History of Bass Boats: The 1948 Skeeter That Started It

The history of bass boats is the youngest in boating — a boat type invented for one fish, in one place, within living memory. In 1948 a Louisiana outboard dealer named Holmes Thurmond got tired of fishing from slow, wallowing jon boats and built something better in Shreveport. Much of the early record comes from the manufacturer's own telling, and where Skeeter's account disagrees with the Hall of Fame's — or with itself — this history says so rather than smoothing it over.

Before the Bass Boat: Jon Boats, Rowboats and Reservoir Fishing

Before there was a bass boat there was a jon boat: flat-bottomed, shallow-draft, bench seats, a small tiller outboard — the standard Southern river craft. It was cheap and it floated in inches of water, and on the new water America was building, it was miserable. The post-war dam era changed the map: the Tennessee Valley Authority alone built 16 dams between 1933 and the mid-1940s, and Corps reservoirs like Bull Shoals (1951) and Lake Lanier (1956) turned rivers into chains of big, windswept lakes full of bass. Anglers now had miles of open water to cross and wind to fight — the demand was created by concrete and water; it just needed a builder.

Holmes Thurmond and the First Skeeter, 1948

Thurmond sold Evinrude outboards in Shreveport and fished the cypress lakes around it. The Bass Fishing Hall of Fame's account says he wanted a boat that would get on plane behind his most popular motor, a 5.4 hp Evinrude Zephyr — and that the jon boats everyone used were "slow and difficult to maneuver." His 1948 answer was just over 13 feet of molded marine plywood, flat-bottomed with inward-sloping tumblehome sides that the wind could not push around, weighing 200 pounds and selling for $154. Locals nicknamed it for its long, needle-like bow: "Skeeter," short for mosquito. Skeeter's own history calls it "the first Skeeter Bass Boat," and the Hall of Fame calls it what many believe to be the world's first bass boat — note the hedge in every serious source, and keep it: widely credited as the first purpose-built bass boat is the strongest claim the record supports.

Two record-keeping warnings belong in the open. First, the spelling: the Hall of Fame, Skeeter's catalogues and its anniversary releases say Thurmond, while Skeeter's current website timeline says "Thurman" — this post follows the Hall of Fame. Second, one Bassmaster article relocates the first boat to Marshall, Texas; Shreveport is the consistent account — Marshall was a later plant town. Thurmond died in 1970; the Hall of Fame inducted him posthumously in 2012.

Fiberglass, Stick Steering and the Package Rig

Thurmond sold the rights in 1961 to Ben Cook of STEMCO, who industrialised the design. Skeeter's own timeline cannot keep its fiberglass story straight, and the disagreement is worth printing: the company's history calls Skeeter one of the first fiberglass innovators of the 1950s, says in its 1960s section that the first fiberglass boats were built after the 1961 move to Longview, and BassResource dates STEMCO's fiberglass conversion to 1963. The safe summary is that fiberglass Skeeters followed the 1961 takeover, with the transition completed by the mid-1960s — any source giving one precise year is choosing a side the manufacturer itself has not.

Stick steering belongs to the same period and the same caution. Skeeter's timeline says it was developed — by the company, in the 1960s — to control the longer 15-foot Super Skeeter and Magnum hulls; BassResource explains that bow steering gave the driver maximum visibility picking through timber. No primary source credits Thurmond personally, however often retellings hand him the invention. The era's third shift was commercial: matched packages — hull, motor and trailer rigged together — replaced the bare hull a buyer powered himself.

Forrest Wood, Ranger and the Tournament Era

In 1968 Forrest L. Wood and his wife Nina founded Ranger Boats in Flippin, Arkansas, building their first six boats in what is now Flippin City Hall; the Encyclopedia of Arkansas credits Wood as the creator of the modern bass boat — a different claim from inventing the type, and a fair one: Ranger systematised the casting decks, rod storage and livewells that define the category. Ray Scott ran his first All-American tournament in 1967 and built the Bass Anglers Sportsman Society from it — Bassmaster's own pages variously date B.A.S.S. to 1967 and 1968, so the honest phrasing is both. The first Bassmaster Classic followed in 1971 on Lake Mead, a "mystery lake" revealed mid-flight; Bobby Murray won with 43 lb 11 oz. And the boats were not Rangers: the field fished identical Rebel Fastbacks. Ranger became the official Classic boat in 1972 and held the role for roughly three decades — Arkansas's encyclopedia says through 2000, Bassmaster says 2001.

