Bass Boat Livewell Viewport: Designing an Innovative Solution

Developing a Livewell Viewport

Andrew 00:08
Alright guys, so this livewell viewport window has been in the works for a while I know everyone's super excited about it, Donnie you are our resident bass fisherman. And this is kind of your baby. In fact, this is off the lid off your boat, right? Talk to me a little bit about why you're so excited about it and where it's pretty novel in the bass boat industry.

Donnie Ewers 00:26
And so obviously super excited about this product, I think it's going to be a game changer in industry. It's going to, I hope it becomes standard across the board. You know, when people start to see the advantages of having this on their boats, you know, the biggest things, obviously, you can look down real quick, you can see your fish, you can keep an eye on them. You can see your livewell pumps running from the front of the boat. While you're sitting down, you get around to your next spot, you can quickly look over your shoulder you can see your bass are bellied up.

Andrew 00:53
How often in a tournament, how often during the day, are you going back and opening up your lid to check and make sure that the…

Donnie Ewers 00:59
20 30 times a day. Anytime you're having to set the rod down, get on your hands, knees open the lid, Fisher freaking out there may be jumping out. So I really feel like this stops at I can easily either walk back there look over top of them. They're bellied up or on their sides, I can quickly see this. I mean it just a quick glance, I can get right back to fishing quickly. If there if everything looks good. Again, I can make sure the pumps are running, if you want to use the most pumps or variation, timing wise, so you don't always hear oh, because you're not listening. So you know, you're like oh my gosh, my pump running or water in there. You can easily see that.

Andrew 01:38
So it's news to me or I'm not I'm not a big bass fisherman. But with the tournament style. I didn't realize you know, we have clear livewells and saltwater, right, that's mostly keep an eye on your bait. Right? It's totally different for bass fishing, where you're checking on your catch, and you got to keep it alive, right for the tournament, or else there's penalties

Donnie Ewers 01:55
And the tournaments. Obviously, it's a big deal. You're getting half pound penalties. Some tournaments, you can't wait on any that are dead. So disappointing. The tournaments, but even on a day to day, right, being a good steward of the water and in keeping those fish alive if you're going to release them. I know the big thing. Now a lot of people like to keep all their fish and livewell, while catching releases becomes such a big thing. Well, photos on Facebook don't ever change. So get rid of those. So the big the big joke is people are saving these fish in their livewells. And then taking photos at the end of the day with their five biggest catch and then they're releasing them. As well as fish still being released. You know, they're being put in the livewell for a period of time.

Jared 02:34
So you got this you came up with this idea. Sounds all good and practice, right. But you installed this into your boat. Tell us about the first time out on the water.

Donnie Ewers 02:43
Yeah, so first time on the water. We're obviously excited and pumped up. I got thermostats ready to go because obviously number one concern was why we were taking out there was he right number one concern. Most levels are dark, no windows, no nothing due to the heat, you got to keep the water temperature down. So it was really curious to see what it did with the material that we're using. So got excited I got out there at 6a.m feel both alive those up with water. I cover one of the windows so there's no sun coming in there all day. Have both units on recirculation. So they're recirculating the same water not bringing any fresh water in from the lake.

And I got my paper out there. I'm going to document every hour what the temperature is the lake was the temperatures of the one covered was the temperature of the one not covered. And start fishing. Look back 30 minutes later windows are completely fogged up. I imagine get in your car first thing in the morning. And you can't have seen you got to wait in your car for 20 minutes for your windows to defrost. I mean, that is exactly what it looked like it was completely fogged up and I'm like, Oh no. Why is this happening?

Jared 03:50
Screw the temperature at that point, right? The concept you're not able to see through,

Donnie Ewers 03:55
Yeah, exactly. I was almost like, this isn't going to work. You know.

Andrew 03:59
So what'd you do? You came back Monday,

Donnie Ewers 04:02
Well, obviously kept fishing that day, the temperature test still was important, right at least get a baseline and try to understand how much temperature so I stayed out there from 6a.m to 2:30 checked a water tip every hour documented that and so, you know what I found at the end of that day and multiple days after that we did some more testing is yes, the water temperature does get hotter with the window versus the one without the window.

