There was an era when a bass boat was viewed simply as a utilitarian vessel to get you on the water catching fish. Well, times have changed. Nowadays, with brightly colored gel coats, customizable flooring, flashy trailer wheels and LED running lights, it’s pretty clear that for many bass anglers, form is just as important as function when it comes to rigging a bass boat.
Mercury Marine® embraces the trend. The legendary outboard manufacturer takes style seriously. For instance, every Mercury Pro XS® outboard begins its life with a classic high-gloss Phantom Black paint job and sharp Redline Red striping. When you see the color combo, you instantly know it’s a performance-tuned Pro XS outboard.
Plus, Mercury wants to make sure that tournament anglers can use their engine to rep their own brand, and that avid recreational anglers can add enough personalization to ensure their Mercury outboard looks a little more their own.
To make personalizing your outboard easier, Mercury now offers a lineup of color accent panels that fit onto the backbone of popular Mercury V8 and V6 outboard engines, including the Pro XS, Verado® and FourStroke models.
Each kit contains four accent panels pre-cut to fit over the stock panels on the outboard, a Mercury wordmark decal and installation instructions. Horsepower decals and the Mercury M-Icon can be purchased separately.
Available now from your Mercury Authorized Dealer, color accent panels come pre-fit with adhesive backing, which makes them simple to install. After a thorough wash to remove any dirt and grime from the engine surface, the entire installation process takes roughly 30 minutes. The only required tool is a tape measure for locating the decal.
The accent panels are made of thin, durable polycarbonate and are available in five factory-painted colors or a paint-ready finish that can be further customized to complement your truck or boat, or to match your boat wrap and tournament jersey.
2021 Bassmaster Elite Series champion Bryan Schmitt outfitted his Pro XS outboard with the Pacific Blue accent panels to match the sharp blue-on-black color pattern on his jersey, truck wrap and boat wrap. Coincidentally, the combo is reminiscent of the color pattern on the Elite Series trophy he recently earned at Lake Champlain.
“I love that accent panel,” Schmitt added. “I really like the way it looks; I really do.”
Bassmaster LIVE Host Mark Zona, who says he generally prefers an all-black finish on his boat-and-engine combo, decided to add just “a little spice” to his Pro XS outboard by installing the Mercury Silver accent panel kit.
Additional colors include classic Redline Red for a little extra brightness; Graphite Gray, which is a great choice on white engines; and Pro Black, a cool matte finish that really looks impressive on a Pro XS or FourStroke Phantom Black outboard.
If you want to make your Mercury outboard a little more you, Mercury color accent panels make the job easy. Even if you stick with the stock panels, the Mercury V8 and V6 outboards share the kind of bold, aggressive styling that shows you’re serious about your fishing equipment. And that alone says a lot about your passion for the sport.
