How it All Began

Custom built Lighting in my shop

I have been fishing and hunting since I was a boy.  I grew up on boats of all sizes and shapes, and have fished all over the world in everything from a canoe to luxury bass boat.  I also love building boats as a hobby.  I have built everything from a wooden canoe to Lighting Sailboat by hand from scratch.  


So as you might have guessed, I love boats.

Cockpit of the Lighting

The Inspiration

Draw a mental image of one of your largest friends; say 6’ 5” and well north of 250lbs.  He is sitting in a John Boat on a small lake fishing for bass, when all of a sudden he rears back to set the hook in what is probably a large stump.  His line snaps, the rod goes back over his head, his weight shifts rapidly, and he proceeds to fly backwards head over heels as the small boat dumps him into the lake.  Now I’m sure you being a better person than I, would not have fallen on the ground laughing.  But I confess it was may be the funniest thing I had seen in quite some time (or it just may have been the beer).  If I had caught the scene on video I surely would have received millions of views on YouTube.

After we had fished my sputtering friend out of the lake, and listened to him rattle on about the damages that he would have his brother in law the lawyer collect from me.  It occurred to me that there had to be a better fishing platform.  One that was stable and easy to move around on.  One that would draft as little water as a john boat.  A boat with a wide beam and a flat top, but that did not look like a pontoon boat.  A boat that was as sleek and as feature packed as a bass boat, but at a fraction of the cost.  Surely someone had built something like that?

Home built small scale prototype

My daughter and I testing the first prototype

As a group we sat around and tried to rack our brain for a boat we had seen that would provide our basic design principals. We searched the internet looking at hundreds of different fishing boats.  What we discovered was that there are all kinds of fantastic bass boats, but the prices were outrageous.  That we could get an inexpensive skiff, but it had none of the amenities we as “serious” fisherman and beer drinkers needed for a day on the lake or bay.  On this day the idea that was to become a Caddo Boat was born.

Being a “boat builder”, I figured no problem I’ll just build me the boat that I want.  Fast forward a couple of months, a few trips to the hardware store, a "few" dollars of supplies ordered online and lots of hours in the garage.  Mix them together and you end up with a small scale version of the perfect fishing platform. 

It must have a live well and a built in sound system!

As I shared my miraculous creation with my fishing buddies, they all began to beg me to build them one too.  So what can I do, the fishing gods who dumped my burly friend into the lake have spoken, others must have this boat too!  So like any sane person, I decide that I would start building these Caddo Boats.  

From here the adventure began!   Follow along with me as I begin the process of designing, engineering, selecting materials, fabricating molds and build our first of hopefully many Caddo Boats.

Donovan