Rick Clunn Speaks Out

Glenn: Tell me a little bit about your tin boat that your using in the Classic.

Rick Clunn: Well that's a good one. The one thing that I'm doing a little different at this year's Classic, is I'm actually fishing out of an 18 foot aluminum boat.

It's a Tournament V-18 that Tracker makes. I like the V bottom, even though it won't go quite as shallow as a flat bottom, but I grew up fishing Toledo Bend and Rayburn when they were full of stumps, and a narrow light V bottom of aluminum boats go through the stumps much easier.

They're so fishable, a lot more fishable than, say, my big boat. Another thing that I like about these 18 foot boats, I've caught as many fish if not more out of an 18 foot with a 150 horse engine on it than I have out of these big 20, 21, 22 foot boats with 250 horse engines.

I think one of the biggest mistakes, and I think we've done it unintentionally in this sport, is over the years, the fishermen, the tournament organizations, and the media have kinda given the public the impression you can't be a good fisherman unless you own a $50,000 boat. That's just not true. Like I said earlier, I've caught just as many out of this size boat I'm going to be fishing in the Classic as I have in the big boats.

I'm fishing it at the Classic, the Red River's perfect for an aluminum boat. I'm actually going to fish it at Toledo Bend in the Open, and maybe even at Amstead. I'm trying to erase the wrong message that we're sending to people. So many young kids call me and say, "Hey, do I have to have a 20 foot boat with the big engine on it?" And they think they do. And I think we're to blame for that. We've given them that message that you can't be a good fisherman if you don't have the big boat.