Many of my followers are already aware of my purchase of a 1997 20 foot pontoon, which I am repowering with a new 90hp Mercury Command Thrust. It used to have a 50hp Johnson, so this sucker is going to move (for a pontoon).
However, I have been getting a LOT of questions about my fishing setup on my Toon. The Toon came with a large open deck area on the front, outside of the pontoon railing. That area will be transformed into the fishing war room. I’m adding two swivel chairs, an Minn Kots Ulterra trolling motor with the sweet old-man-friendly auto-deploy/stow and spot lock and all that rough ridin' crap, Garmin livescope with the large screen, and periscope attachment to direct the the livescope transducer. Also adding onbaoard charger for all the batteries. The Toon already has a CD player in it with an Aux hole, so I can listen to Big Head Todd CD’s AND plug my phone in.
Couple things I wan to add:
- lights for night fishing, with maybe some color tint options
- bunch of rod holders
- cooler with the bubbles stuff rigged up as a bait/live well
- an absurdly loud and disturbing horn
- maybe a ski tower for tubers/kneeboarding/wakeboarding
I plan to be out on it for opening weekend of fishing in MN, fingers crossed.
I plan on using the livescope in perspective mode in the sand flats immediately off of the deep areas to try and find some walleye.
My top three starting strategies will be:
1. Slip bobber to dangle the bait about 2 feet of the bottom in 6 - 10 feet of water. Probably with large shiner minnows and night crawlers.
2. Casting a Ned rig with Zman TRD’s.
3. Trolling with a lindy rig with minnows and crawlers.
If I am getting skunked, I’ll just fish the banks for sunfish, crappie,perch and maybe the random ornery bass or northern.
It’s against the law in MN to catch a perch and then put it on a big hook and sinker and throw it out and troll the deep areas for big northern, so I will definitely not do that.