rite of passage is when i got old enough(early teens) that my Dad let me run the boat from the upper lake/river where he kept the boat in spring to the lower lake in mid summer by myself....a trip that took most of the day because we had a 10 hp motor......
.in the 60's,the boats available for rent changed from wood boats that leaked like hell to aluminum boats that leaked like hell but weren't as heavy...if you didn't carry your own bailing can,you looked around the landing til you found one.......these boats were generally cheap,narrow,easy to turn over and didn't have flotation in them...and every year you would have a drowning or two in area lakes.....
I had owned several used small (and temperamental)motors and my first new motor was about a 68 E-rude 9 1/2 (that cost $325.00)and it may have been the best motor I ever owned......it was wonderful to have a motor that cranked easy and it would fly on a 14 ft jon boat....probaly every bit of 20 mph.....which was blazing speed compared to how fast a 3-5 hp would push one of those boats.....
.I lived on Miss. river in mid 60's and we would rent a boat and use sculling paddle...i got introduced to "doodle-socking" and it was unbelievable the fish you could catch with 12-14 ft. cane pole and a top water bait worked up under cypress trees and bushes.....I didn't use a rod and reel for several years until I joined a bass club and they wouldn't let us use those poles....we hadn't learned to flip yet so using that cane pole was only way to get back under stuff that you couldn't cast to....
bass clubs started springing up back in late 60's/early 70's and that plus electric trolling motors changed everything....we did find that trolling motors scared fish in real shallow water so we would use sculling paddles when we were doodle socking but the fish soon got used to trolling motors...

you were liable to see most anything in early years of tournaments...those that could afford bassboats generally showed up with stick steering 14-16 ft boats with engines from 25-40 hp.......trolling motors on front and trolling motors on back(and both)..those that couldn't afford a bassboat generally modified what they had or could afford and there were weird and dangerous rigs that showed up in first few years of tourny fishing.....50 hp engines on aluminum boats with the transom full of angle iron bracing because the boat was designed for 10 hp motor....ski boats with trolling motors and everything in between...
.my first bass boat was a a crosby ski sled that I installed swivel seats in with a 50 hp johnson and Otasco hand operated trolling motor and it was probaly one of the more normal looking rigs....it didn't take long for for tournys to turn into half fishing contest and half boat race with each about equal in importance...within just a few years,the engines got bigger and bigger and it was really getting dangerous......it was not unusual to see 14ft stick steering boats rated for a 25 hp with 80 hp engines on them...
. Bass thankfully started limitations on horsepower and the boat manufacturers caught up with pad boats and dual steering that would handle the higher speeds......fishing boats and tackle since mid 70's have gradually evolved into what we have today but the 6-8 years from late 60's to mid-70's was the period of greatest change when we went literally from a jon boat,paddle and one rod and reel to the high horsepower boat with electric trolling motors and multiple fishing rods across the deck......
.one last remembrance.....when our bass club scheduled it's first out of town of town tournament against another club,I went out and bought my second rod and reel.....a red ambassadeur with a $4.98 True Temper 5 1/2 ft pistol grip glass casting rod....and the guy I drew commented how he liked my two matching rod/reel combos....

 

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