Tom
Administrator
- Joined
- Jan 13, 2005
- Posts
- 51,958
I'd been contemplating buying a float boat (the type with inflatable pontoons) for fishing lakes and rivers. I recently had an opportunity to rent one at Bridgeport Reservoir, and am I glad I did.
My first impression was that this boat was all but impossible to get into from a dock. and was best 'walked in' from a ramp or from a beach. I was glad I was wearing waders, otherwise I'd have been wet and cold launching the boat.
Maybe it was something about the brand of boat, but I found it awkward to row and, when headed into the wind, it was hard work!
This boat was rigged with an anchor via a quick-release mechanism on the frame. The way it was set up made it virtually impossible to orient the boat once anchored. It would have been nice to be able to move the anchor from the rear to the front of the boat, so as to change the orientation, but there did not appear to be any way to do that with this particular frame design.
I wished I was wearing my fins that I normally wear while on my float tube. They would have added a greater degree of maneuverability.
The boat was fitted with a single wheel which was turned through 90 degrees and locked in place with a clevis pin when launched. Re-deploying the wheel when I brought the boat to shore was a real pain. I had to kneel in the water and raise one end of the boat high enough to be able to change position of the wheel. I'm glad I was wearing my waders and wished the wheel was in a fixed position.
Dragging the boat up on shore required two hands &/or two people due to the single wheel. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I went for help. If there were two wheels, it would have been a lot easier to manhandle the boat up the beach.
I came away from this experience believing that the only way I'd buy and use one of these boats is if it was equipped with two wheels and an electric trolling motor. The $20 rental fee proved to have been money well spent to avoid making a costly purchase mistake.
Talking later with a couple of float boat owenrs, I learned that a motor with 30 lbs of thrust would be ample. I also learned from these folks that, in choppy water, they got quite wet, and they had given up trying to fish Convict lake that morning for that reason.
My first impression was that this boat was all but impossible to get into from a dock. and was best 'walked in' from a ramp or from a beach. I was glad I was wearing waders, otherwise I'd have been wet and cold launching the boat.
Maybe it was something about the brand of boat, but I found it awkward to row and, when headed into the wind, it was hard work!
This boat was rigged with an anchor via a quick-release mechanism on the frame. The way it was set up made it virtually impossible to orient the boat once anchored. It would have been nice to be able to move the anchor from the rear to the front of the boat, so as to change the orientation, but there did not appear to be any way to do that with this particular frame design.
I wished I was wearing my fins that I normally wear while on my float tube. They would have added a greater degree of maneuverability.
The boat was fitted with a single wheel which was turned through 90 degrees and locked in place with a clevis pin when launched. Re-deploying the wheel when I brought the boat to shore was a real pain. I had to kneel in the water and raise one end of the boat high enough to be able to change position of the wheel. I'm glad I was wearing my waders and wished the wheel was in a fixed position.
Dragging the boat up on shore required two hands &/or two people due to the single wheel. After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, I went for help. If there were two wheels, it would have been a lot easier to manhandle the boat up the beach.
I came away from this experience believing that the only way I'd buy and use one of these boats is if it was equipped with two wheels and an electric trolling motor. The $20 rental fee proved to have been money well spent to avoid making a costly purchase mistake.
Talking later with a couple of float boat owenrs, I learned that a motor with 30 lbs of thrust would be ample. I also learned from these folks that, in choppy water, they got quite wet, and they had given up trying to fish Convict lake that morning for that reason.