Hopefully my house in Alaska will sell in the next month or so (had to move due to CG transfering me and am waiting for it to sell).  If so I think my family will be purchasing a pontoon boat (currently am paying rent and mortgage, which means none left over for a boat yet).  I am thinking a pontoon boat would be good for us all to go out and use for fishing and for just tooling around the lakes.  The reason I think this is that my wife and I love to fish, we have 3 kids ranging from 5-10 (going to be 6-11 w/in 2 months).  They love to fish, but the youngest doesn't have a great attention span.  This will allow us all to go out on the water and enjoy fishing without having to run to shore when the youngest wants to color.  

What do you guys think about this?  Are pontoon boats a good idea for a fishing platform as well as doubling as a run-about?  I don't think I can get my wife to agree to 2 specialized boats (fishing and pure enjoyment boats) so am trying to find a good compromise for us all.  This would also allow people who are visiting us in VA to go out on the water with us for a nice relaxing day.  Most of the bass boats I have seen are rated 4 persons max, which does not fit our family.

Pontoons are an excellent idea, just find some offshore structure, drop anchor, & fish 360 degrees around the boat.

Pontoons make great family fishing boats,  not so good bass fishing boats.

My friend has a large deck boat and we go bass fishing a lot and haven't been skunked yet.  Fishing on a large family boat is great just don't try to get in there as close as you would with a bass boat.

That is what I was expecting to here.  I figure it will be a good compromise boat.  I think that is better than fishing from the shore.

Pontoon boats make great fishing platforms. They just aren't as fast as real bass boats but they have many other advantages. Heck, you can even bring along a barbeque and grill the fish you catch right on the boat:o) I personally would love one of the mini-pontoons and might just get a used one when I get back to Indiana if the price is right!