To be enshrined in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame one must be recognized as a pioneer in an essential aspect of freshwater sportfishing. This individual must contribute a lasting and significant national or international impact to the benefit of freshwater sportfishing and be recognized for excellence and innovation for contributions to freshwater sportfishing. The magnitude or importance of their endeavors must stand out among contemporaries as being avant-garde, unparalleled, unprecedented, transcendent, and served as an inspiration to others. These unique individualists must be recognized for contributions which are singular and distinct, without which some critical aspect of freshwater sportfishing, as it is currently known, would likely not have existed. Steve Baumann fits this criteria.

Born in southwest Minnesota on a 240-acre farm community near Walnut Grove Steve Baumann chose the path of electrical engineering and while in college began working for a manufacturer that built electronic components for the company Vexilar.

At that time Vexilar was manufacturing high-end charter-boat sonars and low-end consumer models. Paper graphs were just coming into use. This was during the Lake Michigan salmon boom and everyone wanted a paper graph. Vexilar built a quality paper graph and fisherman were more successful because of it.

Following the paper graph was the CRT display which was available to commercial fishermen that were working offshore at the time. The one Vexilar built was designed with sport fishermen in mind. The CRT had a short shelf span due to price and the vision of Baumann.

In 1981 Baumann researched the LCD displays and realized this medium could be utilized for a sonar screen. Working with Vexilar engineers they built the first LCD sonars for the weekend angler and set the sonar world on fire with the Vexilar 480 LCD sonar. No longer would anglers have to interpret the signal of a flashing light on a circular axis; now they could just look at a picture. Baumann was the catalyst for this industry altering invention.

It wasn't long after the LCD was introduced that Baumann, along with partner Skip Christman, was able to purchase Vexilar and bring another product to the angling community that no one had ever seen before: The Digital Scale.

The process of designing the digital weight scale began in 1987. Baumann's goal was to deliver to anglers something that could weigh small fish as well as big fish. He wanted to weigh a six ounce fish as well as a 35 pound fish. So he went down that road and figured out how to do it at a reasonable cost. The idea, when complete was presented to Normark and soon after came the first LCD display Digital Fish Scale known throughout North America as the Normark Weigh-In Scale. Inside that scale you will find the Vexilar chip.

In 1989 Baumann began to notice that ice anglers were discovering the Dave Genz method of mobile ice angling and they were utilizing the flasher style sonar in their program. Working with a supplier Baumann began importing flashers for resale.

With a background in sonar electronics Baumann began to look at what necessary developments were needed to satisfy an ice angler when it came to their sonar requirements. He began listening to the consumer and making improvements because the ice fishing environment for electronics compared to boats is much more severe. In the winter you're looking at a tiny lure and it's critical how that changes in real time. In the summertime the lure doesn't matter. It's easy to build a sonar for summer operation. Any transducer will work. But for ice anglers this part of the sonar must be perfectly designed for that style of fishing and Baumann understood this and made it happen.

In the late eighties ice anglers were using motorcycle batteries to power their sonars on the ice. Baumann did the research and discovered the small sealed lead-acid batteries were better options. He then began to package these and sell them to the fishermen to power their sonars. Its the same one we use today. Now ice anglers had a power source that wasn't messy and was compact and convenient.

Next came the IceDucer. That was a Baumann design and for ice anglers it was a better transducer. Most people don't even realize how critical it is for a transducer to shoot straight down the hole. Today everyone has forgotten what it was like to level a transducer like ice anglers used to have to do, because now, they just toss the transducer in the hole.

Because of the popularity of mobile ice angling Vexilar sonar sales grew rapidly but interference became a problem when two people fished closely. In 1995 Vexilar introduced a unit that allowed people to fish side-by-side with new units or old units with no interference.

The Vexilar FL-8 has become iconic because it has been 30 years without a change in the physical appearance of that unit. It is the workhorse of ice fishing sonars.

Baumann has been a pioneer in the fishing industry designing and advancing cutting-edge products and introducing products that never existed on the market until his vision made them reality. He has always maintained the highest benchmark in customer service and loyalty and develops products based on customer feedback. He supports the industry. He was an original sponsor of Ice Team and sponsors many individual anglers in their fishing endeavors. Steve Baumann fits the profile of someone who belongs enshrined in the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame...

On Saturday, March 31st at 3:00pm the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame will induct Steve Baumann (Vexilar), Duane and John Peterson (Northland) into the Hall of Fame. Watch the induction live on the Main Seminar Stage, Room 101 H at the Northwest Sport Show located at the Minneapolis Convention Center.

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