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Fisrt Time Pontoon Boat Buyer - Needs advice


duck2

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To all: I am quite interested in adding a pontoon boat to my fleet. It would mostly be used for fishing but also for a fair amount of sunset cruising. It will be housed on Leech Lake and will be subject to some occasional rough water outings. Are there any words of caution that I might need to hear about the proper selection of models and/or features? For example, what is the optimal pairing of outboard HP with the size of the boat? I am thinking about a boat in the 18 - 20 foot range. Thanks

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We've got a 20 foot Northwoods with a 40HP Mercury 2-stroke on it. It does the job but you don't go anywhere too fast. I would definitely go with a 4-stroke for the noise factor. Much easier to converse when sitting in the back of the boat.

You can get them as plain-jane or fancy as you want. Our is a basic model. I'd like some more creature comforts, but they're not necessities.

Some things I'd look for when getting a "fishing" pontoon.

1) A "front deck" with a few pedistal seats

2) Electric anchor winch

3) Trolling motor is nice.

Also, a ladder is a must if you plan on swimming from it cause they're a beach to get back on otherwise.

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Another thing to consider is adding the middle, or third, pontoon. It's a spendy option, but makes the pontoon a lot more stable in the rough water if you think you'll be in the rough water a lot...

marine_man

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Like any boat get the biggest motor you can afford, underpowering the new pontoon could get you into way more trouble on a big lake then having more motor then you need.

The triple pontoon is a nice option, I just spent the weekend at a friends place on Gull, they had the triple, what a nice ride that was. If I were in the market for a pontoon I would seriously consider a triple first.

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Pontoons get pushed around by the wind a lot more than a fishing boat, so a biger motor on open water is a wise choice. 4 stroke is the way to go as well. Used pontoons that have been well cared for are not that much cheaper than new, so it might save you time to just look for new. Your money not mine, so that is just a suggestion. There are a fair amount of models to choose from. Might want the livewells and baitwells. Some of the top makers are Bennington and Premier. Premier is made up in Forest Lake.

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The feature I have seen lately is having the built in boat lift. I am not sure if you need a lift or not but I would check it out if you do. Basically it is two sets of legs that fold down and lift the pontoon out of the water. I am not sure of the cost compared to a boat lift and you would not have a canopy so you would need a way to keep the sun off of it.

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We have a 21' Northwoods with a 75hp 4-stroke. It goes aprox 20-22 mph with three people on it. We also put sea legs on it and love them. They are aprox $4,500 but worth every penny. The motor trolls down to 2.3 mph. The most people we have had on it is 12 and with that many people top speed it aprox 10 mph. It handles the wind good from what I have seen so far. The two rear seats on the pontoon are made for fishing with a bait box between them. I like the pontoon and its fun to drive around on, but I still would prefer to fish out of my Lund.

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I think the larger diameter floats are a better choice too. Never have been on rig with the third float.

I'd second, third, or fourth the suggestion of a larger engine.

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2 or 3 years ago I rid on a pontoon that was also half sport/fishing boat. The boat could fly with 10-12 people on it and it also worked just like a pontoon. I am not sure exactly what brand this was but it was very sweet. Even had a little porta poddy when duty calls.

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Thanks to everyone who responded so promptly to my question. I value your input and will keep this in mind as I approach the purchase of a pontoon boat.

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Quote:

2 or 3 years ago I rid on a pontoon that was also half sport/fishing boat. The boat could fly with 10-12 people on it and it also worked just like a pontoon. I am not sure exactly what brand this was but it was very sweet. Even had a little porta poddy when duty calls.


A deck boat?

Those are pretty nice...

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We were up on Gull Lake this summer and saw a pontoon with two 250hp motors on the back. That must fly across the lake.

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I'd seriously consider a deck boat for a bigger lake. We had a 19' princecraft with a 115hp motor on it. Won't say it flew, but I don't think many pontoons would keep up with it. We could pull 2 skiers with another 4-5 people on board. The "flat-vee" hull will help with rough waters and the increased speed will get you off the lake quicker. The down side was I had a hard time anchoring it, I think that was a combo of weight/ surface area. If you stay with pontoons also check out crestliner they make one with larger tubes and ours does work ok on rougher water I don' know if I'd want a steady diet of rough stufff on a 'toon. Good luck Oh yeah agree with the motor--always put on the max allowed.

