Bass Fishing Tip of the Week 07/23/08: Protecting Your Investment, Bass Boat Hull Bumpers

You just spent a small fortune on your bass boat with all the trimmings including a big trolling motor, huge outboard, the best electronics and a beautiful trailer. On your 1st outing at a local lake, your partner backs you in and you pull up to the beach area to pick him up. Just as you approach the pick up area you hear a grinding noise under the boat near the nose. Ouch!

Immediately, you reach for a flashlight since it's still dark outside and hop out. You and your partner scope out the damage and you then realize you just drove onto a big chunk of concrete. A big gouge is really noticeable right on the center rib near the nose with some exposed fiberglass showing. The boat doesn't seem to be picking up any water, so you and your partner venture out for a day of fishing. The day wasn't too bad, except you found out that the boat was taking in water and you had to bilge it several times.

Several weeks later and $1500 out of pocket, the boat is repaired and your ready to fish again. On your next trip, you are ultra careful in not hitting anything when beaching or docking the boat. You still wonder what you can do to keep from hitting underwater objects when beaching.

What I found to be the best solution for this is to buy a hull bumper. When my boat was about 2 months old I broke down and dished out about $125 for a Keelshield. I installed it myself in about 2 hours, and it's still holding well after 9 years of use. No delamination, no peeling, no big chunks missing just a great investment! It's black so it is real noticeable on my white hull and ads a nice contrast. It does not degrade any speed performance in any way whatsoever. The 3M adhesive is great!

The key to installation is preparation of the area where the bumper will be placed. Light sanding and solvent cleaning are well explained in the installation instructions. A tool is given to hand press the guard (bumper) onto the hull. Once it is in place, it's stuck! So if you decide to get one, don't plan on removing it.

Here's the great advantages of the Keelshield:

1- You can beach without constant wear of your keel area from the abrasive sand.

2- The boat can be pulled up right on the ramp without fear of damage due to the hard concrete.

3- Protects against underwater rocks at low speeds (the keel area).

If you have a new boat, open your wallet and buy the Keelshield or another similar keel bumper! You won't ever regret it as it will protect your investment very well. So as usual, explore all the tips/techniques and locations at Floridabassfishing.us and do more catching with less fishing!

The Largemouth Herald