Holmes Thurmond

Holmes Thurmond — Through the 1940s, fishing boats for freshwater were either flatbottom barges that were slow and hard to guide with a sculling paddle, or high-prow Vee-hulls that were blown off course by the slightest breeze. Give Holmes A. Thurmond credit for a breakthrough in hull design. His creation, which he introduced to the boat-buying public in 1948, was stable, quick and smooth riding, and with its inward-sloping sides, it wasn’t pushed about by the wind.

Thurmond’s little wood boat developed quite a following. Like a sharp-nosed bug propelled by a relatively small outboard motor, the boat zipped across lakes, earning the nickname, “Skeeter” (short for mosquito) because of its long, pointed bow. Skeeter became the name of what many believe to be the world’s first bass boat.

An Evinrude Outboards dealer in Shreveport, Louisiana, in the 1940s, Thurmond loved bass fishing. He found the flatbottom johnboats everyone used in the bayous and cypress-studded lakes around his home to be slow and difficult to maneuver. He wanted a boat that would get on plane with his most popular motor at the time, a 5.4-horsepower Evinrude Zephyr. With a low-profile hull and shallow draft, it could be propelled easily with a sculling paddle.

The 1948 model was just longer than 13 feet and was made of 3/4-inch molded marine plywood for the hull and 1-inch plywood at the transom. It weighed 200 pounds and ran nicely with the 5.4 hp outboard, and it could handle larger motors, such as the 14-hp Evinrude that came out later. All were painted “Skeeter green.” At $154 apiece, the boats were in high demand, and Thurmond hired subcontractors in the Shreveport area to help keep up with orders. Whether or not he knew it at the time, Thurmond was laying the groundwork for the bass boat boom, one of the most momentous developments in the history of the marine industry.

He eventually sold the rights to build fiberglass replicas of Ben Cook, co-owner of STEMCO in Longview, Texas. As the brand grew, it was moved to Kilgore, Texas, where the company — now owned by Yamaha Marine — is headquartered today. After switching from plywood to fiberglass, Skeeter recognized the developing market for tournament-worthy bass boats and introduced popular models like the Skeeter Hawk. With numerous innovations in boat design and function, including the Vee-hull pad design, Skeeter became one of the most popular boat brands in the country and today features a line-up that includes not only bass boats, but bay boats, walleye boats, and fish-and-ski models.

Because of his impact on the bass boat industry, Thurmond, who was born in 1894 and passed away in 1970, was inducted into the Bass Fishing Hall of Fame posthumously in 2012.