What was your 1st boat, ever?



Davey Crockett

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Bright Yellow 1950s or 60s 10' picklefork hydroplane, , It was cool then and would be even cooler now days with lighter horsepower. The builder had done a great job on it unless it was factory . It had been on metighose and I bought it for 12 bucks at an auction sale.
I put a big old 35 hiawatha motor on it and 2 cement blocks up front to hold the hull down till I could get it on plane , It went like a raped ape. Only had it on the farm pond and swamped it one day and never did get it out of there. I was just a kid , didn't even own a life jacket back then.
 

Rowdie

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1978 Glastron Fish n Ski. Was a Cadilac of boats in it's day. Had a 175 Mercury on it. couldn't put a kicker on it but the 80 lb troller on the front would run cranks for a couple hours. Used the shit out of it in the early 2000's until the lower end went out of it. The upholstery was still original and the bench seat falling apart so instead of fixing it up I just sold it.

I used the Bath Tub for a few years until I got the ranger. I'm not counting the Bath Tub as my first boat though but I guess you could for as much as I used it. But technically I went halves on a 12ft Jon boat we could throw in the back of the pickup. I never technically owned my dads pontoon but my brother and I shared it as our mainstay boat for about 15 years. I got the bathtub while buying a 35 hp motor for the pontoon. The guy made be take the boat (Bath Tub) it was on as he wanted it out of his yard. Almost junked it a few times until I started working in yates. After messing around with 3 old motors I finally just put a brand new 15 hp 4 stroke on it. Trolls cranks like a champ!! Got my PB 32" walleye last year out of the old Bath Tub!
 


honkerslayer

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1978 Lund s-16 with a 35hp Johnson. Pull start was fine until the recoil spring broke. Then it was a pita. Caught a ton of fish out of that boat.
 

Allen

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First boat I owned was a 1976 Alumacraft. 16.5 ft long with metal bench seats, 25 horse Johnson and a livewell. Even though the motor generally ran well, that song about "pulling on my johnson" could have been written about me, there were a large number of times I'd have the rewind on the pull rope in pieces to replace a broken spring or rope while out on the water.
 

shorthairsrus

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First boat -- was a wooden boat that i inherited from the neighbor when i was like 12. I fiberglassed the keel and repainted. She sealed up nice --- rowed and pushed that baby into a lake next to ours that nobody could get to. Big gills, perchos and bass is what i remember all worth the work.
 

SLE

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My first boat that was truly mine was a 2000 Yarcraft Storm SC powered by a 2006 225 Optimax. Still, probably one of the best pure fishing layouts of all the boats I've owned. With that said, I grew up on the water, the first one I remember our family having was an old 15 or so foot closed bow lund with a 25 sea horse, then a 18ft mr pike, then to a 16 ft sylvan, and finally a 18ft glass lund from the early 80s. during my college years, I ended up using my father-in-laws 16ft smoker craft.

The smokercraft was out in the trees and hadn't been used in several years when I was dating my now wife. My dad was using his one weekend when I wanted to go fishing and so we resurrected the smoker craft at that time as a broke college kid. Got out of college, got married, and bought our first house all within about a year. Borrowed the boat from my father-in-law one weekend and when I came to bring to back after the weekend, he told me to go ahead and keep it at my house, he knows where to come get it if he wants it, lol. So, although I didn't buy it, and it was never titled in my name, that ol' smoker-craft was probably what I would actually consider my first boat.
 


DirtyMike

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2003 1650v Lund Mr. Pike and after I slapped on a Yamaha pro50, it got scary fast. I caught more fish out of that boat than the rest combined.
2004 Ranger 617T
2013 Ranger 1880
2016 Ranger 620 FS
2023 something.
 

johnr

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Looked about like this, had a 15hp merc on the back, and a shnazzy homemade trailer. Ran that boat all over the western MN lakes for a summer, was pretty excited to have a boat, and fished all the time.
$200 on the boat trailer combo, and picked up the 15hp for $300.
f12_foot_VALCO_aluminum_boat__275_Albany_59f7109863fce.jpg
 

NDwalleyes

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I grew up on a lake in northern MN and was on the water alone by age 10. First boat was a 1980 12 foot Alumacraft with a 5 horse Johnson and rocks in the bow so it would plane out. I remember getting my watercraft operator permit in the spring of 1982, when 12 was the youngest age you could take the test. Dad bought a 16 foot crestliner with a 25 horse...I bet I put 5,000 miles on that bastard before I graduated high school.
 

