How do big pontoons (tritoons) handle big water??

[stpauliguy]

Well, due to a couple of young ones, I believe my fishing boat days might be over for a few years. I have a 20' fiberglass boat now but was looking at some pontoons this weekend. I've seen nice tritoons and some pontoons on mille lacs before and they seem to do well on it. Soooo, looking for some info on how they handle the waves and if they're decent boats to fish out of. I'm thinking rod holders, trolling motors, possibly down riggers.... Any ideas or info on these things would be greatly appreciated!!

[Wanderer]

When you get into the tri toon rigs, you're getting into the big horsepower and big water boats so if lakes like Mille Lacs are your preferred play areas I wouldn't consider anything less.

I had my toon out on Mille Lacs last year and ran my downriggers after bobber fishing from anchor. I really enjoyed the idea of what I was doing but it was pretty windy and wavy and made it tough for this skipper to be the one man show running everything. My toon is a 20 footer with 2 - 25 inch tubes and 90 hp 4 stroke Yammy. It did handle the traveling pretty well.

The biggest thing with pontoons is dealing with the wind while you're fishing. The drift is much faster and the nose will bounce quite a bit if you load the weight back to keep the waves from washing over the deck to a minimum. I have to believe the tri toons are much better at handling the waves but I know I wouldn't recommend expecting good family time in double toon in rough conditions.

My toon is rigged with a TM, twin electric downriggers, rod holders and I carry drift socks and anchors of course. There really isn't much fishing I can't do with it but just realize the more gear you work with, the more work it is for you if you're the only one on board that knows how to handle it. I do really like the riggers mounted on the front deck so I can cruise and keep and easy eye on them while tracking the balls and baits with my stern mounted transducer. I can pretty much see everything that's going on.

They can be very versatile fishing machines but are still more fair weather designed. That being said, there's a lot to say for taking the Fam out, fishing for whatever you want, pull knee boards/tubes, anchor in whatever bay you want to hang out in and swim and grill for a nice break.

One final thought - the bigger the tubes, the better. You want to keep it riding as high in the water as you can when she's loaded down AND you WILL be loading it down!

[mwal]

My Brother has 24 foot pontoon for over 20 years. They really do not handle rough water well at all in my opinion. They plow straight into oncoming wave taking them over the deck in really rough water or even from large boat wakes. At trolling or drifting speeds the deck is only 20 inches above the water and due to the length 24 ft plus they do not ride the wave. Think of a jon boat at rest. They are prone to taking water over the front from passengers suddenly changing sides in heavy seas unless you talk to them ahead of time. My brother has had this problem when a quick squall line hit and wave came over and all the adults who had been drinking ran from one side to the other causing one pontoon to nearly submerge then 50 mph wind gust got underneath lifting it up. I fish with him at the family cabin frequently it is very comfortable for bobber fishing in calm conditions. It is very difficult to anchor as the sides act as sails and if the top is up forget anchoring. They do not drift slow they have no keel so they do not track well and are light and drift very fast. He has 40 hp 4 stroke and it trolls down to 2.2 mph so he can only troll raps or other crank baits. once again if the wind is up it does not track well. He has Minnkota bowmount but he did not listen and went with 12volt unit and it is only good in dead calm conditions. I am not trying to discourage you as pontoons are great with youngsters and wives who are not really into fishing and need to move about. They are very fair weather fishing craft and limited as to what they can do. Now I have no experience with a 30 footer tri pontoon with twin 115 hp like I have seen on Vermillion but they did not appear to have any fishing gear aboard only babes.

