A look at the 10 best fishing products of the last 75 years. Used Boat Sales

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Last year, the American Sportfishing Association, the voice for the sportfishing industry, celebrated its 75th anniversary. Recently, they partnered with the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation to survey thousands of this country's most avid anglers to find out which products they feel have been the most instrumental in shaping the sport over the past seven and a half decades.

Sorted by the date of introduction, these are the top 10 fishing products which span six categories: accessories, electronics, lines, lures, reels and rods:

Original Rapala Floater Minnow (1936). This hard body lure is one of the most successful and widely used lures in fishing history. It is still the "go to" lure of many of today's bass and trout anglers.

Nibble, Nabber Springloaded Bobber (1947). This red and white bobber replaced the cork as an indicator of a strike. In those days many anglers fished with live bait and the bobber made suspending them at a desired depth simpler and easier.

Mitchell 3000 (1949). This was the first commercially successful spinning reel and is one of the most common reels used today. Costing $18.95 in the 1950's, that was a good sum of money and out of reach for many of us. But it was the best spinning reel on the market. My first one was purchases overseas through a serviceman's rod and gun club and was shipped home, awaiting my discharge. It was a tough workhorse of a reel and millions
of casts were made with it. The only thing that ever went wrong with it was the bail spring, and fortunately, Dick Moon's Sporting Goods Store in Pittsfield had the capability of making and replacing them.
n Crème Plastic Worm (1949). It changed the sport forever as the first, and still famous, long lasting artificial worm that both looked and felt real. (It changed my tackle box forever, too because it interacted with the plastic tackle box and actually melted into and ruined it).

Zero Bomb Company Closed Face Spincast Reel (1949). Costing only $3 or $4, it made fishing easy and affordable to everyone, regardless of age, gender or expertise. I had a lot of entanglements with mine which contributed greatly to my vocabulary of profanity. It finally ended up on the bottom of one of our lakes, (accidentally dropped overboard of course). They have greatly improved since then and are currently manufactured by ZEBCO Brands.

Lowrance Fish Lo-k-Tor (1957). The Little Green Box introduced anglers to the use of sonar in locating individual fish.

DuPont Stren Monofilament Line (1958). Improved the durability, affordability and casting ability of fishing line while reducing its visibility to fish.

Minn Kota Trolling Motor (1958). This was the first electric gear-driven trolling motor that gave anglers the ability to quietly maneuver and position their boats. Originally manufactured by Minn Kota, it is now manufactured by Johnson Outdoors.

Fenwick High Modulus Graphite Rod (1972). Its super-sensitive carbon (graphite) fibers revolutionized the method of making fishing rods and how anglers fished. I never owned a Fenwick graphite but I owned and still fish with their excellent fiberglass rods.

The Shakespeare Ugly Stick (1976). With its special construction, it created an affordable, unbreakable and dynamic fishing rod still in use today. I like this rod so much that I own two of them in different sizes.

I'll bet some of you gray haired anglers owned and enjoyed many of these products and wonder if you, like me, still have them and dig them out of the closet or cellar from time to time. It is fun dusting them off and thinking back to the good old days, cherishing memories of lunker fish that were (or weren't) landed, where we were fishing at the time and with whom.

The Lake Garfield Association will be sponsoring a fishing derby for children 12 and under next Saturday (Aug. 8) at the Berkshire National Fish Hatchery Lower Pond on Hatchery Road in Mill River. The derby, which is free and open to the public, runs from 9-11 a.m.

Zebra mussels: It is encouraging to see the Lakes and Ponds Assn (LAPA), the Berkshire County League of Sportsmen (BCLS) and representatives from the bass fishing clubs meeting and attempting to establish a dialog on how to address the zebra mussel issue. Obviously, there is some common ground, that being that they all want to see the mussels contained and not spread to neighboring waters. They also agree that ramp monitoring is a good idea and issue a call to the fishing community to volunteer as monitors. They agree to work together to help increase the public's awareness to the perils of the mussels.

Other than Laurel Lake, many sportsmen do not agree on the closing of boat ramps. LAPA would like to see them all temporarily closed (45 days) to help curtail the mussel spread while experts figure out a course of action. Most fishermen that I know disagree. Their position is that Laurel Lake is the only local lake confirmed as having the mussels. If people are cleaning their boats and there are ramp monitors inspecting them, then why exclude the general public from using the other public waters. Besides, the ramp barriers have no effect on those who use canoes and kayaks anyways for they can just be carried anywhere and launched, which is currently happening in a lot of places.

U.S. brokers look north to sell rising boat inventory. Sell A Boat

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Faltering American economy and election-year jitters put Canadian buyers in the driver's seat.
Faced with a faltering economy and election-year jitters among consumers, American yacht brokers are looking north of the border to find customers for their growing inventory of boats.

The Canadian dollar reaching parity with the U.S. greenback piqued interest in cross-border boat shopping among Canadians, and even now with the dollar at a weaker 93 cents US, Allen Powell, president of the Northwest Yacht Brokers Association, said Canadians are still heading south in search of boats.

