Rigging a Pontoon

[ShowmeCrappie]

Well after some serious thoughts and deliberation I traded my XP200 off for a tritoon!!
I hope I don't regret the move, the Xpress has served me well but wanted something I could get "multi" use out of.
The tritoon is a fish/cruise model so I have some rigging to do on it, hoping to see some ideas of how some of you have your rod holders mounted!!
I currently use Hiteks and was planning on mounting them on to the tritoon. Any do's/dont's when it comes to mounting transducers etc etc etc.

[deltarat]

I built risers for my rod holders to bring them up to the top of my rails. I did not want to clamp them on the rails and scratch up the paint. Mine too is a multi purpose rig. I have 8 rod holders on the front and 4 on each side for what ever type of fishing I want to do. I have a sun deck on the back, so I am limited to fishing from the front.

[CliffordN]

Yo DeltaBull, you are being paged....

[ShowmeCrappie]

Anyone else? Pics maybe?

[deltabull]

I bought an old sun tracker24' three years ago and rebuilt it mainly for fishing. I put the console in the center to give walk-around space to all sides. I did not put any pontoon seating on my boat but elected to just use moveable chairs. The tracker has a 4 ft deck in front of the main fencing with a split short fence in the front. I mounted a powerdrive v2 up front and have 2 4 rod hi Tek pole holders mounted up there for spider rigging. Just enough room for 2 chairs there and is comfortable to fish.
On the sides I mounted 9 spiderlok rail mount rod holders. Three on each side and three across the back. I can use these for pulling cranks or titelining for catfish.
I have my main transducer mounted on the back of one of the pontoons and when spider rigging I mount a chirp 7 up front with transducer on trolling motor.
My pontoon has a hard top so I mounted rod holders on the top support posts to hold up to 8 long rods while transporting.
If I could change anything about my boat I would have gotten a stronger trolling motor ( I'm using a 45 lb. 12v ipilot) but it does fine when it's not too windy. Other than that I wouldn't change a thing.

[SpeckledSlab]

I've got an older 24' Lowe pontoon needing re-decked and an older 70 h.p. Johnson to push it, if I run out of projects. it will be set up to fish & shrimp. Mine has the hard-top like deltabull's, I like the way he mounted the rod racks to it. The center console is an idea I've pondered also. I too have the 45 lb Minn Kota for it, but I hope to locate a deal on a Minn Kota Riptide when the time comes. Good thread, I feel for ShowmeCrappie giving up the Xpress as they are fine boats.

[Ardent_Angler]

What model pontoon did you get? I’m thinking of trading my Phoenix bass boat in for a Pontoon because of my young kids. Hard to get them all on a bass boat. I’m curious if anyone e spider rigs from a pontoon boat?


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

[cwright]

I have a Bennington fish and cruise that I fish from. I had Gene that makes the spyderloks make me a pair of custom mounts. They bolt on the rail then I mount the crossbar from the spyderloks on them. I unbolt one hand screw and can take the entire rod holder set off. I am fishing in the morning and will get pics. Also the spyderloks are without a doubt the best holders I have ever used.

[cwright]

Here is a pick from Saturday and you can see the mounts and rod holders.

[ShowmeCrappie]

Thanks for the replies! It will be a fun journey rigging it and hopefully will serve it's purpose well.

What model pontoon did you get? I’m thinking of trading my Phoenix bass boat in for a Pontoon because of my young kids. Hard to get them all on a bass boat. I’m curious if anyone e spider rigs from a pontoon boat?


Sent from my iPhone using Crappie.com

I bought a Trifecta 23 FC-SS with the 2.75 performance package, 200 hp yammy. It has two seats up front along with two benches up front but no seats in the rear. I have looked and looked and all the rigs with 4 point fishing seats has so much open floor space it seemed a waste to me. I looked long and hard at Sunchaser models but a couple of my neighbors at the lake own them and have had quite a bit of trouble out of them but they do have the better layout for fishing on the 2018 models.
To answer your question on spider rigging there are 3 guys there that spider rig from theirs which is what prompted me to go that route!