Mwal

[leech~~]

I think the others covered most of it. I will say that being on a good size lake up in the Brainerd area just about every weekend during the summer you see just about every kind of water craft at some point. I fish mainly on rough days and I am always amazed to see how well some of the guys do with big pontoons out there. I think the tritoon does better in rougher water then the twintoon is that the middle toon kind of bridges the gap when big waves are happening. Especially when you have to ride across waves. The twintoon has to ride up and then will fall off at the top of each wave and then the next toon has to go over the same wave rocking the heck out of you were the tritoon with the middle toon gives the whole boat lift over the whole wave making a smoother ride and less rock. Also, I have seen planty of the bigger toons pulling waterskiers and tubes so they have come a long way then just a party barge! But, I think I'll keep my deep-V

[aanderud]

They work OK, we used one for years on Mille Lacs. In addition to the fast-drift, wind-sail effect (which you can use drift socks to slow you down), they do have the tendency to spear oncoming waves, and have a lot of water come over the top of the deck. Think coolers-floating-to-the-back. Will you sink? No. But, it's still not the ideal situation.

Up at Terry's boat harbor, there was a 'toon docked that had a little ram-thing mounted to the front deck. It was basically an aluminum sheet as wide as the pontoon (maybe slightly wider) that stuck out front about 3 feet and was angled up at about a 45 degree angle. It looked like it would actually help lift the front over the waves. I talked to the owners, and they said they got a much drier ride after adding it.

[stpauliguy]

Thank you all for the informative info! Im thinking tri is the way too go. Especially because of the motor size. Years ago, my uncle had a pontoon and was terrible to load/unload at the access. Have they gotten any better?? I would hate to not be able to access the thing.

Wanderer, do you have any pictures of your boat?? Would like to see the layout, especially with your downriggers. You can send them to [email protected].

[delcecchi]

Thank you all for the informative info! Im thinking tri is the way too go. Especially because of the motor size. Years ago, my uncle had a pontoon and was terrible to load/unload at the access. Have they gotten any better?? I would hate to not be able to access the thing.

Wanderer, do you have any pictures of your boat?? Would like to see the layout, especially with your downriggers. You can send them to [email protected].

My neighbors on each side have pontoons. They are not a 16 foot lund semivee on a roller trailer to launch but it is pretty easy if the ramp goes into deep enough water.

[Wanderer]

Yep, I got a couple.

In this pic the booms aren't fully deployed. They slide out to 48" and I believe that's just enough to be mounted on the front of a boat.

I put them on swivel bases so they can be stowed for the drive north.

But that bobber fishing can be REAL nice at times.

If you plan to trailer your toon a lot, get a bunk trailer rather than a scissor style. They load very easily and handle the road better.

[leech~~]

Nice setup Wanderer. I'm pretty sure if you go with a tritoon you will have to go with a bunk trailer.

[Wanderer]

Yep, Steve, seems to make sense.

[leech~~]

I do agree with you on a bunk for any toon. When we had ours I just hated how that thing would some times start jumping around on the scissor style trailer and get all side ways. Same thing happens when we put my buddies in every year and the launch road is bumpy. Oh, and he learned that if you forget to jack up your scissor trailer high enough after unloading. You can actually wear down the tires to the cord by the time you get back to the cabin around the lake!

[Wanderer]

OUCH! I hate it when you have to learn things the hard way!

[Tom Adam]

Hey folks. Just wanted to add my 2 cents.

If you're going to, or think you might be using a toon in rough water then go for a tritoon.

I has an 18 foot pontoon and took it out into Tampa bay quite a few times. It was all good until one day I had 5 people aboard on a rough day and didn't see the rouge wave that must have come off of a passing tanker further out. It washed over the front deck and lifted the rear of the boat a couple of feet out of the water! The motor raced and so did my heartbeat! I throttled down and fortunately the water drained off and the boat settled back down and didn't do an ass over bow flip. I slowly headed back to launch point and never took it out in the bay again.

Now I have a 22 ft tritoon with a 115. It is literally an entirely different animal! I've had it out in the bay many times and have encountered waves larger then the one that nearly made me soil myself on the pontoon. After the experience on the pontoon I must admit that the first really big wave that approached the tritoon made me nervous. But as I crossed it and felt barely a thing I relaxed and knew that it was sooooo worth the investment.

[leech~~]

Welcome to the forum Tom.

I would say their starting to handle pretty well!