” What was your first boat”

Funny I had a wild thought tonite! Thinking back to my first boat a 16 foot cedar strip that my dad bought for me. I was around 11-12 years old if am correct. He bought it for $25 from an old fellow named Hans Jorgenson that lived just north of Lakeside here on Mille Lacs.

This old boat needed to be painted and some work done to it. My dad had built some cedar strip boats so this was no problem……He had to fix a hole in it one other time when I stepped in it and poked a roller through the floor!

Just some great memories of years past……..Wow that was a long time ago…30+ years ago….don’t even have a picture of it……kind of wish I still owned that old boat!

What was your first boat!!!!!!!!!!!!

That would have been an old worn out 10′ rental row boat.
Ya had to bail almost as fast as ya rowed.
But at 12, I couldn’t have been prouder.

The trick to fixing the leaky old boat, was just sink it in the lake for a few day’s! it would swell up and stop all the leaks!!!!!!!!

14 ft starcraft v hull with a 20 elect merc.I really thought that boat could fly

Mine I built myself out of 2″ by 2″s and 1/4″ plywood. I took my time and fit everything as tight as i could get it and primed and painted it. I forget what i used for paint but it was oilbased paint so it wouldn’t peel and it lasted the whole summer and fall. I found an old Eska 5 horse manufactured in Dubuque Iowa that ran pretty good and used that to get up and down the river. A buddy and me caught alot of fish in it fishing every time we could after work and on weekends. Your right that was along time ago. I can still see the scenery of the rivers we were on.

way to go Dan….that is so cool

Same for me Dan! My GrandPa built em out of plywood and cedar shiplap. Your right Bobber. We’d put them in the lake every spring because they would be drydocked under the deck all winter, dry out, and leak like a seive.

My first purchased boat was a 1971 Starcraft Deep 15 with a 20hp Johnson and amidship controls…and a real cool Metzger trailer that hinged in the middle for shallow landings. I sold that boat to a buddy 19 yrs ago and it still runs like a charm! I paid a whopping $800 for the boat completely rigged…Green Box flasher, life preservers, rod holders etc…

I had an Olie Lind cedar strip 14 footer made in the Detroit Lakes Boat works. I bought it on a homemade trailer, and a Ted Williams 4.5 hp outboard. The boat was in pretty tough shape, and I had to scrape and paint it before I could put it on the water. Then found out the transom was rotten in lower right side, so I pulled that all appart and had a new transom sent from the boat works in Detroit Lakes Minnesota. The transom and shipping cost more than the total of the boat, motor and trailer cost to begin with. Have a lot of great memories of that boat and some of the fishing trips taken in it.

As a kid, about 12 or 13 I remember the next door neighbor Ralph got into duck hunting and thinking about it money might have been short so he built a home made boat. He used wood for a frame and I don’t remember what kind of wood he used and covered it with canvas. I know he then treated it with some kind of oil treatment water proofing. I remember him and his friend would go duck hunting with this boat and come back with ducks. I still remember the decoys that were behind his house by the backdoor and the canvas boat. My dad then bought a wooden v bottom with a 40 johnson on the back to fish out of. That was 40 years ago. You can still buy canvas duck boats can’t you?

12 foot car topper on my 72 VW bug and a 7.5 Merc, I fished many places you could get close to water and just carry it in , also fished lake Michigan during the Salmon boom of the early 80’s, them Kings would just pull the boat around . Sure do miss the simpiler times

mine was a 1969 lund with a 9.5 jonson on the back.
boy did we have a lot of fun, and learned a lot in that boat.the good old days.

Just had a 3 horse Johnson…and rental boats…

It took me 1/2 hour to get to Prescot from Hastings and 45 minutes to get back…that was in a 12′ rented from Hubs…

1 rod…a handful of little joes and a pdf…hmmm it was simpler then.

Good Post Bobber!

I had a 10′ jon boat. I got so many laughs when we were on Mille Lacs and Leech. But it was so erratic, that fish just went nuts. You could NOT make that thing go in a straight line. You were jigging and trolling at the same time. Boy did we catch fish. When it was safe to go out as in waves less than 8″!

Mine was a loomis tank. It’s basically a big fiberglass tub. We hooked up the 12 volt electric to it, and way we went. Of course, remember most of the ponds I fished were castable from one side to the other.

My first boat I purchased was a Lund Rebel.

I don’t have any cool “do-it-yourself” experience with the wooden boats but my first watercraft AND fishing boat was a 10′, 4 man SeaHawk 400 series inflatable boat, complete with 2 rod holders, seat cushions, and battery and tackle bags! I’d go out on the St. Croix…….. even with all the big cruisers!……… and row troll 2 rods. I did okay and got some exercise to boot! Up until summer of 2003, I was still using it on occassion but it finally took a tear from beaching it on small rocks vs. the sand I usually looked for. I even went as far as making a carpeted hard floor for it and I’d sit on a cooler for better casting ability! It was PERFECT for those little lakes that almost no one touches and I’ll forever remember that little rig! Who knows…… maybe I’ll get another one so the kids can tool around in it?

My first real boat was a 1961 Richline, 14′ aluminum v-hull. Paper thin construction and super light! All I bought was the boat and trailer. I purchased a 6hp Evinrude GameFisher a year after buying it and had to do some patch work on the aluminum too. I built a flat floor for the front, put a Lowrance depth finder in it, seats, front and rear trolling motors, rod holders, and somebody’s kitchen sink! lol! I had it from ’99 to spring of ’04 and sold it as just the boat and trailer. I got tired of the annual patchwork to the aluminum, but that rig was great! Ugly as sin………. but great! That little rig was used on Lake Winnebago twice!!! It too had to survive the beatings of the cruiser wakes on the Croix but ‘bago……. I think I had a marble loose the day I went out as a storm approached! Oh well, dumb I may be but I did live to talk about it!!!