Horsepower, Electronics and the Modern Bass Boat

Power tells the tournament era in one line: 5.4 hp in 1948, 150 hp by 1975, and a 250 hp ceiling today — set by B.A.S.S. and MLF tournament rules, not by law, which is why 250 is the standard rating on 20- and 21-foot rigs. The pivot was the V-bottom: Bassmaster's evolution history confirms Skeeter's 1975 Wrangler as the first V-bottom fiberglass bass boat, astonishing anglers at over 60 mph. Console steering replaced stick steering in the same decade, on safety grounds.

Electronics grew up with the hulls. Carl Lowrance founded his company in Joplin, Missouri in 1957, and Lowrance's own timeline separates the dates secondaries often merge: the first fish finder was invented in 1957, and the FISH-LO-K-TOR — the "Little Green Box" flasher — launched in 1959, selling over a million units in 25 years. Flasher begat graph recorders in 1974 and, in time, today's GPS and live-imaging units.

Bass Boats Spread: From Southern Reservoirs to a National Category

Tournaments and television carried the type out of the South. Wherever a reservoir or natural lake held bass, the format followed: raised casting decks fore and aft, a livewell between, storage for a dozen rods. Skeeter itself consolidated — production moved to Kilgore, Texas in the early 1970s (no source gives an exact year), the Coleman Company bought the brand in 1983, and Yamaha acquired it in 1996. Aluminum never disappeared: in northern multi-species country, welded and riveted aluminum hulls from the jon-boat tradition held their own against fiberglass. The category Thurmond improvised for Louisiana cypress lakes became the template for freshwater fishing's biggest segment.

History of Bass Boats Myths Worth Retiring

"Thurmond invented stick steering." No primary source says so; Skeeter's timeline dates it to the 1960s, after he had sold the company. "Skeeter went fiberglass in 1961." Skeeter's own pages offer the 1950s, 1961 and — via BassResource — 1963; the honest version is a transition, not a date. "The first Classic was fished from Ranger boats." The 1971 field used identical Rebel Fastbacks; Ranger's official-boat run began in 1972. Getting these right matters because the real story — a dealer, a plywood hull and a $154 price tag — needs no decoration.

What the History of Bass Boats Means for Buyers Today

History is a valuation tool in this category. Seventy-five years of production means deep parts support, known hull reputations and a used market where a well-kept classic Skeeter or Ranger holds value — our guide on how much is my boat worth shows how condition and era feed a price. For the modern end of the lineage, our ranking of the best fishing boat brands covers today's builders, and our best lakes for boating guide finds their water. Start with the fishing boats listed on Boat Deals Direct, compare a 1970s fiberglass hull against a modern tournament rig in the full boat listings, and line up finance providers before the right one gets away.

History of Bass Boats FAQs

Who built the first bass boat?

Holmes Thurmond of Shreveport, Louisiana, in 1948. His molded-plywood Skeeter is widely believed — by the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame among others — to be the first boat designed specifically for bass fishing. Anglers fished from jon boats long before, but nobody had designed a boat around the job.

Why is it called a Skeeter?

It is Louisiana shorthand for mosquito. Skeeter's own history says the boats were named for their long, needle-shaped nose, which resembled a mosquito; the Hall of Fame's version is that locals nicknamed the boat "Skeeter," short for mosquito, for the same pointed bow.

When did bass boats switch to fiberglass?

There is no single year, and be wary of any source that gives one. Skeeter describes itself as a 1950s fiberglass pioneer, also states its first fiberglass boats were built after the 1961 STEMCO takeover, and BassResource dates the conversion to 1963. The defensible summary: the transition ran from the early to mid-1960s at Skeeter and across the industry that decade.

Did Forrest Wood invent the bass boat?

No — Thurmond's Skeeter predates Ranger by twenty years. The Encyclopedia of Arkansas calls Wood the creator of the modern bass boat: from 1968 his Ranger Boats standardised the casting decks, storage and livewell layout the whole category now uses, and Ranger's three decades as the official Bassmaster Classic boat made that layout the national default.

Bottom line: the history of bass boats runs from a $154 plywood hull to the 250 hp tournament machines of today. Find your step among the fishing boats at BoatDealsDirect.com.