Tri-State Bassmasters’ Boat
Shop
Novel ideal could pay off for any bass
club
Bass Club Digest has previously featured the Tri-State
Bassmasters in a club profile. The successful club was formed in
the 1980s and is composed of members from the Mid-South, north
Mississippi and West Tennessee.
We thought a follow up would be good, when we learned from club
president Terry Locke of a unique event the club hosts annually.
Called “boat shop” members hold a repair day each year prior to
tournament season.
Everybody pitches in and the result is more fishing time for
members.
This is what it is all about according to Locke:
“We started our boat shop in 1983 sort of by accident,” Locke
told BCD.
“We were fishing a two-day tournament in August on the
Arkansas River. We were prefishing on Friday and one of our guys
hit a log and split the transom on his Allison Bass Boat. He
managed to get it back on the trailer, tow it home, borrow a
friend’s boat, and he got back late Friday night."
“Saturday night we were sitting around outside the motel
talking. The guy that damaged his boat said, while he was home,
he had ordered a new Allison Boat and motor and wanted to sell
his motor. I said that I would buy it, if I could sell mine. One
of the other guys said that he would buy mine, if he could sell
his. Any way the end result was, I bought his 200 Mercury and
sold my 150 Mercury to one of the guys that sold his 115 Mercury
to one of the guys that sold his 75 Evinrude to one of the guys
that had a 50 Johnson.
“We did the “big motor swap” one Saturday about a month
later. We took the 50 Johnson, sold it, and every one got $150
out of that deal. We decided to do the swap ourselves to save
time, but the main reason was the labor cost at a boat dealer
for a job like that would have been extremely high. We thought
we would give it a try and it worked out very well. We got about
90 percent of the work done that Saturday. Everyone still had a
little “finish-up” work to do at home.
“At our December meeting that year, someone brought up the
idea of working on our boats in the off-season since we didn’t
fish in Dec, Jan or Feb. It sounded like a good idea. We started
off with a few simple maintenance things at first like wheel
bearing checks, battery checks, wiring checks and taking off
trolling motor and big motor props to check for fishing line or
other debris. We repaired loose carpet and tied up loose wiring.
We checked for loose nuts, bolts and screws tightening or
replacing as necessary.
“We have worked everywhere from my driveway at home to a
business with a small warehouse where we could work on two boats
inside and two outside. We are now using a members business with
three large works bays. We can work on four or five boats all
inside now.
“We do water pump replacements, lower unit check and refill,
complete carpet jobs — boat and trailer. We install new
electronics, batteries, steering components, sparkplugs, engine
temp sensors, fuel filters and fuel pump kits, keel protectors
and other boat-related products. We do pretty much everything
except major engine/lower unit repair. This is a great time and
money saver. All anyone has to do is bring their parts. The
labor is furnished.
“Our Boat Shop keeps everyone in touch during the off-season.
We discuss the coming year, brag a little about “this is going
to be MY YEAR”. We cook something on the grill if we have a lot
of work to do. The rest of the time we eat out and go get any
parts we need. We save any useable parts and left over supplies
for next time and have accumulated quite an inventory.
“It’s really been a lot of fun and a learning experience. We
just had our 26th boat shop and are starting our 36th year as
TRI-STATE BASSMASTERS.”
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