|
Bass Tank Interview
First of all, thank you for being our Primary Gold Sponsor for our New Oklahoma Crappie Anglers Club. Your sponsorship has allowed us to reach out to more anglers and enhance the sport of crappie fishing. In the June/July Newsletter, we want to feature The BassTank and educate our members about your company.
Question #1 How long has The BassTank been in business and how did you get started?
Answer:
John Soukup and Scott Palmer are the two owners of The Bass Tank. They started the business in June of 2018 right before John was set to fish the Forest Wood Cup.
It all started when John had Garmin units installed on his boat last year and very quickly he realized it was not installed correctly. Scott, who is an engineer by trade, ended up pulling everything off the boat and essentially reinstalling all of it. They realized that many other anglers have very similar issues and began brainstorming how they could be a part of the solution and not the problem. Our goal at The Bass Tank is to assist our customers in every way possible before, during and after the sale.
We are fishermen first and come at everything we do from that mindset.
John has personally logged over 1,500 hrs using his Garmins. Combining Scott’s engineering knowledge and John’s knowledge with on the water use, were striving to cover the entire scope of a customer’s needs. From pre-purchase advice on the right equipment, proper installation, on the water training, thru customer service afterwards.
Question #2 Obviously the new Garmin Livescope has been a very popular item for you guys and it seems you have been the “go to” place to source these units. What other products do you offer that our members need to know about?
Answer:
We offer a variety of different product lines including but not limited to, Garmin, Lowrance, Humminbird, Minn Kota and Lithium Pro batteries. We are actively listening to our customers needs and adding new products to our lineup when it makes sense. We have some very exciting accessories designed and produced by The Bass Tank team coming out very soon so stay tuned!
Question #3 In reviewing your Facebook page, I have noticed over and over again there are post about your great customer service and knowledge of your products and troubleshooting for your customers even while they are on the water. Can you share an interesting story where you were able to help someone in a bind and quickly get them back to fishing?
Answer:
A couple weeks ago I received a call on a Saturday morning from a customer that purchased from us several months ago. He had just launched his boat to fish a crappie tournament in Texas. When he powered on his livescope unit he got an error message on the screen saying ‘no transmission from GLS10’. Within minutes Scott had him back up and running and he managed a 4th place finish!
On yet another instance, a customer had installed their unit and was having trouble, at 12am the night before a tournament. Scott gave him a call, spent an hour on the phone with him going over the entire install and was able to identify the issue so the customer had Livescope for his tournament the next day.
Each person on the team has numerous stories such as these, whether it meeting to deliver product at odd hours, taking orders late at night (even Super Bowl Sunday), or talking to a fisherman’s wife for an hour to make sure she understood what she was buying for her husband.
Question #4 What is the best way for a new user to learn and take advantage of the functions and features the Livescope has to offer? Any other tips such as direct battery hookups, battery types, transducer mounting position or any other tips would be appreciated.
Answer:
We get asked a lot about tips and tricks regarding Livescope. The three main settings you will adjust throughout the day are depth, gain and forward range. We see a lot of videos where people are not taking advantage of the full screen because they have their depth set to 20 feet while fishing in 10 feet of water. This takes away half of your screen!
But the best tip we can give is simple. Time on the water! Spend time using and getting familiar with your electronics. The more screen time you have the easier things will get. Also, boat control is crucial when it comes to Livescope which also comes down to time on the water. That’s not the answer everyone wants to hear, but it is the number one tip we can give.
Question #5 Do you have any insight or thoughts of what the future may hold as far as electronics? With the improvement Garmin has made lately, how much better can it really get?
Answer:
We get this question often. Personally, I think it will be years before Livescope is improved upon. This ‘Live’ technology is something Garmin has been working on for years. I never would have thought in my lifetime that we would be where we are at today. My Dad calls it X-ray vision which has been his dream since he was a small child!
Scott has a theory (farfetched as it may sound) that since Garmin is now coming out with a trolling motor that will no doubt have a “spot-lock” type feature, that at some point the trolling motor could have “target lock” where you could track a school of fish.
Question #6 In closing and final question, can you tell a little more about your company, the best way to understand your products/services and how being a sponsor to OCAC has affected your business.
Answer:
We are a customer service company that happens to sell products. Our number one goal is to keep our customers up and running while on the water. If they are happy, we are thrilled. The feedback we have received from many members of the OCAC has been wonderful and very much appreciated. We were all born and raised in NE Oklahoma and have a great respect and appreciation for the many different bodies of water we have to fish. It has been great being a part of the club and helping it move forward in some small manner. It has been a challenging tournament season around here with all the high water, but the OCAC has handled it all very well. The continued efforts to evolve and ‘roll with the punches’ I’m sure has been challenging over the past few months. We look forward to continued success in helping the OCAC grow and meet its full potential.
As stated previously, we are fisherman first and each one of us grew up fishing ponds/creeks before we moved onto lakes. We strongly encourage everyone to get a kid or kids involved in fishing. Start with a cork and minnow at the creek, instill the love of fishing for years to come.
Final thought but equally as important, we want to thank our service members, past, present and future. Without each one, we would have the opportunities that we all enjoy.
Once again, the Board and our members cannot thank you enough for being our Gold Sponsor and will surely continue to spread the word about your great company!
|
