I remember when 18' and a 150hp 2 stroke was as high performance as anyone needed, and I'm only 31. I would love to own a boat with more storage than the one I have, but I cannot fathom paying more for a boat than I did for the truck I tow it with. Why anybody paid $50k in the first place is beyond me. I'm happy with my 2001 18' Triton Fish and Ski (that I bought new in 2004, long story) that I paid $14,000 for. It serves me and my family well, and the bass don't seem to mind that it "only" tops out at about 55mph.

I have noticed that even Basstracker has been lowering the price of boats showing that even the low end of the business has taken a hit.

It is truely sad to see how the economy has affected a once strong company with a solid reputation.

Speaking of which, I pulled out an old F&S rag from 2000 over the weekend to read. I was amazed by the number of full page ads that use to run and now there are very few. It appears no one is immune.

It is unfortunate whenever folks are outta' work. I think the 'bubble' was caused by too many folks buying those expensive ass boats when they realistically had no business owning one. I don't think the days of the $50K bass boat are done, but I think the sales are gonna' be infrequent enough that there will be VERY few manufacturers making them.

Being out of work myself I understand the hardship the industry is in, but we gotta blame ourselves for it. We live in a society where you have to get there faster than the next guy, faster than yesterday. The bursting bubbles of our economy are the immediate cause of the current crisis, but our need for more is at the core. I was watching an old Bogart movie last night, Key Largo... and in it the villian(played by Edward G. Robinson) was as asked by Bogart, "What do you want, Rocco?", And the answer was "More!" and then Bogart asked, "will you ever get enough?" and Robinson replied "No!!!I guess not!!"
And that is the reason why everyone wanted a 50K bass boat.
Maybe we should try to do a little more with a little less. Fishing might be fun again.

What a shame. It truly shows the impact of our economy not just the impact on wall street, detroit and many jobs.

But when companies over extend themselves and hit a wall it's one heck of an impact.

Icons in their time these companies may go the the way of Studebaker, IH (auto line) and we can't afford to lose more American signature companies.

law of the jungle, only the strong survive. who needs two different bass tours anyway? as for 50K boats,are you N-U-T-S? remember, Every morning in Africa, an antelope wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa a lion wakes up and knows it must run faster than the slowest antelope or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or an antelope, when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.

The bottom line is the boat industry got greedy. They saw that people were paying the price and demanding more so instead of making boats that were reasonably priced and being content with a long tenure, they kept jacking up the price till they were out of sight. Now the boat companies and motors are feeling the brunt and losing. They did it to themselves. Just greed!No CEO on earth is worth more than a million or less a year. I mean how many vice presidents, executive vice presidents, senior vice presidents, etc. does a company need. Too much dead wood at the top sucking the life out of these companies.

Personally I don’t see big bass rigs going away. We may see less of them but as long as there are tournament trails that let the big boats in people will get bigger, faster boats so they can compete better.
Also, big bass boats are a joy to fish out of, they offer a convenience like no other fishing boat I know so as long as some people have the money they will be available to buy.
Currently the bulk of the bass boats sold are not the biggest of the big, most are in the 18-19 foot range and I think that we will see a lot more of that in the future. BASS just started a 150 horsepower and less tournament trail so that guys with smaller boats would be at less of a disadvantage and it is a sign of the times.
By the way. Most bass boat companies are not giant corporations scalping us for dollars, most of them are still owned by just a few people, BassCat is still family owned.

pual489,
One post would work haha.
I've never owned a bass boat but have fished off a few of my buddies. Some of them are really nice it's a shame.