Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

Having just recently gone through the exhilarating but somewhat difficult process of buying my first pontoon, I am still very unsure as to how I'm really going to mostly use it, since I'm replacing a speedboat. This was a big struggle for me in deciding on a layout. It might help others looking to buy to hear how people find they are actually using their pontoons and what configuration they have and if it is working out or if you'd like something a little different. I'd love to hear people's experiences.

Fishing chairs on a front deck , outside the playpen. A console on the Stbd side. L shaped lounge beside that.

Fishing is my thing! But I enjoy pulling the kids on the tube.

Good Idea. I have a rear fishing set up since I thought I would be mostly fishing. What I've found is an open bow & stern is all you really need for good fishing. If I buy a different model I think I would go with dual rear facing lounges at stern and keep a couple of feet outside the play pen at bow and stern. This set up is better for water sports, cruising and max passenger comfort. I've been looking at the sylvan S3 or S5, I love that set up.

One thing to keep in mind with the rear fishing set up is that the bimini top will be in the way quite a bit. If you like relaxing and trolling, it works out great, but if you are fishing bass or crappie with a lot of casting, it can be tough.

I have a typical cruising set up with lounge in the front and back. I have about 2 ft of deck that extends off of the front outside the pen. I can stand up there and cast all day long. Just make sure you have plenty of space for your fishing needs.

Here is what I would change...
Mostly our groups are 4-6, rarely 10 folks that mostly enjoys some water sports and cruising and lounging around on a sandbar. We always seem to have plenty of space on deck so I would opt for more deck space outside the front and back rails - places to hang your feet overboard. I personally would like a second bimini but that idea always gets nixed by the hoards of sun worshipers in our groups. And besides, I think it might actually get in the way.

This is our toon, 3 pt. fishing set up, live well front left, battery set up for trolling motor front right and boat starting battery in compartment at the rear... great set up for just me and my wife fishing and still enough room for 5 or 6 people to go on a leisurely cruise... love our little benny

We don't fish from our toon and currently we have 2 lounges up front with an L-shape lounge in the rear. Our next toon will have 2 lounges up front, a co-captain chair and rear lounges in the rear -- similar to this set up. This will give us ultimate seating capacity - we just mainly like to go on booze cruises with friends.

Our Manitou will be like this....
The Premier is below
We do fish from the Premier, sometimes. Its not bad to do it from. Lots of room. Just be careful.
Its used mostly for cruising and pulling skiers once in awhile. Since its the Touring Edition, its just an awesome, comfortable cruiser, that will do it all! Just like the Manitou will be. The Manitou has the rear facing loungers, which are convertible into 4 facing chairs.
Changed the order, instead of the sport Xplode. we opted for a fully optioned Legacy. Blue to match the truck!
Oh, did I mention.....
The Premier is still for sale!

My layout is classified, but I'll tell you that the anti-matter cannon control is located by the Admiral's seat, NOT the Captain's seat. But I DO get to control the high voltage fish stunning electrodes. Kinda makes "fishing" boring. Shock the lake, scoop up the biggest fish, motor on...

I am also generally responsible for providing free shots of tequila to any attractive young women we find floating around the lake. I can tell you, that almost got interesting once, as the bridal party we were treating was soon joined by a very angry looking groomsman on a jet-ski. They all told him where to go with his jet-ski, and thanked us. At that time, two of our guests on the boat asked "do you KNOW them?", to which we replied "Never met them before."

This is my setup.

It's a very useful and versatile setup.

We have a factory option pull post midline in the back just aft of the fish station.

The aft fish station has a live well and the port side front console is a live well while the starboard side console in the front is a cooler.

I also have a bow mount trolling motor that is mounted between the front seats and deploys through the front gate. It makes a great bow thruster when docking on windy Kansas days.

All in all, I'd buy another like it.

This is my layout love it. Can fish or just cruse with the family

This is the layout I ended up going with. The rear facing lounger has a movable backrest so it can be used for bench seating on the interior of the boat too. Primarily, we will be just lounging and chilling at a sandbar or swimming hole with maybe 3-5 people usually. No fishing. Maybe a little watersports when the kids are older. I struggled between this layout and a Bennington with a table and 4 chairs, but ultimately, this solstice was a nicer boat (the Bennington was a lower line model) and I hope the layout will work well for us. I liked the layout of the Bennington, but we just couldn't justify the added cost of getting a similar quality Bennington to the Solstice. I'm excited about getting out in our Solstice and see how it works out.

I like the wide open space and the four gates for access.

That driver side gate would be nice. As it is with ours, we will have to reconfigure our dock for passenger side access. Not ideal. I didn't think about that prior to buying the boat, but it seems a lot of pontoons don't have driver side gates anyways.

The gates on all four sides on my SunCatcher are nice, especially when docking at Courtesy Docks or to fuel at the Marina.

I can access from any direction and on a windy Kansas days, and most Kansas days are windy, that makes it nice.