Creating a Bass Boat

Even though I only have access to smaller lakes or ponds, I decided I did actually need a boat of some kind to reach the bass that others couldn’t reach. So I decided to buy a folding Portabote and a trolling motor to get me around. At the time I bought this foldy…

There’s one thing that I would really love to have, and that is a real, full option bass boat. There are several things that stop me from having a bass boat……

1. The waters in my reasonable travel distance are only small several acre ponds and small lakes.
2. These ponds have no “decent” boat ramps adequate enough to launch a large boat.
3. And last but not least…MONEY!!!!

Even though I only have access to smaller lakes or ponds, I decided I did actually need a boat of some kind to reach the bass that others couldn’t reach. So I decided to buy a folding Portabote and a trolling motor to get me around. At the time I bought this foldy boat, bass fishing was fairly popular in Korea, but only a very small percentage of these bass anglers had some kind of water craft, so I was seeing a great advantage by buying this boat.

This boat is rated to carry 3 people at a weight of 485lbs, so me and a buddy fished from it several times and caught a few nice fish that we maybe wouldn’t of caught had we fished from the bank as we usually did, but I quickly got bored with this slow and basic setup and again started dreaming of bass boats.

Here’s foldy in the way I bought her….

So I started designing, mainly in my head and just jotting ideas down on paper of how I could turn my little basic boat into a semi-real bass boat. With help from the folks on the UltimateBass.com forums, I was able to put together something resembling a bass boat during the winter “cabin fever” months.

Here she is after she was “upgraded”!!!!

During ‘her’ maiden voyage, she performed outstanding. The only downside now is, because of all the added extras I gave her, she is only a one man boat, which I don’t mind in the least.

Here’s a list of items I added.

1. 4hp 4 stroke Suzuki (hp range within Korean laws as I have no license… – yet!!) including a 6 gallon external fuel tank.
2. 40lb thrust foot controlled Minn Kota bow mount trolling motor, including a troll-eze tray.
3. ¾ inch casting deck, carpeted with 2 storage hatches.
4. A fully operational live well with aeration system.
5. Bilge pump.
6. Navigation lights.
7. Cooks storage systems under storage lids.
8. Stay n’ Charge battery charging system.
9. Humminbird sonar depth/fish finder.
9. Plus many small extras.
10. And it all sits and rests on a harbor freight trailer.

It was a fun project to build during the winter months and it works just like a real bass boat……only a little slower…. The main thing is it puts me in a better position on the water to help me catch more and bigger bass.

Steve Bell
Bassinkorea.