However, the temperature difference that I saw based off the day, whether it was clouds, wind, you know, not just the wind, obviously, but the clouds, where the sun is you know what time of day it was, was anywhere from one to three degrees from 6a.m till 2:30 which is a normal tournament that into three degrees. So very minimal and not only that, I find that within reason. I also noticed that the lake temperature was exactly the same so it was increasing anywhere from one to three degrees.

Jared 05:03
Throughout the day or if you're in deeper water where there's more water flow or something.

Andrew 05:07
The lake water was closer to the one with the window or whatever.

Donnie Ewers 05:11
Correct. Obviously, the one that was in the shade the whole time without sunlight was one to three degrees cooler than the window. And then also the lake.

Andrew 05:21
It probably depends on where you take the temperature Lake, right? If you're going to take the temperature of the lake, you know, in the shade, probably a little bit different than in the shallows and the sun.

Donnie Ewers 05:28
For sure, for sure. I mean, there's definitely variables there, as we talked about, right fish science, right, I can only go so much. But those are the experience that I've had, I felt like the material that we started with that one of the three degrees swing was within very much reason to keep you know, to keep those fish safe and not have fish die because of the hotter water.

Jared 05:49
So you came back off the water at the end of the day. The temperature swing you felt like was absolutely reasonable for us to move forward with this part, but just not really working for you because its factored anti-fog.

Donnie Ewers 06:00
Let’s do it. I don't care what right.

Jared 06:03
So how did, what was the next step in that process?

Donnie Ewers 06:05
At some point, I brought it back, we worked with the guys at work and we started researching new material that would be fog resistant of sorts. So we did some research and we found some material that was had some UV resistance in a heat blocker as well during this, you know, process of trying to find some material that was anti-fog. So I was exciting, right, we wanted to put to bed the concern about the heat and like, well, I personally feel one to three degrees is fair, but other people may not right. So now that one that three degree swing, could be half a degree and a half. And whatever that that wanted to be at the time when we first found that it was you know, we had to gather some more information.

Jared 06:55
So the treatment blocked both UV heat treatment, but also help prevent the fogging that was happening there.

Andrew 07:00
Well, two different treatments.

Donnie Ewers 07:02
Yeah, not exactly. So. So the material itself was UV and heat resistance. Right, and we just kind of stumbled upon it looking for an anti-fog pre purchase, you know, she had a good that had an anti-fog component to it. But after finding that material, there was none that were already they had to be coated, right. The material that we bought, no matter where we went, we had to buy the material.

Andrew 07:27
We tested lots of material, lots of material I was this was your project. But you know, I remember walking into prototype area and seeing a bunch of different material. And then I think we found one that we felt really good about, but the treatment didn't adhere.

Donnie Ewers 07:39
All right. We tried some that we had like a film, anti-fog, that that the companies have worked well it peeled off, it didn't work, it was just it was not it didn't work on the CNC machine because it would rip it out because it was a film.

Andrew 07:54
And that's why it's taking so long. I mean in so many ways you go this is a library that we built 1000s of 1000s around the visual forever but once you came back finding that material that had the right fog resistance, the right heat resistance, and that could actually hold up that was a bear of a project.

Donnie Ewers 08:13
For sure. You know, it took us a while with multiple samples, multiple companies so we finally found one that could treat the material with the anti-fog which also had an anti-scratch property to it as well. This was an actual coating hard coating kind of like a ceramic or something you dip and it gets hard over time instead of a film that gets laid on color tint.

Andrew 08:37
And so you've obviously with this material you've taken it out on your boat quite a bit so what we're looking at right and so like the anti-fog talked to me a little about it because it's not it's not going to be aquarium clear right I mean it is what's the purpose of the fog or what's the goal?