Zogman

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1998 bought a used 16 foot Lund with a 40 Johnson. That was our boat for 3 summers at the NW Angle. Put a hand held GPS in a mount and a flasher (depth finder) with a suction cup transducer. Man we had the world by the tail. :ROFLMAO:

This is our present ride since 2014.
 

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ndfinfan

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Wow - I am humbled and impressed by the boat histories shared here. If there was some way to tally all the hours spent in a boat on water chasing fish by our members I think we would all be impressed. I salute all of you and appreciate the commitment and passion we all share for boat fishing. My first boat was a 9ft jon boat that I cut my teeth on - the wife still misses those outings when the 2 of us squeezed all our gear/cooler/bait onto that thing and paddled out...good times!
 

Traxion

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I grew up in a 14' Sears with a 9.5hp Evinrude. In my early working years after college I purchased a Sea Nymph SS175 w/115 Evinrude. I fished in that boat for years and caught more fish in it than anything else I had. Replace the transom, replaced the powerhead, rewired, new livewell hoses, all sorts of little things. It was far from perfect but put me on the water with some great memories.

It's funny how so many of us say we caught more fish in our first boats than any. Maybe it's just memories, maybe it was actually true. I certainly had more time then than I have now and I certainly fished harder. But I was damn happy and proud to have that boat. Worked hard for it, kept it up, improved it, and was happy to be able to fish all the places I did with it. I'm happy today with my "new" boat, but I don't have the same fondness I do of that first boat. Being thankful for what you have makes it a whole lot better.....if there is any takeaway from this for me.
 

WT2121

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Sitting here, going through my tackle, and I started thinking about my very first boat. It was a 1960’something Glastron, closed bow, no windshield, and a transom that was bolted together with a couple 3’ sticks of all-thread and a 2x6. Haha
The starter was shot, and in my youth, I decided to tie two batteries together to jack 24v to it. 🤣
It worked for a couple seasons, until the starter finally grenaded. I was probably 18 years old and broke. Funny thing was, I found a used starter, after that, for like $15. YOUNG AND DUMB!
The side of the boat had a sticker that said “da boat” with the lettering in the shape of a fish. I remember making that sticker in a robotics class, thinking I was the cats ass. Ha!

I ran that boat for 6-7 years, before getting a 16’ Smokercraft.

Curious what others started out with??

Started with 1960s era 17 foot closed bow fiberglass boat. I believe it was Silverline. It had a Sears Atwater 60hp outboard without trim or tilt. Purchased a used 10hp Johnson trolling motor. Caught alot of fish with it. After 2 years upgraded to 70hp Yamaha. Amazing motor. Would work on boat all week just to be able to fish weekend. Something went wrong with Atwater engine almost every weekend. Yamaha solved all the problems. Traded for Lund Cherokee was a good Sakakawea boat. Now own a Warrior and love this boat!
 

SDMF

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1983-ish I won an inflatable Coca-Cola rubber raft from the grocery store in Arrowhead Mall in Bismarck. Didn't take long before it had a hole and leaked.

2001 I bought a '78 18' Lund Mr. Pike side-console w/50HP Merc for $1500 from a good friend of my dad's.
 

johnr

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1983-ish I won an inflatable Coca-Cola rubber raft from the grocery store in Arrowhead Mall in Bismarck. Didn't take long before it had a hole and leaked.

2001 I bought a '78 18' Lund Mr. Pike side-console w/50HP Merc for $1500 from a good friend of my dad's.
My wife and I first getting started, I had sold the old aluminum boat a few years prior, she bought me a rubber raft for fishing out of, it went right back to the store, as I told her it was not going to be possible to pack my gear, and beers in with any confidence of making it back to shore. haha
 


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