pontoon troubles

[Yeti]

I have had some troubles fishing out of my pontoon boat. I can't seem to troll very well with my flippers because my legs are pretty short. Any suggestions or tricks you have found?

[crobarr]

1 word= oars

[Jerry Daschofsky]

What kind of boat do you have? I'd have to agree with crobarr though. If you can't reach now, chances are you're SOL (unless you had a custom frame built). Oars or an electric trolling motor is an option.

[cabezon]

If you aren't using them now, try scuba fins. They don't fit over wading boots (at least for my honking feet) but they do fit fine over waders. They are longer than typical float-tube fins and you can find even longer models that free-divers use.

If oars are your final option, you can buy/build a rod holder that will maintain your rod in a good angle for a hook-set. You'll miss a few as you won't have the immediate control of holding the rod yourself, but it is an option. Evolutionarily, a hexapod design (6 limbs) or prehensile feet would solve the problem too.

Steve

[Taxon]

Yeti-

Something troubles me about the logistics of your problem. When you're sitting in the seat of your pontoon boat, in order to kick comfortably, your upper legs should be horizontal and extend far enough to clear the seat by several inches. Your lower legs should hang down forming a ~70 degree angle with your upper legs, and your ankles should be bent so the fins form a ~120 degree angle with your lower legs. So, unless your lower legs are shorter than the height of you seat above the water, you really shouldn't be having this problem.

Without being able to see your pontoon boat, and how you sit in it, troubleshooting the problem is difficult. However, your problem likely involves one or more of the following:

1) lower legs are shorter than height of seat above water
2) upper legs not horizontal because of how you are sitting in the seat
3) lower legs are not hanging at a ~70 degree angle (ankles slightly under seat)
4) fins are not forming a ~120 degree angle with lower legs

If you are using fins that are worn over wading boots, it is possible the stiffness of the wading boots could be preventing your ankles from bending appropriately. If this is the case, I recommend borrowing some ForceFins from someone, and try them without wading boots to see if this solves the problem.

Hope this helps.

[Flyfishsteel]

Buy a scotty fly rod holder and use your oars. Done.

[Randy Hardy]

I disagree with the "just use your oars and a rod holder" answer. For me the oars are used on my pontoon only at the end of the day if I'm beat or very far out from the launch. Using fins for trolling is "THE" best way I have success some days. I don't have any answer to this post. I would say, if you can afford it, get another pontoon that doesn't sit as high in the water. The ODC (918?) sits low. I bought that one didn't like how low it sat so I bought the Costco Snohomish a couple of years ago. It works great.:thumb:


Good Luck!

Randy

[cuponoodle breakfast]

If you have any of the common 8-9' pontoon boats then your problem is not short legs. Maybe try a different technique/stroke.

[silver]

as long as you're fishing still water you could try deflating your pontoons more than you normally would to lower the seat and frame a few inches.. assuming you can still tighten the frame to the toons safely. But you shouldn't be more than a foot and a half off the water so height shouldn't be a problem:confused: