Rod holders can be mounted on the side railings for tight lining baits or pulling crankbaits.

If the boat has an open front deck, chairs can be mounted to the floor to create a comfortable fishing platform. Whitehead installs a couple of ­stainless-steel pedestal seats with offset extension posts to the front of his client’s pontoon. “That [offset] pushes you back about 4 inches so you’re not sitting right on the edge of the boat,” he adds.

Since the pontoon he rigged belonged to a couple who fished mostly for crappies, Whitehead set it up with rod holders for spider-rigging and pulling crankbaits. He mounted two Hi-Tek Stuff rod holders on the front deck and attached two Driftmaster rail-mounted rod holders on each front side of the boat. Then he placed two more off the stern.

“On some pontoons there’s a 3- or 4-foot back deck, so I put a set of rod holders on each side. It works out perfectly, especially for pulling crankbaits,” he says. “That allows eight more rods to go straight out the back.” With this setup, the pontoon angler can use 10- and 12-foot crappie poles out the front and sides and 6-foot poles out the back end.

Since his company specializes in rod holders for crappie fishing, David Baynard, vice president of Driftmaster, frequently gets calls from anglers who want to set up their pontoons for spider-rigging. “Generally for tightlining there needs to be a lot of spread, and that’s why crappie poles have gotten so long,” he says. “That’s one thing a pontoon boat gives you: Coverage without having to use a pole that's so long you can’t handle it.”

Baynard suggests that customers wanting to set up their boats for ­spider-rigging position their rods to allow for comfortable fishing. “All boats are so different that you have to customize your fishing platform based on where you’re going to be fishing the most,” he says. “It’s important to have the rod within quick reach during a strike.

“I tell people to get in their seat with a tape measure and put a rod in the best position it can be for them to access their trolling motor, and at the same time get in and out of their seat and hook a fish during a strike.” So pontoon owners should mount their rod holders in the most accessible front deck locations, based on height and distance measurements taken from their fishing seat.

“Generally pontoon fishermen put rod holders everywhere,” he says. “If a boat doesn’t have seats up front, then they can position them around the circumference of the boat and just fish from the side seats.” A flat rail bolt-on base such as the Driftmaster Li’l Pro 211-B, or a square rail-clamp base model like the Driftmaster Li’l Pro 216-B, are Baynard’s choices for mounting rod holders to the railings.

Two-position or horizontal rod holders are best on railings. “Generally in crappie fishing you want your rod tips low to the water, so a horizontal rod holder works fine,” he says.

With a tweak here and there, your family pontoon boat can be converted into a reliable fishing craft—and with so many easy-to-remove fishing accessories available today, it can be changed back for other family fun in a couple of minutes.

John Neporadny’s work is often seen on the pages of ­In-Fisherman’s various annual Guides and in In-Fisherman magazine. He works from his home in Lake Ozark, MO.