Taking delivery of our new fishing pontoon soon, and getting the slip this weekend.
I'm trying to make a shopping list of gear and tackle that i'm going to need to mainly target white bass, hybrids, and crappie.
Here is the scenario we are shopping for, and assuming we're going to bass pro or academy:
People fishing will be me, my wife, and my 4yr old son.
Lake we will primarily fish is Lewisville.
Assume we do not have any gear or tackle already.
I prefer a spinning reel, cant seem to get the hang of bait caster unless dropping straight down.
We will want to fish from the marina slip as well as from the pontoon.
The pontoon has one large aft live well.
I do not have a trolling motor, and probably wont be adding one for a while.
I will have a Garmin 93sv on the boat.
looking for advice on rods, reels, line, lures, tackle boxes, minnow buckets, anything a family would need to get going

thanks everyone, looking forward to seeing y'alls suggestions!

-tony

pm ernest paty on here he will know. he is in the crappie forum.

Most of my freshwater fishing, 95%, is done with an Abu Garcia 6500 baitcaster on a medium 6’6” Ugly Stik. For crappie use an ultra light spinning setup. For the 4 year old get a Zebco 33 combo. I usually fish 3 to 5 of the 6500 at the same time.

I highly recommend that you purchase a spot lock trolling motor as one of the first things. It will dramatically increase your chances of catching catching crappie, as well as white bass and hybrids.

A Bobo thumper

A very good anchor until you decide to purchase a trolling motor and then all the power you can afford. Pontoon boats catch the wind like kites and require a very stout trolling motor! Spot lock makes it even better.

For white bass I predominantly use the MAL Original & MAL Heavy, Chartreuse Tail, Silver Blade (Mar.- Nov) and the White Hazy Eye Slab 3/8 oz. & 3/4 oz. (Dec.- Feb.)

White Bass Lures

Absolutely and in spades! Unless you're planning on just tossing some bait overboard and trolling around structure areas, fishing with a pontoon can be a navigational challenge without a high power trolling motor with spot lock, and/or some kind of anchor. Don't ask me how I know.