"We've had Canadians coming all the way down here," said Powell, who owns Capital City Yachts in Olympia, Wash., which primarily sells trawlers from 45 to 75 feet, ranging from $580,000 US to over $1 million. "We just delivered a brand new powerboat to a Canadian, and we just delivered a sailboat that was built in Canada and is going back to Canada.

"Our goal is to encourage your fellow countrymen to come and look and to look seriously because there is a lot of inventory that brokers are anxious to sell," he said. "Frankly, a lot of people, ourselves included, are looking at getting the '09 models in and not having to worry about the '08 models that are still here."

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Just as real estate here has switched from a sellers' to a buyers' market, boat buyers in the U.S. are now in the driver's seat. Powell said with election years traditionally weaker for those luxury purchases, the November presidential vote is only making it more difficult to sell boats to Americans.

"The dollar parity has helped for sure, and I think your economy has been more robust. It is certainly more stable," said Powell. "It seems to me that has helped, and I assume that has brought some people who might have been sitting on the fence to buy.

"The other thing that has been helpful to Canadian buyers is that there is more inventory, and so the choices are greater."

Like the auto business, gas guzzlers are the new pariahs on the water, and Powell said there has been a shift to more efficient powerboats and sailboats, driven by concern for the environment as well as concern for pocketbooks.

"The sailboat inventory is probably at one of the lowest [points], it is a lot lower than last year," he said, adding that the same cannot be said for twin gas-engine powerboats.

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"People can certainly afford the boat, but they would rather not spend $10,000 a year on fuel," he said of those 40-foot-plus gas-felled boats.

"People are looking for conservative purchases. They are concerned about fuel costs, but also about their carbon footprint," he said.

"We are educating our purchasers that they should look locally first, and if they want to buy something in Seattle or south of the border, we can act for them, just as a real estate agent does when they are buying a house," he said. "We use our expertise to help them import a boat."

Costs can vary, but generally Canadian buyers will be paying GST and provincial sales tax on boats they bring in from the U.S. And depending on where the boat was manufactured, they may also face costs for duty.

"Generally speaking, the selection is better," said Horne. "There is a perception that the U.S. economy is weak and there are bargains galore, but in reality the boats that are repossessed are older boats and they have been let go. The buys aren't phenomenal."

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Gas Prices Pinching Some Boaters To Sell Their Boat

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OKLAHOMA CITY -- High gas prices have some small boat owners struggling to afford the fuel to keep their boats on the water.

Vendors at the Original Free RV and Boat Show at the Oklahoma State Fairgrounds Sunday said sales of smaller boats have been struggling this year.

Doug Duvall of Boat and RV World in Edmond said large boat sales are still OK, but his business is seeing a lot of people seeking to sell back smaller boats.

“A lot of them will have their motorcycle and their boat and their four-wheelers as their toys,” he said. “Well, they are streamlining toys that take gas.”

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Duvall said boat dealers in Oklahoma are weathering the situation better than their counterparts in California.

Mark Webster brought his wife Yvonne to the boat show, browsing for something they could use for fishing and skiing. Webster said fuel prices wouldn’t make or break his buying decision.

“It's a concern, because you've got your fuel expenses to and from the lake, plus the boat expenses, but it's not really a big factor,” said Webster.

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Walker Bay Boats Extends Its Hull Warranty To 10 Years Sell A Boat Used Boat Sales

Sell-A-Boat.Com - Yakima, WA, – Walker Bay Boats Inc. announced today that it has extended their factory backed warranty on all injection molded hulls, including the Original and Genesis lines to 10 years. By using proprietary High Impact Marine Composite in the injection molding process, Walker Bay hulls are exceptionally strong and impact resistant. “We have put the hulls through rigorous testing and have even hit it with a sledge hammer and driven over it with a truck to illustrate the extremes that our hulls can withstand as opposed to aluminum or fiberglass hulls” said Michael Carroll, Director of Marketing for Walker Bay Boats. “Although we don’t expect or warranty our hulls against sledge hammers and trucks, we are confident that our hulls are going to be around for many years,” concluded Carroll.Walker Bay boats are manufactured using a state-of-the-art injection molding process. Precisely pre-measured UV-protected polypropylene resin is injected with a massive force of over 8000 tons into a mold that can weigh up to 82 tons. It is then cooled to take the shape of the mold with a finish that is flawless. The one-piece hull has no seams or joints to crack or leak which contributes to its impact resistance and durability.

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Unlike a hard fiberglass hull that is vulnerable to corrosion or delaminating when it gets scratched, the Walker Bay hull is a single color solid material that requires no fixing for scuffs and scrapes. Walker Bay’s manufacturing process is environmental friendly with zero emissions and all hulls are 100% recyclable.Walker Bay Boats continues to win awards in innovation and is committed to maintaining the quality of its product to exceed customer expectations. It is important to note that this warranty is specific to the injection molded hull and not components and accessories. Those items have separate warranties that are described in the owner manuals or on the web which also has the specifics on hull coverage. To see video footage of what the Walker Bay hull can take in abuse, go to http://www.walkerbay.com/media/media_ideas.php

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