**Note: Listing and Links Below Article**
In 1911, in the small town of Waseca, Minnesota—then a community of just 3,000 people—George Leonard Herter was born. He grew up hunting and fishing with an intensity that would eventually define his life's work. George didn't just want to be an outdoorsman; he wanted to be the man who supplied the world with the tools to master it.
The Herter legacy began in 1937. George took over his father's local dry goods business and, with a flair for marketing that rivaled the great showmen of the era, transformed it into a mail-order powerhouse. Long before Cabela's or Bass Pro Shops, there was the Herter's Catalog.
At a time when Sears and Montgomery Ward dominated retail, Herter carved out a massive niche. His catalog became the largest sporting goods mail-order company in the world. But George wasn't just a middleman—he built everything himself.
The philosophy of Herter's Inc. was vertical integration. George kept the people of Waseca employed and prices low by manufacturing in-house. From bows and decoys to guns, lures, and snowmobiles—Herter's made it all.
His favorite material? Fiberglass. He tried to make everything out of the stuff.
By 1955, in another effort to keep his factory humming, Herter's launched the 13' Eldorado Rocket and 16' Deluxe Flying Fish Duo. The original Flying Fish featured two bolt-on aluminum wings. In typical Herter fashion, the 1957 model upped the ante with larger, fully-formed fiberglass wings molded right into the deck. This was the pinnacle of Herter's boat-building experiment.
George eventually refocused on the sporting goods side, leaving only duck boats and rowboats in the catalog.
The Showman
George Herter was as much a character as he was a businessman. He was known to sell products in his catalog that hadn't been manufactured yet, using the orders to fund production. His eccentricity bled into his writing—he published books that are now cult classics, including his "Bull Cook" series, which mixed recipes with "historical" anecdotes that were often more fiction than fact.
He wrote about "how to get out of the rat race and live on $10 a month" decades before minimalism was a thing. He claimed to have tested every piece of equipment on earth and found it lacking—only he could provide "Model Perfection."
The End
By the late 1970s, it all caught up with him. The hunting industry was declining, feather import bans killed the fly-tying business, and gun control laws ended mail-order firearms. In 1981, Herter's filed for bankruptcy. Cabela's bought the assets. The catalog was gone.
What remains are a few hundred Flying Fish boats scattered across the country—relics of an era when a guy from small-town Minnesota could build snowmobiles, publish cookbooks, and mail you a fiberglass boat with wings, all from the same catalog.
1957 Herter's Flying Fish
Price: $3,000
Location: Hoschton, GA
Full Restoration needed, but all the pieces are there. A classic 1957 Flying Fish Deluxe Duo. Fully integrated fiberglass fins. Included is a 35hp Gale Sovereign outboard. Trailer included
Know more about Herter's, the Flying Fish, or own one yourself? Drop a comment - I'd love to hear the story.
-Scott