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I have a 20 Northwoods with 40 4-stroke. Runs about 17 mph. No problem on my lake but faster would be nice. Go with good size motor not avg. Make sure they prop it right. Mine was not and I knew it even though they tried to talk me out of it like I was a rookie. Once I got the correct prop on and got close to peak RPM my speed was quite respectable for a 40. I put a Minkota bow mount powerdrive and Garmin graph on the front. Also onboard charger for trolling motor. Fishes real well. Partys real well. Guess that's why the model name is "Party and Fish".

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This is what I got specifically for big water: 22 foot tri-toon w/underbelly(a must), and a 90 E-tec. Works awesome in rough water, tops out around 26mph. Also ordered it with movable furniture (not bolted down) in the front half, so I can arrange it accordingly. Most of the time I have the front empty so you can really move around. Just my 2 cents.

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Twinfisher, I'm starting my pursuit of a toon, and would you be willing to say the general ballpark of what you paid?

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  • Your Responses - Share & Have Fun :)

    • leech~~
      Nope not me.  May want to go nextdoor and ask around?  
    • smurfy
      Looks to me like Leech brought his chair home!!😅😆
    • Brianf.
      I'm not there, so I can't tell exactly what's going on but it looks like a large area of open water developed in the last day with all of the heavy snow on the east side of wake em up Narrows. These two photos are from my Ring Camera facing north towards Niles Point.  You can see what happened with all of snow that fell in the last three days, though the open water could have been wind driven. Hard to say. .  
    • SkunkedAgain
      Black Bay had great ice before but a few spots near rockpiles where there were spots of open water. It looks like the weight of the snow has created a little lake in the middle of the bay.  
    • LakeofthewoodsMN
      On the south end...   Thanks to some cold spring weather, ice fishing continues strong for those still ice fishing.  The bite remains very good.  Most resorts have pulled their fish houses off for the year, however, some still have fish houses out and others are allowing ATV and side by sides.  Check social media or call ahead to your favorite resort for specifics. Reports this week for walleyes and saugers remain excellent.   A nice mix of jumbo perch, pike, eelpout, and an occasional crappie, tullibee or sturgeon being reported by anglers. Jigging one line and using a live minnow on the second line is the way to go.  Green, glow red, pink and gold were good colors this week.     Monster pike are on a tear!  Good number of pike, some reaching over 45 inches long, being caught using tip ups with live suckers or dead bait such as smelt and herring in 8 - 14' of water.   As always, work through a resort or outfitter for ice road conditions.  Safety first always. Fish houses are allowed on the ice through March 31st, the walleye / sauger season goes through April 14th and the pike season never ends. On the Rainy River...  The river is opened up along the Nelson Park boat ramp in Birchdale, the Frontier boat ramp and Vidas boat ramp.  This past week, much of the open water skimmed over with the single digit overnight temps.   Areas of the river have popped open again and with temps getting warmer, things are shaping up for the last stretch through the rest of the spring season, which continues through April 14th.   Very good numbers of walleyes are in the river.  Reports this week, even with fewer anglers, have been good.  When temps warm up and the sun shines, things will fire up again.   Jigs with brightly colored plastics or jigs with a frozen emerald shiner have been the desired bait on the river.  Don't overlook slow trolling crankbaits upstream as well.   Good reports of sturgeon being caught on the river as well.  Sturgeon put the feed bag on in the spring.  The bite has been very good.  Most are using a sturgeon rig with a circle hook loaded with crawlers or crawlers / frozen emerald shiners. Up at the NW Angle...  Ice fishing is winding down up at the Angle.  Walleyes, saugers, and a number of various species in the mix again this week.  The bite is still very good with good numbers of fish.  The one two punch of jigging one line and deadsticking the second line is working well.   Check with Angle resorts on transport options from Young's Bay.  Call ahead for ice road guidelines.  
    • CigarGuy
      With the drifting, kind of hard to tell for sure, but I'm guessing about a foot and still lightly snowing. Cook end!
    • PSU
      How much snow did you get on Vermilion? 
    • Mike89
      lake here refroze too...  started opening again yesterday with the wet snow and wind...  very little ice left today...
    • Hookmaster
      A friend who has a cabin between Alex and Fergus said the lake he's on refroze. He texted me a pic from March 12th when it was open and one from 23rd when it wasn't. 🤯
    • SkunkedAgain
      I don't think that there has been any ice melt in the past few weeks on Vermilion. Things looked like a record and then Mother Nature swept in again.   I'll give my revised guess of April 21st
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