# The maiden voyage of the toon



## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

Sothe size of the Dandrews navy has tripled over the past month or so. Ive had a big ole Grumman canoe for years, its too big to lug around by myself anymore. About a month ago I bought a Seahawk inflatable which serves its purpose and then about a week or so ago I bought a 1 man pontoon. Imalt has one and he likes it, I came across one at a really good price so I snapped it up. The rivers have been up ever since I got it; I found a creek thats not blown out so I put in today and paddled around for a little while. After its maiden voyage, Im pretty happy with my purchase. I mostly played around but I did get some fishing in. Theres a hole in this creek that Ive been wanting to drift through since I found it. I caught a few small bass and bluegills drifting the hole, paddled back to the head and did it again, several times. 
When it came time to leave I drifted on downstream, just cruised right through some riffles that I portaged on the way up. As I approached my take out, I noticed something running around on shore; I got the camera out & started snapping pictures. As I got closer I realized that it was a young beaver, I thought cool, it doesnt even know Im here. Wrong, suddenly the thing started running toward me on the bank, jumped in and started swimming straight at me. I thought itll turn around once it realizes what I am. Wrong again, it was moving fast and getting a little too close for comfort; I started yelling (half laughing) and eventually had to swing an oar at it. Now Ive seen my share beavers, ordinarily I tend to repel them but apparently not this one. I was just drifting by, not doing anything to antagonize it; I guess I just rubbed it the wrong way.


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

That's cool, I've always thought one of those pontoons would be neat to have. Much easier to transport in a smaller vehicle than a yak was my thinking. Curious if you know how much it weighs?

Beavers always give me pause. It's cool to see them, but I don't want nothing to do with a 15 to 20+ lb rodent with teeth as big as my thumb, especially when I'm *ahem* "waist" deep in a creek.

I was fishing a creek with co-angler a few weeks ago and we had a beaver swim within about six or ten feet of him and just give us the stink eye and then slowly swim off. It wasn't scared of us in the least and it wasn't a particularly big one.

A couple years ago I was waist deep in some crystal clear creek water and one came out of log jam and swam underwater within about four feet of me before he seen me and darted off, needless to say I moved up to shallower water.

Those are some good pictures you got of it though.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

deltaoscar said:


> That's cool, I've always thought one of those pontoons would be neat to have. Much easier to transport in a smaller vehicle than a yak was my thinking. Curious if you know how much it weighs?


I think its roughly 45 lbs. the toon not the beaver. It breaks down and fits in my car, portaging it is nothing. I was going to buy a kayak but I read a couple posts by imalt that made me consider a pontoon, then I ran across one at a price I couldnt refuse.

I saw the beaver from a distance and it was almost directly across the creek from where I was going to take out. At first I thought it was the worlds biggest groundhog until I got closer. Those things can move a lot faster than you think.


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## oldstinkyguy (Mar 28, 2010)

Nothings worse than an angry beaver...
just sayin



I wanna see a pic of the toon BTW. Ill be away shark noodling and wont get to see it for awhile


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

Sweet, so the east side has sasquatches and trouser snakes, and now the west side has bloodthirsty beavers. This area is getting harder to fish by the day.


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## crappiedude (Mar 12, 2006)

oldstinkyguy said:


> I wanna see a pic of the toon BTW. Ill be away shark noodling and wont get to see it for awhile


Me too. I was thinking about a yak but maybe not....


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## deltaoscar (Apr 4, 2009)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Ill be away shark noodling


lol..I've heard you only get a couple of tries at that.



kingofamberley said:


> and now the west side has bloodthirsty beavers. This area is getting harder to fish by the day.


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## kingofamberley (Jul 11, 2012)

deltaoscar said:


> lol..I've heard you only get a couple of tries at that.


That just made me bust out laughing at work.


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## Mr. A (Apr 23, 2012)

deltaoscar said:


> lol..I've heard you only get a couple of tries at that.


I haven't laughs like that in a while!

To the OP, that hairy beaver pic was much more family friendly than originally thought!

~^~^~^~^~^
| Mr. A
|
¿ <°»))))>{


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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

LOL that beaver was not happy at all. You can see the angry in his face in that pic, haha!

I bought a creek company sport xr1 earlier this year I STILL haven't taken out yet. Did you get stickers for yours? I'm going to finally get that done this weekend and hopefully sometime before the year 2020 it will stop raining and I can use it.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

oldstinkyguy said:


> Nothings worse than an angry beaver...
> just sayin
> 
> I wanna see a pic of the toon BTW. Ill be away shark noodling and wont get to see it for awhile


Let us know how that shark noodling works out.

I was kind of chuckling until at some point I realized it wasn't turning around.

