I am fishing a new division of the BFLs this year in an attempt to expand my knowledge on new bodies of water and challenge myself. Has anyone ever done this as a "pro" in the BFLs and not had a co angler link?  Before I drag my boat around and spend a bunch of money on gas I want to know that I will be able to use my boat and fish the spots I find practicing and will not be forced into being paired with another boater and ending up having to do a coin flip for whos boat we take. 

I did this awhile ago and the first event the co-angler that I got paired with did not have a boater so we were able to link together for the remainder of the events.

 

The following year I found a local fishing site and was able to hook up with a co-angler from there

 

You could reach out to the tourney director to see if they have extra co anglers. I fished a few where there were more co's than pro's which would make it easy.

I also have seen the flip side where two boaters get paired and that situation would stink