I have three kids that always want to swim and tube. I was thinking about selling my seaark vee cat and buying a pontoon and maybe a small aluminum boat to fish out of what y�all think.

I fish out of a 19 ft toon...sometimes it wants to be a sail boat lol

We have 22' triton and its good.
Things we like: shade, comfort, space..

Challenges: wind, Trolling Trailering..
Drifting works fine you just need a bigger Chute/Chutes
Trolling is just like the drifting you just need more than you think.

It still work best for our family We have one in a wheel chair and can't wait until we get some Grand Kids

Poppa p what size trolling motor are you running

I have a 22 ft pontoon with a Yamaha 115 4 stroke. Nothing more comfortable to fish out of. I am tied to a tree about 99% of the time so wind is not a big factor in my program. If it is too windy, you don�t need to be out there anyway. I can pull a tube just fine with the 115. I wouldn�t want any smaller than a 115 though if you plan on pulling a tube or skier. Also, if you get caught in bad weather . You stand a better chance of getting off the water a little easier. Have a buddy that has an 18 for with a 40. He is good for 14mph at best with a light load. Mine will go 30 lightly loaded and 26-27 loaded down. That is with gps.

I fished for 10 years out of a 24 foot Starcraft pontoon and I loved it.

I fish out of a 24ft pontoon most of the time. We drift fish and anchor both. It is really nice for drifting off the side. You can line rods all the way down and with a set of planer boards cover a lot of water. Other positives are room to move, and shade. We also do a fair amount of night fishing in the summer, you can't beat a pontoon for night fishing.

Had a 22' Bennington myself for several years used mainly to cat fish from. I had a 24V, 80lb thrust, 60" shaft TM on mine, I wouldn't go with anything smaller for a pontoon and preferrably bigger. They are very comfy and shady for the hot days and also allow plenty of room to secure a Mr. Heater on for the cold days. Plenty of room for rod holders all the way around and still leave a lot of real estate to relax in. Trailering isn't difficult, but you will know it's back there. Loading with a cross wind can be challenging until you get accustomed to it. One thing some don't think about is a toon sits higher on the trailer than other boats, it normally takes more boat ramp to launch meaning when the lakes get low in the Texas summers, finding safe, usable ramps can get tough. If your going to get one to do fishing and tubing/skiing, get a tri-toon with the largest rated motor you can. The tri-toons perform much better IMO than normal pontoons, but they are a also a significant price jump, or were anyway.

I haven't actually bought one yet. Just from what I hear you need 40-50% stronger than a traditional boat of the same length.
I wish I could find one that will stow vertically. I need the floor space for loading a wheel chair.
lots of good advice here!

I love fishing out of mine. I have a deck boat that looks just like a pontoon on the top. I use a 24V, 80lb thrust, 60" shaft TM on mine. Plenty of power. Has a 115 hp outboard. I crappie fish and catfish out of it all the time. I am getting ready to sell it though to get a smaller boat like a bass boat. Kids are gone now so I don't need one so big.

PoppaP, use a quick release mount for the trolling motor, makes taking it on and off a breeze. Only leaves a small rectangle plate about 3/4-1" in up off the deck. Should be easy to get wheelchair around or over.
Here is a link, There are other places to get one, this just came up first.
https://www.cabelas.com/product/Minn-Kot...mp;gclsrc=aw.ds

Thanks we will check it out!

by the way. The 80lb worked fine on my benni tri-toon, I can see from your pic where the batteries will need to go on yours and you can mount a TM plug there close to the speaker. It would also be wise to get a 2 bank 6amp on board charger to mount on the boat as well. Makes charging/maintaining batteries alot easier.

I have a 70lb thrust PowerDrive V2 with Ipilot. It works fine on my boat. I also have the quick release mount as mentioned above that makes it super easy to move out of the way if needed

Thanks for everyone�s reply