I haven't taken a picture of the toon yet but here's one off of the net.
I've re-engineered the oar locks and I might replace the seat.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

JimmyMac said:


> LOL that beaver was not happy at all. You can see the angry in his face in that pic, haha!
> 
> I bought a creek company sport xr1 earlier this year I STILL haven't taken out yet. Did you get stickers for yours? I'm going to finally get that done this weekend and hopefully sometime before the year 2020 it will stop raining and I can use it.


I have registered it; I stenciled the numbers on, but I haven&#8217;t put the stickers on yet. I haven&#8217;t thought of a good way to put it on so it will stay on something that&#8217;ll be inflated, deflated & rolled up continually. I had a customer suggest putting it on a piece of vinyl or similar piece of nylon fabric and Velcro on. I&#8217;ll probably do something like that. I thought for sure I&#8217;d run into a Ranger while I was on the water, I'd have some explaining to do but it is registered.


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## E_Lin (Jun 30, 2011)

I've been debating between getting a kayak and one of those pontoon boats. Is it not too hard to paddle around in river current? I've also heard you can mount a trolling motor on them sometimes.


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## barbereugene (Sep 16, 2012)

What about the back of the seat for the sticker? Thats hard plastic, right? 


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## imalt (Apr 17, 2008)

E_Lin said:


> I've been debating between getting a kayak and one of those pontoon boats. Is it not too hard to paddle around in river current? I've also heard you can mount a trolling motor on them sometimes.


I haven't mounted it yet but I cut down a trolling motor and rewired it to put on my toon. You don't want to be paddling upstream but as far as fishing current I think they are way better than a yak. They both have their advantages and disadvantages though. But you will never roll a pontoon unless you are on some class 5 rapids maybe. And they will draft in a lot shallower water than a yak. I have both but prefer my pontoon.


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## Dandrews (Oct 10, 2010)

barbereugene said:


> What about the back of the seat for the sticker? Thats hard plastic, right?
> 
> 
> Posted using Outdoor Hub Campfire


I eventually plan on mounting a trolling motor so I cant use the alternate registration method. The seat isnt hard plastic either, its not bad but Ill most likely replace it with something a little more substantial.
I had no problems rowing upstream on Tuesday but the current wasnt particularly strong where I was.


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## MassillonBuckeye (May 3, 2010)

I've heard from a few more knowledgable than I that its easier to row those guys backwards because of the way they track. You may want to give it a try sometime.


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## Cajunsaugeye (Apr 9, 2013)

I bought one a few wks ago(selling it now).I just took two strips of semi rigid vinyl,put numbers and sticker on,drilled 2 holes in each and zip tied them to the frame on each side.Also built a wood back deck using u bolts as to not drill holes into frame.3 PVC rod holder's u bolted to it.Half an anchormate for a little anchor and attach 1 more board for trolling motor mount.

Sent from my VS870 4G using Ohub Campfire mobile app


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## Snakecharmer (Apr 9, 2008)

Cajunsaugeye said:


> I bought one a few wks ago(selling it now).I just took two strips of semi rigid vinyl,put numbers and sticker on,drilled 2 holes in each and zip tied them to the frame on each side.Also built a wood back deck using u bolts as to not drill holes into frame.3 PVC rod holder's u bolted to it.Half an anchormate for a little anchor and attach 1 more board for trolling motor mount.
> 
> Sent from my VS870 4G using Ohub Campfire mobile app


I've heard that vinyl siding works great for Ohio numbers.


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## GarrettMyers (May 16, 2011)

I love my pontoon, but nothing in the world tracks worse. The stability is awesome. The only thing I really use the oars for is to steer when cruising with the motor on full tilt or keeping it straight through rapids. If you can figure out a way to mount the motor in front of you, it would make it a lot better. Reaching behind you the whole time steering a trolling motor gets old quick. I don't want to sound negative cause I really do like mine. I think the best use for it is to cruise downstream to the next hole in the river. It's like riding in a Cadillac on the water.


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## co-angler (Jan 3, 2010)

GarrettMyers said:


> it's like riding in a Cadillac on the water.


Wait a minute, what?
My Caddy sunk whence I tried to take it on the WWR?
You, Mr. GarrettMyers, owe me a new CTS!



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## JimmyMac (Feb 18, 2011)

E_Lin said:


> I've been debating between getting a kayak and one of those pontoon boats. Is it not too hard to paddle around in river current? I've also heard *you can mount a trolling motor on them sometimes.*


I got one for mine, also have a swivel seat for it so I wont have to reach over my shoulder to steer it. I'm glad I found this thread though its giving me motivation to get mine out on the water finally.


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