Pontoon boats

[Tappen]

Im really interested in getting one of these for fly fishing, does anyone use one? and what can ya tell me about your experiences with em?

[coyotehunter_1]

I had a pontoon for about ten years, really enjoyed it. Mine was a 20 footer pushed by a 75 hp Yamaha outboard. Around here you need a motor powerfull enough to get you to shore fast in case of storms or heavy wind. Decked out, loaded with gear and 4 people, running at full throttle mine would top out at around 30 mph. Using Canon down riggers and a foot controlled trolling motor I had it rigged for Stripe and Rockfish. I often used the boat as a casting platform, including whipping a fly rod for bass and sunfish. With plenty of room and being quite stable they are great for family fishing or just enjoying the water. You can find many uses for a pontoon boat.
A couple of other things to ponder; If you run smooth water I would advise getting a pontoon boat that sets low in the water, as any wind will push you around... but on the down side a low rider will also get you wet (over spray) when running into waves of any size. A fold down type cloth top really helps when fishing, giving you more room to cast and move about when a big fish is on. Sometimes I wish I had not sold mine. 

[Okanagan]

Im really interested in getting one of these for fly fishing, does anyone use one? and what can ya tell me about your experiences with em?

Tappen, are you thinking of one of those little one man boats that are slightly a step up in size from a float tube?  I'd like one of those myself.  A good friend of mine has one that he loves.  He fly fishes lakes with his and will sometimes float an easy river for steelhead in it.  He can stick it in the bed of his pick-up, carry it down a woods trail to a lake off a logging road, and it moves around better with oars than a float tube, plus keeps him up out of the water better.  Hard to beat for fly fishing small waters.  Wouldn't want it on open ocean, big rivers nor big wide open lakes.    Sweet unit to cruise off a bed of lily pads and lay a fly along the edge.

[Tappen]

yep, them are the ones okanagan, i really wanna learn how to fly fish, and i feel im fairly good on casting, just dunno what to do once i get the fly out there, do i drag the line in slowly? ive seen people do that, what would you do after you got the fly out there on a pontoon boat okanagan?



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[pitw]

  what would you do after you got the fly out there on a pontoon boat okanagan?

  He'd probably can some fish

[Tappen]

  what would you do after you got the fly out there on a pontoon boat okanagan?

  He'd probably can some fish

that tuna looked good, i must say, and im a tune fan! :D

[Okanagan]

yep, them are the ones okanagan, i really wanna learn how to fly fish, and i feel im fairly good on casting, just dunno what to do once i get the fly out there, do i drag the line in slowly? ive seen people do that, what would you do after you got the fly out there on a pontoon boat okanagan?

Make the fish want to eat it.  That usually means make the fly look alive by pulling the line to make it move.  On lakes with floating lines and floating (dry) flies, I let it lie for a few seconds while the original ripples widen out from where the fly landed, then I give it a little twitch, as small a movement as possible, not to drag it through the water yet but just make it look like the bug struggled.  I may do that with little twitches and pauses all the way back to the boat.  Or I may give it a steady series of short pulls, like the bug is kicking and pausing, all the way back.  And once in awhile fish will hit much better if you pull it back to you pretty fast and nonstop.

Try each of those kind of retrieves and remember what you were doing when the fish hit and do it again.  Each day may be different, something to do with the mood of all the fish that day and or the action of bugs that day.  I'm not into it enough to figure all of that out, so just try several kinds of retrieves to see if the trout like one kind of movement that day.

With sinking flies, especially the tiny chronomid flies which are a boring way to fish and deadly on big trout, the trick is to let them hang dead still and then make minuscule jerks like a tiny bug making an inch long swim move.  I've been so spoiled in BC that I don't fish sinking line or flies much.  If I can’t get them to hit on the surface or close enough to it to use a floating line,  I go hunt mushrooms or bears or do something more fun than watching line soak.   My biggest fly caught rainbow trout however was between 10 and 11 pounds on a fly sunk about two or three feet deep and twitched super slow back to me in dusk on a lake.  Floating line but a wet fly.  

All of this is in still water lakes which is mainly where I fish trout in BC.  Moving water in rivers is another kind of fly fishing altogether.  The experts all say to let the fly drift so it does not drag or move unnaturally against current.  I’ve hammered rainbows in big creeks by skittering a fly across current and pulling it with drag, etc.  Our wild trout don’t read the eastern fly fishing books, but I dead drift flies with no drag for awhile and only go to giving it life if nothing bites.  Nothing to lose.

Golfertrout is a trout catcher excellente. Ask him how he does it.  

One of the better things about fly fishing is how much pleasure it gives to use the gear well, even if nothing bites.  It is a pleasure to cast with a balanced fly rod and line, etc.

[Okanagan]

  what would you do after you got the fly out there on a pontoon boat okanagan?

