Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

After receiving the advise about the best toon size for use as a fishing platform my wife and myself, I had just one more question.

It seems that a "regular" 18' toon with a load of a 90 HP outboard, 2 people (370 lbs total) and two small dogs wouldn't draw much water. Perhaps 18"' to 24 " of water, 30" at the worst. (Assuming nominal loading of fuel, etc.) ???

The reason I'm asking is because we may have an opportunity to do a bit of river fishing with it and wanted to make sure we're not out of line even considering it.

Assume we don't put a piano on the 18' toon, , does a worse case draft of 30 " seems reasonable ? (I'm assuming these are all rough approximations).

Thanks in advance for the help.

IMO about 20' and including lowerunit

I set my depth finder at 24 inches when I plan on shallow fishing, mine can get down to 16 inches if needed.

There is a SMALL river I fish off a local lake and with the motor raised I can pole my way through less than 16" of water in the delta area to get into be 5-7' deep channel. I could never get into that river with my 16.5' Lund V-hull.

lakerunner wrote:IMO about 20' and including lowerunit

+1 I have been in less than that but with no power trim found a big rock with the prop, so 20" sounds about right for my boat.

Where I fish Im either in very deep water or very shallow. I got stuck for the first time the other day in about 8" of water because the tide went out faster than I had noticed.... We just took a paddle and my anchor pin and pushed the boat out to about 12" then I was good to go, just tilted the motor pretty high and idled around.... The other day I got a good laugh at the ramp. There was a man and woman in a shallow water bay boat that had just unloaded and was trying to get out into the channel. They where really struggling and ended up mad and came back to the dock... I off loaded next and drove right out, right after they told me ( your not going to be able to get that big ol thing out ) they looked pretty dissipointed that a pontoon got out no problem in the very shallow water... Moral of the story, toons can run very shallow if you balance your load right and use your trim correctly.

The specs for my Benni say the draft (with motor tilted all the way down) is 22 inches.

I don't think your going to get a 90 on a 18 foot boat, most 20 footers are limited to 70 hp, if you have power trim get a propguard and you can trim up the engine and the propguard will act like a jet drive and had got me through areas with the toons dragging on the bottom, but you have to watch to make sure the water is still coming out the piss tube.

My Evinrude never had a problem plugging, but I have already plug the tube up on my Mercury once, seems it has a smaller orifice coming out of the engine instead of just having the hose sticking out like the Evinrude.

My older Sweetwater with two tubes (23") is a 20-footer rated for a 90 hp. I can imagine there might be some 18 footers with three tubes or larger diameter tubes that could handle a 90 hp (unless length is the biggest factor).

I fish the river all year. Low and 20+ foot of water. I measured my prop up to a safe distance, with water still coming from the pee hole, and have the depth finder set to 18" for low water alarm. From there I use the trolling motor and have it set to just above the toons, but still under water. I have been in some pretty shallow water. Have not had a problem.