Donnie Ewers 08:52
Yeah, so it's not a window so it's not like you see on offshore boats you sit there and watch your fish like an aquarium swim around this window is exactly what it's made for which is you're looking looked down you're going to check on your fish you're going to see if they're bellied up you're going to understand your pumps are running me personally viewport basically viewport for a I have experienced them personally and I'm sure most fishermen if you fish enough have put fish in your live well and turn the live while pumps on only to go back a little bit later and find that you didn't close the drain so as the water is pumping in it's literally just go right out the back of it so those things make it really nice.

Andrew 09:33
So the intro the anti-fog it makes the water bead right so as opposed to a fog it all beads up so you'll still see the beads but you'll be able to see.

Donnie Ewers 09:42
The bead is still there right you're not going to, You're not, It's not designed to again watch your fish swim around and see the minnows in there are designed to see big things right if a white bellies, pumps running, so while you can still easily see through it, yes, there will be some condensation on the boat little bit.

Andrew 10:00
Okay. Very cool. So you got that out. We fixed the venting well, you know what else we should talk about these, these vents that we added. So what's the story here?

Donnie Ewers 10:11
So while we anti-fog work great, we wanted to improve it even more. So after doing some research, we decided we needed to add some type of airflow to this to help the conversation to allow the heat not necessarily the heat, but the condensation from the heat heating of inside.

Jared 10:27
It's like a, like a greenhouse effect, right. Without the vents, you're getting that condensation and everything off gassing without having some vents there.

Donnie Ewers 10:35
So we added these vents to allow that gas to escape from the livewell. Now, after thinking through this even more, we actually added some additional bonuses to those slots that we weren't thinking of, initially, it was just for condensation. You know, now we realize that, obviously, any, those baths release metabolic gases from them. So this allows that to release from the livewell as well. In addition, obviously, heat rises. So with that condensation is heat, so any heat buildup is going to help that escape from there. So while it was made specifically for condensation, I think it has some additional benefits to it as well.

Jared 11:15
And this is the latest one that you're fishing with now, you feel like this is a finished part you feel really good about.

Donnie Ewers 11:22
I feel like it's a finished part ready for anybody's boat.

Andrew 11:25
So we talked about we talked about light a little bit from a heat perspective, right, but we haven't talked about it from a, you know, a fish perspective. I know there's, there's some people that have pushed back and said, you know, hey, the fish are calmer in the dark, you know, livewell. And certainly there's some merit to that. But talk to me about what your experience has been there.

Donnie Ewers 11:44
As my experience of, you know, during the testing of, you know, covering one and not covering one and just being on both my whole life. You don't normally when you open that live well, those fish freak out, right. I feel like it's just a big jolt of light. They're sitting in a dark room. And then bam, you take somebody it's like taking someone in a dark room, and then having them walk out of the room and hit him in the face with the light bar. I mean, it shock you right into your freak out and you go, Oh my god. So it's like skate, we have light, let's go.

You know, what I found from my experience with this is those fish find the shade in the live well, and they sit there with their face in the shade and they don't move. So when I open that lid, they're still in the shade. They're just, they're just sitting there just like they would under a piece of cover. They're not moving. There's light natural light in there. So I feel that they've you know, fish science. I feel like the fish have been more calm. They seem to not panic when I open that lid.

Andrew 12:42
That's interesting.

Donnie Ewers 12:43
It's interesting. I was surprised because I wasn't sure what was going to opposite, right?

Andrew 12:46
I mean, you kind of flipped that argument on its head right or wrong? Yeah, it's a lot of fish science. And again, this is what my experience has been, like, fair thing, but certainly, I mean, it makes sense. I mean, the, the change in atmosphere is the extreme that that creates the extreme reaction.

Donnie Ewers 13:01
You got it. Yeah. And again, there, obviously, science, real science says you know, a darker room, darker environment keeps fish calmer, calmer, which again, there is shade. That's another reason why we didn't take the whole lid and make it clear, not only would it add more heat to the water, it would also not provide any safe shade for those fish to get out of the sun.

Andrew 13:25
Yeah, which I mean is good segue to another objection or thing to think about is you know, we feel this is strong enough to stand on and what about making it a little bit larger? I think that's maybe part of the reason why…

Donnie Ewers 13:38
Part of the reasons obviously we're trying to keep up with two reasons of why you know, it's safe to stand on number one, but number two is people are concerned about tripping hazards. So we're trying to keep the material size down the thicknesses down there's a lot that went into it and the cost down obviously right yeah, thinking material cost more money.

