Thread: Pontoon Boat?
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Old 01-29-2018, 08:03 AM   #24
ishoot308
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Originally Posted by loonguy View Post
With the help of the comments above, I am focused on a 26 foot pontoon boat that I will use for fishing, partying and water sports. With respect to fishing, I would appreciate any perspectives on whether a trolling motor would be useful or effective with a pontoon boat that size on Lake Winnipesaukee. Thanks in advance for your perspectives.
I assume your talking about an electric trolling motor? It would depend on what you plan on doing with it. Fishing in sheltered coves and bays for pan fish would be just fine. Trolling for salmon rainbows and lakers would be quite different!

On one of my previous pontoon boats, I used a trolling motor for salmon fishing. It was a 36 volt, 101 lb thrust Minn Kota. It moved the boat around quite well and with plenty of power but the batteries would only last about 3 1/2 hours of trolling. I had to have two battery packs (six batteries) to have a decent day of fishing. It got to be way to cumbersome so I had a gas 9.9 Mercury kicker installed which was way better!

Pontoon boats make a great fishing platform. If you set it up right you can easily change it over quickly to your party / water sports boat and never know it!

I still have that Minn Kota motor if your interested.

Good luck with your new boat!

Dan
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