Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I always reply when asked: The fishing is always great, sometimes the catching leaves a little bit to be desired." I only do catch & release for bass, so if I don't get anything it's no big deal. My philosophy when fishing is that I expect nothing and therefore I'm never disappointed when that happens.
I entered one tournament 16 year ago when I got my first bass boat. In 8 hours we caught one little white bass (foul-hooked at that). That was my epiphany and I've never been tempted to enter another tournament.

HandymanHerb wrote:I thought the ideal was to get away from the wife, drink beer, smoke cigars and lie, the rest is just bonus

I fished walleye tournaments for over 20 years and three years ago when we bought a Pontoon boat, I only started fishing one tournament a year. Been having so much fun on the Pontoon with family and friends that I will be quitting the tournaments all together this year. Still lots of ice left around here, but sure looking forward to getting onto the open water again.
Gotta admit though, not blasting off on opening morning in the first tournament is going to seem a little weird.

Neither the Admiral or I will allow any fishing on the pontoon -- that's what we have a dock for. I also put cedar trees hanging from ropes on the poles in one of the slips for structures for the crappie to hide in. I enjoy fishing for crappie -- no stress. I put a few minnows on the hooks, drop the line down around 8', set the poles on the dock, pick up my beer and enjoy. When I see a line running with a fish, I set down my beer and grab the rod to set the hook. When the fishing is really going good, I put a piece of 6" PVC down into the fish basket and strap it to a post. That way I don't even have to pick up the basket to put the fish in -- I just let them slide down the "chute" into the basket. Fishing should be fun, not stressful. If they aren't biting, I go find something else to do.

No fishing on the toon , Blasphemy !!!!!

Hawk_308 wrote:No fishing on the toon , Blasphemy !!!!!

Yep

The first person that got fish guts or blood on the carpet on the toon, would never hear the end of it from the Admiral. And no, we aren't pulling out the carpet so don't even go there.

We bought the toon for booze cruises, not for fishing.

We fish from the toon, but we haven't had much luck this year. I actually pulled in my first bass on it last weekend, and 4 more followed. Fishing has been slow since. Ours is a cruise model but has a nice bit of deck off the front to cast from, a side gate, and you can set on the rear sun bed and cast off of that. Things have been going well except the past two times I've taken friends out, they hooked the vinyl. I about wanted to kill them; especially the guy who sunk two hooks off of a treble hook into the side of a seat. Luckily, we got the hooks out leaving behind only a tiny little puncture that I will patch up soon.

What really irked me was when a guy was trying to put chicken liver on his hook and was dripping on the carpet (that guy just doesn't think about things), and I actually gave him crap about that one.

The way I see it, I can be a jerk about these things, but then the buddies won't come out anymore. Or, I can laugh them off, make small repairs, and just have a good time out there. Of course, they aren't short of apologies when they hooked the seats AND, the truly problematic friends just don't get invited that often

REPETE wrote:So after fishing with minnows for two days without any luck one of us tried leeches. ...and he caught a walleye on the first cast. I put on a leech, another walleye on my first cast. I go to put another on and it's the last one... yep - another walleye... but now we're out of leeches! So we go right to the bait shop and buy 2 dozen leeches. Get back on the lake within 30 minutes...not another fish boated on leeches for two days! Somebody remind me why we do this...?

This is an old thread but I get the point. It does drive you nuts to go after more leeches only to find they don't want leeches now. I have been there and done similar things. One never knows.

I haven't got the bait well going on the rebuild yet and last weekend took off with a minnow bucket overboard. Had exactly three minnows of 3 dozen left when I realized the brain fart. Caught three white perch(crappie) that day.

badmoonrising wrote:

Hawk_308 wrote:No fishing on the toon , Blasphemy !!!!!

Yep

Fishing is a boat's reason for existence. All that beer,broads and other stuff is just fluff.
Then again, maybe that is why my boat smells like old bait - the wife said its not the boat, just me that smells.

Yeah when I fish in the main part of the Chesapeake (salty water) I take every bait imaginable. Some years the fish love squid, some years it's shrimp. A couple of years ago, everything was biting on chicken strips, especially bluefish and croaker. I bring every kind of cut bait every trip just in case. RARELY get skunked. If the fish aren't biting, change the bait.

badmoonrising wrote:Yeah when I fish in the main part of the Chesapeake (salty water) I take every bait imaginable. Some years the fish love squid, some years it's shrimp. A couple of years ago, everything was biting on chicken strips, especially bluefish and croaker. I bring every kind of cut bait every trip just in case. RARELY get skunked. If the fish aren't biting, change the bait.

I agree. My brother will watch me catch 20 fish to his zero and not switch baits or lures. I just don't get that in people.

It's been a very very odd summer of fishing for me. To start the summer we got tons of very nice fat/long walleye damn near every time out! It was almost like fishing Canada. Since that time, it's been nothing but very small fish!!!!! I've gotten like 2 walleye that were even in the same class as the AVEREAGE size fish from earlier in the summer!

REPETE wrote:

Ron Burgundy wrote:Once upon a time fishing was a leisure activity for me. Now it's lodged in the competitive portion of my brain. I get pretty damn pissed if I don't catch anything. One beer fixes my mood though.

I'm not like that Ron. In fact I just had that debate with my brother. He commented to me how he felt embarrassed last week when two guys fishing close to us were catching fish and we weren't. Then we started catching a bunch and they didn't and my brother goes "Whew, glad we're catching fish because that was brutal watching them. My testosterone was not handling that". ...and he went on and on about it.

I gotta tell ya...that's exactly whey I don't fish tournaments. I can't stand dealing with guys that are more driven by catching more (and bigger) fish than the next guy as if their entire existance depends on it!

I played some competitive golf for a few years and for me fishing is a stress relief. Whether I catch anything is almost a non-factor. In fact, I used to have a deck boat that I named "No Bogeys".

I've never been much for fishing even though I've had bass boats," just like em". I'd always bring my friends out and I'd just bird watch and take in nature. recently though I've been trying for salmon last few years, bass fishing board the shit out of me. to easy and not good to eat. my kids love to fish so I got the fish cruise model but I'm all ready threatening the first prick to hook my seat will be shot! It's stressing me out and I haven't got the boat yet.

the majority of my fishing goes like this....

3 poles... starboard, port, and stern... 6" lures.... one shallow, one medium, one deep.... let out all the line... troll about 2.5mph.... crack open an adult beverage... turn on some classic rock.... watch the poles.....