Notice a trend here?? How come we all had 10 to 14 ft boats and did just fine ,even you guys on the big pond . Now we need a 18 or 20 ft just to go down the river

My first boat is a 14 foot aluminum boat that my Grandpa gave me. He also gave me a 1975 Mercury 7.5 hp to go with it. The first thing I did was paint it all camoflage. This was my duck hunting/fishing boat. I painted it, built a blind, and there it sits in my parent’s back yard. I have never actually put in the water since I got it. I guess I have too many nice friends that let me go fishing with them in their boats. This year I should be able to con my dad out of the 17′ crestliner. Maybe I’ll get into duck hunting again and use it.

My first boat was a 12′ Crestliner powered by a 7.5 hp Evinrude given to me by my Dad. Ran all over Lake Geneva in that boat for days at a time on one tank of gas. A great way to spend a summer!

Oh boy this one will get a laugh. I had a 10′ Sea Horse, aluminum boat. It had a 10hp Chilson motor. The motor was an above water exhaust that ROARED!! I had people clap when I would shut it down either at the hole I was going to fish or when I made it to the boat landing. It was like taking your lawn mower with out an exhaust and runing it at max RPM’s. I had this thing rigged up too. I had a Lowrance X-51 in it and an electric trolling motor too. If I remember right the trolling motor went faster than the gas motor. AH yes the memories. Heck that was only like 6yrs ago…… Oh well, it is nice making money now

My first boat was a “very” used 10′ Sears & Roebuck jonboat with a couple cracks in the hull that I bought for $10. Had to patch it with pitch tar all the time to slow down the leaks. An old-timer gave me a Martin 2hp two blade prop motor. One of the blades was broken and I had a guy braze it back on. He didn’t get it too well balanced and it vibrated like hell. But, at the time, that’s all I could afford.

Gramps

Ahhhhh…the memories!!! My first rig was a 14′ tin can made by Sears and powered by a 20hp Merc. Thunderbolt. She just screamed across the water. Could bounce her over rocks, up against pilings, and up rapids while not worrying about dings or scratches. She has been retired and sent out to pasture.

My first boat was an old 14ft. aluminum boat that was an old resort boat. You could see when the sun hitting the boat just right the words Wyatts Resort on one side and a diiferent resorts name on the other side. Had bench seats and was silvergray-no paint. The next year a new 6hp Johnson motor was put on the boat [good by oars] and we use to catch alot of crappies and white bass/strippers down on Lake Zumbro every Wed. night and fished the Mississipi River on weekends. It came with a homemade trailer with a ton of rollers so I could walk out on to the end of the trailer and grab the front end of the boat with one hand and walk backwards pulling the boat up the trailer with ease. People sure looked surprised when I did that. Use to love running that 6hp Jophnson. The funny thing is that I have a 6hp Johnson on my Lund for a kicker motor now and still love running my 6hp Johnson. Getting back to basics is alot of fun. It makes you appreciate fishing ALOT instead of putting so much focus on big boats and fancy equipement etc. Maybe thats what made me buy the 14ft. Jon boat instead of trading up to a bigger boat for my main Lund boat. It sure is fun running the small boat again and brings back ”fishing” to a level of fun where it should be instead of focusing on fancy equipement. I’m not puting done owning fancy equipement, I have about everything you could ever need and them some on my bigger boat, but getting back to the basics sure is fun. Thanks, Bill

Had a Monkey Ward Sea King 12′ that was my Grandpa’s. Had an old Johnson 5 1/2 HP motor on it that blew up the first time out because the water pump wasn’t working..

Thanks everyone! this post has had some great memories brought back to share on this thread………

I never got to mention my outboard on my first boat. I started out with a 4hp Martin, next moved up to an old green peanut head 5 1/2 johnson!!!!also ran a 5 hp vintage peanut head johnson, can’t remember which one had a neutal lever on top on the motor. As you can see I went through the motors. I guess I was your typical teenager….. Before I had sold that boat it had a 7 hp Chrysler and ended with me running a new 1973 johnson 9 1/2…..that was a great fishng motor!!!

Well, I’m lucky enough to have a very generous and patient father. I must have earned his trust at an early age. As soon as I could drive, he’d let me hook up to boat and take it fishing myself. It was a 1972 16ft Lund with a 25 hp Evinrude motor. I think I used it more than he did. After I finished college and got a real job, my first boat was a 1994 16ft. Alumacraft Backtroller with a 25hp Suzuki.

A 16 foot strip boat with a 5 1/2 HP Green Merc. It wasn’t very fast, but the boat sure was sturdy.

My first was a 14′ alumacraft. 1970’s version with a 7.5 sea horse. I hated that motor. spent more time tryig to keep it running than running it. When it would run it was a air cooled motor just like the lawn mower and would vibrate the boat so bad that at one time it even had the minnows jumping out of the bucket. I was glad to see that motor go away.

14 foot 1979 Wards Sea King w/ 1972 Johnson 9.9 fully equipted with a Micronar FL-8 from the 1984 Mpls Sportshow.

My first boat of my own was a 1983 Lund Mr.Pike model with a 55 Suzuki on it.It was a good boat and at times I still miss it.Caught alot of fish out of the boat.
Ryan Hale

17′ Osagian Canoe for me…Paddle Power !!!