I have a 16 foot bass tracker with a 25 horspower mercury engine with a trolling motor . is this good enough to use in a tournament.

Sounds like a fine boat to me.  I don't fish tourneys so I don't really know anything about them.  I don't see why your boat would not be acceptable.  Good luck.

As long as it has a functioning livewell that can keep bass alive, I don't see why not.

Check their rules, should be ok for small, local tournaments but many have rules on minimum size boats/motors allowed

Does it float, and run, and have a livewell?  If yes, go fishin'.  I assume you are 13.  I am 14, and at the beginning of the year (I was 13 at the time) I bought a 12 foot grumman vee, and Evinrude 4 horse deluxe.  It floats, and runs.  Sure it is slow, and I am looking for a little more HP because my home lake is fairly big.  Lake Allatoona for yall who know the area.  But, it catches fish (or should - I think the error is on my end of the rod)

Now, I am not the only person in the house who fishes, but dad has very little spare time, due to the issue he is stuck in with his job and other finances.  

We also have a 1974 Lund fish n ski with 50 horse johnny that we are restoring.  We have the ability to restore it just fine, but again, lack the time and money to get it done in a reasonable amount of time.  We have owned it for a year minus about 4 days, and are only about halfway done on the restore, but we are getting there.  

I would give a lot to be in your place.  Pretty nice daggum boat there, and at 13 (I am assuming that is how old you are, if you aren't, I apologize) if you are considering fishing tourneys, I feel you are doing pretty darn good.  I would be dam proud of myself to catch a single fish on a trip.  (Haven't caught anything since October.  Course, I have only been out about 5 times since then, and I live down here in Ga where the water temp never gets much below 40, and it is never too cold to fish.  Cannot blame lack of water time on ice or other natural crap.  I am thinking the 5 trips since Oct. is the main issue.  Very little on the water experience.  I could care less what type of boat I own, at this time, all I care about is getting on the water time, and I lack a lot of that, and really wish I didn't.  

Your doin' good.  Get out and fish the tourneys!!

I won a lot of tournaments in the 70s and early 80s in a bass tracker 17 with a 40 hp merc. you can't catch a fish at 70 mph. Go for it if they will allow you to fish your boat.

Kelley

I guess I should have also mentioned, a smaller, low hp boat will make you a much better fisherman than starting off with one of big 80 mph hydro rockets like a lot of us old timers use.  When you can't run and gun, you learn to disect and break down the areas you can reach into what holds fish and what doesn't, just like fishing a big pond.  Then you learn what lures work better in those different areas.   When you can run and gun, you have a tendency to narrow your pattern to a couple of lures and only fish those specialized areas these lures work in.  Not a good way to really learn.

Just fished a tournament out of a borrowed 17 foot tracker with a 25 hp on it and it was good. as long as it runs and the livewells work, and the TM works it is fine. Just check out the rules, there are HP mins, on some tournaments, but not all. Good luck and that boat is just fine.

Most tournaments that actually pay out here have a minimum outboard size unless it's a team tournament.

I placed second once in a charity type tournament in my duck boat with a 11hp go-devil motor. I got a waiver from the other participants to trailer my boat rather than have to launch at the tournament marina.

At age 13, you will need an adult on board to compete.  Look into joining jr bassmasters

I've actually heard of some small pond/small boat tourneys..like 30hp or less. never seen a listing but heard people mention them.

I would not take it out on lake erie or some other big water...but other than that it sounds fine to me.

There is an old man in our tourney circut...been fishing since the dinosaurs I think...he always says...

"the fish dont know whether it is a Triton or Tracker...they just know tasty!"

My father in law was just beaten at an open tourney by a guy fishing from a canoe...

Won a bunch of money out of a 14 ft jon boat with nothing but a trolling motor. HEE HEE we could go places on Ross Barnnet the big boys couldn't go it was real funny watching them try to follow us across the flats and get stuck.

yea i think i am gonna joinn jr bass masters

Yeah alot of lakes by me have 25hp limits and run tourney's.

I have the 50 now so I am waiting on parts to finish converting my 9.9 to fish Coffeen (in specific) and the strip pits > I can't wait!

Now consider Youngangler13, that if you find these lakes there WILL be some of the big guys show up with 275-300hp engines that they can't use > They will be running only electrics!!!!

I have a vision of Youngangler and his partner BLASTING past high dollar boats that can only use the TM!

GL with your boat, anything beats a blank and upgrades are sure to come lil brother!!!!!

Dave

I have a 16 ft. Lowe 40 hp outboard and have fished many tounaments in many states works fine for me.

I bought a starter boat that I could pay cash for since my 4 yr old got into it so big and so I have a 34 yr old 14 ft bass boat with the original 34 yr old Mercury 40HP. It appears this is not a fad to my son so someone is actually coming by the office today to look at my '05 Harley Ultra. I LOVE my bike, but love my son more and spending time with him is THE most fun thing. Selling the bike so I can sell my boat and use the two to pay cash for a bigger boat and not be in debt to anyone.

Say all that to say, I actually got locked out of a little local tournament my brother was going to fish with me. It was divided into two sections, big boys/little boys basically. The big boys had a minimum 50HP motor to compete. The little boys were in a different section of water and had a 35HP max. I had a 40HP motor and they would NOT make an exception for me in either class no matter how I tried to conform. I offered to fish the little side using only TM. No dice. I also offered to concede my disadvantage and go with the big side, no dice. I guess the moral is don't go with a 40HP motor or you'll be the stepchild.LOL!

Atta boy dickescpa!!  Follow your heart man  I have a 5 yr old and I'm doing the same thing.  I did the whole tournament thing back in the 90's and did well at it but it's all about the love now.  Smaller partner, smaller boat and smaller lakes, no politics, stress or BS involved.  Your little partner will have life memories of days on the water nothing can ever erase.

As mentioned before..check the club rules. Our club has a 90hp minimum although I really have no idea why. I think it must be that we fish some of the larger waters and your safety in a smaller boat may be a factor.

Just fish and have fun.

You could join a club, go as the non boater and show up the guy with the $30,000 boat.

i have a 2000 pro team 16ft with a 25 horse merc on it and its awesom i only wish it a had a 50 horse on the back and it would be perfect what kind it yours???

GO ahead and win some tournaments!  The only thing that u won't like probably is if you have to make a long run to ur fishing spots.  That would be bad especially if u had to cross rough water.  Also, if ur spot is deceptible to the wind u wont like it if the wind blows. I'm currently fishing tournaments out of a Nitro 640LX with a 90hp Yamaha. Its fine but i still wish i had a 19ft with a 200hp.  The bigger the boat the faster u get to ur spots and the more time u get to fish! Personally my boat is probably the bare min. in my mind for fishing tournaments.