Jared 13:58
So you were saying before we filmed as well this is this is generally a larger size lid for a livewell in the industry.

Donnie Ewers 14:05
In the vast world, the bass livewells have gotten smaller and smaller, smaller rather than newer boats. This is a larger lid. And, you know, we added a lot of screws there through vaulted. This is extremely strong and durable. You can stand on it, you can jump on it, it's going to take the weight that a normal fisherman is going to do you know also with keeping the thickness and material down you know, we've prevented a trip hazard by back cutting the frame to where it's only a quarter inch proud it sucks down.

Jared 14:38
Not much prouder than this last year. So

Donnie Ewers 14:41
So if you have celiac on your boat or you have carpet, it will not be sitting any less than a quarter inch proud or more than a quarter inch proud.

Andrew 14:50
Awesome. Okay, so we feel good about it from a standing perspective and a trip hazard perspective. How about installation because you know, of course I know one of the major initiatives is going to the boat builders trying to get in sold a new boat built. So for many of you that that would be a kind of a non-issue, but I know that there's going to be your boat owners that want to understand what the what kind of project they're getting themselves into. So you did this

Donnie Ewers 15:14
I did this.

Andrew 15:15
Are you a handy person?

Donnie Ewers 15:16
No not very handy person. Not very first one, my family could attest to that.

Andrew 15:19
So what went into it? What do you do?

Donnie Ewers 15:20
Yeah, so this has a trim ring on the bottom of it that we use to close out the inside of your cut out every cut out right. So you get your cut out, you take this I set it on top of the of the livewell, and I traced out with a permanent marker where I needed to cut

Jared 15:43
On the actual top side by the carpet.

Donnie Ewers 15:45
On the top of this side on the carpet so I knew where to cut. At that point, it took a quarter inch drill bit. I actually started to think it was a half inch and I drilled a half inch hole in all four corners. Okay. At that point, it took a jigsaw I cut the hole and I'd say the first one looked rough, there was all jagged cut out wasn't straight.

Jared 16:06
Was it aluminum underneath there, eighth inch aluminum?

Donnie Ewers 16:11
Eighth inch aluminum and then it has a foam on the bottom of the carpet obviously wrapped around the whole thing. So I cut the hole super jagged. But thankfully now you have the foam coating you have the trim ring on the inside that closes it out. That gives you a nice finished look if your holes a little off. Obviously by the time I got to the second one, my hole cut was a little bit straighter, a little bit nicer and cleaner, but wasn't too concerned knowing that we could trim this out on the bottom and have a nice clean look.

Also, while the trim room was on top, we went ahead and dotted all the holes so we could pre drill the holes for the screws. After that, put the top on puttering on, screwed together through bolt it done took about probably an hour and realistically by time I got them off nothing great even time I took it off and got the tools and got it cut and figured out how to cut the first one and really get it dialed in. The second one went much faster than the first one let's just say that.

Jared 17:11
So definitely from an aftermarket standpoint, you feel somebody that's relatively handy would be able to install this.

Donnie Ewers 17:19
Very handy, Super Easy

Andrew 17:21
Awesome, guys. Well look this is this is a big part that we're really excited about. And you know, I want to make sure is there anything else that you can think of that's worth discussing or worth considering for someone that is thinking about maybe adding this to their boat?

Donnie Ewers 17:34
No, I don't think so. I mean, like you said it's very straightforward. It's a window right? I'm not I'm not going to sit here and try to sell you and tell you it's going to catch fish right so got to go out there and catch him you got the right looks you got to do the things right but it is going to give you more cast it is going to give you a peace of mind when you're on the water. You're going to be able to quickly check on your fish more frequently even to make sure you're taking care of them. You're going to have that peace of mind going I can fish more effectively and efficiently by not stressing about are my fish alive. Are they upside down are my livewell pumps running.

Andrew 18:14
Awesome.