It was 1976. I fished with my boss in a club tourney out of his 14' john with a 20hp motor on Wappapello lake in Missouri. I bought my first boat in 1977, a 16' Tomboy bass boat somewhat similar to what Catt pictured with a 40hp Johnson.

  Ha my first tournament was also at Wappapello.  Went with a buddy from work in his 14 ft jon boat. We ran up the river a ways and ran out of gas coming back to the dock.  A guy pulled us in and we ran it up on the bank and caught a ton of crappie till everyone came in.  I still remember we passed 2 big bass boats buried in a mud flat throwing mud everywhere .  ;D  God i still hate that lake 

My first tournament I fished as a co-angler in the back of my friend's 11-ft plastic Bass Tender jonboat with a 9.9 hp motor. And it was on the mighty Potomac river, of all places. It was a small club with vague rules. When we got there they tried to tell us it wasn't a tournament-ready boat, but we showed that their rules were vague, and we had the necessary bilge pump and livewell. We fished 8 hours in the worst rainstorm of my life. And took 2nd place without running all over the place (just sat in Aquia creek and caught good fish on Sammy-style baits).

My friend has a 19 ft Skeeter now, but we still use that Bass Tender for small lakes.

Co-angler in someone's Ranger. He had a 150 HP Johnson outboard.

I kept feeling like I was gonna fall out of the boat when he was going 65-70 mph on the water busting through waves.

i just started fishing tourneys two years ago and have fished them all from the back of the same boat... ranger 520 comanchee with a 225 yamaha.

im spoiled.  :

probably gonna end up with a 16 or 18ft aluminum though.....

I had a 14 foot aluminum V Hull Starcraft with a 25 Johnson.

I rigged a car bright light switch that went on the deck, the ones from the cars floor back in the day, only Geezers will know what I mean, I used it as a foot control on/off.

My seat was a cooler, live well was a stringer.

Man if you only knew how many fish that were in that boat.

I remember buying it new for 2000.00, my loan payment was 60 dollars a month and I was shaking when I signed the papers.

I think I was 12 or 13, I'm 31 now. Somehow my cousin got me to fish in a Redman tounry on T Bend. The boat I can't recall the make, maybe a glastron. It looked like a bath tub. It had a chrysler motor on it. it was OLD. But to this day that boat and motor are some of my best memories. The smell of that exhaust from that chrysler smelled so good to me early in the morning.

as a co-angler,,,a '86 spirit, 16 1/2 ft w/150 mariner,,,as a boater,,'81 ranger, 18 ft w/150 evinrude,,,,fond memories but i wouldn't want to go back,,,didn't finnish in the top ten in either