  He'd probably can some fish

that tuna looked good, i must say, and im a tune fan! :D

Those albacore tuna would be EASY to hook on a fly rod.  They are on the surface and we caught them that day by trolling at least 7 mph by our speed instruments, bouncing a huge metal and feather jig on the surface in the boat wake.  Once one is on, others charge around the boat.  It would be easy to hook one if a man threw a big fly out there.  They are a rocket in the water, and it would take a BIG fly reel with lots of line and a lot of drag to tire one and work him back to the boat. 

As to canning, I haven't fired up the canner before throwing a line but on some lakes in BC, we start a fire and get a skillet heating before we wet a line. 

[pitw]

  I haven't fired up the canner before throwing a line but on some lakes in BC, we start a fire and get a skillet heating before we wet a line. 

I've done that but I like a hot pan for my steaks anyway .

[Tappen]

Well, i been lookin for one for a couple weeks now and aint found anything so i decided to go with a float tube, so today i ordered my self a float tube, pair of nice chest waders, and a pair of flippers :)

[Okanagan]

Well, i been lookin for one for a couple weeks now and aint found anything so i decided to go with a float tube, so today i ordered my self a float tube, pair of nice chest waders, and a pair of flippers :)

Good for you!  Get it and use it right away instead of planning forever.

Here's a fly fishing story for you, a yarn about fly fishing, techniques, and wisdom.

I was taking a summer course from a Harvard professor at a resort town in Colorado.   The prof was an avid fly fisherman and the last morning he invited me to go with him to a nearby mountain lake.  I didn’t have a rod nor a license but went along to enjoy the morning.  He fished as the dawn sky brightened and after 20 minutes he asked if I wanted to try a cast.  I declined because of no license.  He agreed that I should not fish all day but he didn’t consider it too bad a breach to try a few casts.

So I took over his custom 2 weight rod, the finest fly rod I’ve ever handled.  What a sweet unit.  He critiqued my first cast and then when I twitched the fly on the dead calm lake surface, he admonished me not to do that because it caused drag, which was bad.  When he looked away I twitched the fly again and a fat 10 inch brookie slammed it.  When I landed the fish I handed the rod toward him and he demurred, telling me to cast again.  In the next three or four minutes I hooked three more trout and landed one of them before he took back his rod.

Then for the next 30 minutes which I timed by my watch, I stood by and sweated and prayed that he would catch a fish, while he never got a bite.

He was a great sport about it and we stopped at a mountain café where the cook fried our two trout with eggs for our breakfast.  We laughed ruefully and commiserated about how he had put the rod in my hands during the only short spell when the fish were biting.  Fortunately, it was the last day of class and we parted that afternoon.

I think my son, who was 15 at the time, would have caught a sack of brookies that morning with his old fiberglass rod, level line and monofil line for leader.

[Tappen]

a harvard professser! wow, what do you do for a living? :D And how exactly do you twitch the fly? just tug on the line a little bit? DO you tug and then hold the line u tugged in and do it again. Thanks for all the help okanagan, its a great thing for me! and by the way, do you still live in bc? mind me askin where?

[Okanagan]

a harvard professser! wow, what do you do for a living? :D And how exactly do you twitch the fly? just tug on the line a little bit? DO you tug and then hold the line u tugged in and do it again. Thanks for all the help okanagan, its a great thing for me! and by the way, do you still live in bc? mind me askin where?

Harvard perfessers get bit by mosquitoes the same as anybody else.  But this guy was the best instructor of any kind I've ever met.  He was flat out good at knowing how people learn and how to teach them something.   He gave us good stuff.  I was doing some teaching and it was a course on how to use case studies to teach.

I use the rod tip to twitch a fly.  You can't push the fly so the only way to move it on the end of a line is to pull the line, and the trick to make it look like a bug struggling on the surface is to pull it as little as possible as quick and short as you can.  Jerk the line one inch or less if you can.  Some people do that by getting the line fairly tight with no slack and pull the line with their line handling hand.  I get slack out of the line and do it with the rod tip.  Tiny ripple rings go out from the fly "bug" and it will coast a little closer to you as the ripples subside.

No matter how you do it, it will pull the fly closer to you.  Gather up the slack each time you pull so you have a direct pull on the fly each time.  You are going to catch fish like crazy and within two weeks can tell us how to go about it.

I'm in Abbotsford for now, not nearly as much fly fishing handy as there is in the Interior of BC where we used to live.

[slagmaker]

I hae a pontoon boat I purchased from Rural King. Paid less than 80 bucks for it and it works well for what I use it for and thats fishing. It isnt as fancy as teh one you posted Tappen but it is in that same family of boats.

[Tappen]

Thats cool, thanks alot okanagan, one of my sisters live in abbotsford, i grew up in salmon arm. Now i live in northern alberta, where i as a 16 year old kid  make more then my sister in bc haha. Money aint really important to me at all, but it helps me do the things that are important to me! like hunting and fishing. Happy theres more canadians then just me and barry, with just us we might get canada a bad rep.. hehe.

[Tappen]

oh, and by the way, this is what i ended up buying! im super excited!



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