Humminbird's beginning's story

[scrat]

I read this about Humminbird. I owned one of the Humminbird super sixty's back in 1970's, which I still have in my shed. I have had several Humminbird sonars 565,727,581i,788, and now a 899ci hd si. They are all good and gooder and every year they even get better. I thought it was a very interesting story and would like to share the article
with everyone.
Good to know we still have a few American made products. I hope I don't break any rules and it is ok to post this from another site if not please delete.

Humminbird: A History of Fearless Innovation | Bassmaster

[M R Dux]

I was lucky enough to have met Tom Mann several times around GA in the late 70s. He was a gentleman who I had to utmost respect for, one of the nicest folks I ever met in the fishing industry. I also met Larry Columbo during this period. Humminbird and another brand had the market cornered for the most part. One thing that set HB apart was the way they took care of their units for the tournament bass fishermen. Both brands had vans for service at tournament locations on their products if somebody had trouble. HB would give you another unit to use while yours was being repaired. Most of the time the unit was fixed by the end of the fishing day.

In 1980 during the GA BASS Federation Top 6 tournament on Eufaula, there was a boat that failed to check back in at the end of the day. A plane was sent out and the 2 fishermen were found safe on the bank of the lake, wet and minus their boat, gear and fish. Seems their brand new bass boat had split wide open up the bottom seam when they hit a wave and went down like a rock. Larry Columbo and the HB guys took their test boat out and located the sunken boat for the unlucky owner.

Over the years I have owned several different brands of electronics but my new Excel is sporting a HB Helix 10 and HB 1199HD. I looked at others but went back to what I had the most confidence in. I do still have my Grandfather's Lowrance green box flasher, the 1st I ever saw in action.

Thanks for posting that link.

[ad1974]

Good read!

[jackie53]

Good read enjoyed. brought back memories.Thanks. Telling my age.Was at the 1984 Bassmaster classic at Pine Bluff.Pulled boats for a local Boat Dealer to Pine Bluff Ar for the boat show.We the local boat dealer was right next to the Ranger 1984 Bassmaster Classic Boats.My job was to watch the boat's. A man with a Cowboy Hat,Cowboy boots"Forrest Wood'Mr Ranger"Boats walked up to me and was talking fishing.We Live on the Famous White River "shallow water" We had taken a hummingbird Transducer and set it in side the hull of an aluminum Boat."Shallow water would break the bracket if outside". Forrest Wood saw the Humminbird transducer mounted inside the boat.He" Forrest"Mr Ranger" Said does that transducer shoot through the Hull.We said yes we will put it in the water"Arkansas River" and show you.We did.He Forrest Wood was impressed.Said he was going to start putting them inside his boat's"Ranger Boats""Humminbird.We did not know who Forrest Wood was at this point.My Boss "Boat Dealer" walked up as Forrest Wood walked away.He said you know who that was?That was Mr Ranger Forrest Wood.LOL Humminbird was a major Sponsor of the 1984 Classic.Great Read, enjoyed post.Thank's Still have my Humminbird's,LCR ect.For safe keeping.

[stormcloud]

Thank you for posting. Good read, I enjoyed it.

[skeetbum]

A very good read. I knew some of it but it filled in the blanks for me.

[mark29860]

Does anyone know if their units are built in the USA. Thanks

[scrat]

http://www.humminbird.com/About-Us/
and also

I found this on a older forum that asked Are Humminbird made in the USA. I deleted the phone #

Mark Gibson Guest Posts: n/a

RE: Fishfinders ,Made in USA? I can say with Great Pride that Humminbird fishfinders are made in the U.S.A. This isn't just final assembly and test. That are built completely in the U.S.A. Every Humminbird fishfinder that you would mount on your boat is made in Eufaula, Alabama. I would like to invite any person that may be in this area to stop by for a factory tour to watch the entire assembly process, from our high speed machines that place all the electrical components on the board, to the other modern assembly processes and especially follow through the entire process so that you can see that every Humminbird fishfinder that is built goes through a complete functional test 3 separate times during the process along with other tests to assure that when you get your Humminbird that it works reliably for you for many years. Mark Gibson, Global Product Manager, xxxxxxxxx my cell phone # to call if you want to stop by for a factory tour.

[Cane Pole]

If anyone has never seen an auto insertion machine in action, go see one in action. Auto insertion machines are fascinating to watch.

The RF series Humminbird were made in China.

I have an LCR 2000 somewhere??? Still works.

[mark29860]

I just recently bought two Lowrance HDS9 for my boat if I would of known I sure would of went with Humminbird.