Sea Eagle Foldcat Pontoon Boat

[Axman49]

I am just starting to appreciate fishing as a great way to enjoy my retirement. Ordered a Sea Eagle FoldCat pontoon boat that should be delivered by the 17th. Going to be mostly fishing small lakes in my area of western Pennsylvania. Didn't want the hassles of motor maintenance, transporting, launching, etc. a boat so decided on this one. I am also thinking about a "Fishin' Buddy" fish finder and a small electric motor... just curious - your thoughts please. Thanks in advance!!

[Axman49]

Thank you TM - hadn't even given that a thought - guess I can connect my "Fishin' Buddy" to the battery that runs the trolling motor too, huh?

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

I have a SeaEagle 124SMB with 55# tm it scoots nicely one should make your pontoon with less drag & weight really go.

Try out your foot pump a few times to see how it goes but I went ahead and got a powered pump so much easier. While its doing the work you can do other things to get ready a bit of a time saver.

[Axman49]

Hey Q&S, appreciate you advice! I was planning to try the foot pump first - almost ordered the pump from Sea Eagle. How long does it take to pump up your 124SMB with the foot pump?

[Axman49]

Hey TN - from what I understand the Fishin' Buddy runs on AA batteries and the customer reviews on Amazon are excellent for battery life... just ordered it.

I will certainly trust you on the Minn Kota Battery box... I do appreciate your advice and don't want to experiment unnecessarily. ;o))

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

My boat I tried the footpump once and was a 20+ minute workout for me the electric pump 7minutes. A person in better shape could no doubt do it quicker. I still take the footpump with just incase the electric one goes out. I can be launched in 20-25minutes

I looked at yours and they say 5minute set-up time the pontoons dont hold the amount of air my boat does.

[Axman49]

My boat arrived today but missing a couple of boxes - including the one with foot pump. I could certainly use the exercise but not in good enough shape to try a 20+ minute workout every time I want to launch it so will likely go for an electric one too. Would you advise me going with the "Airhead" like you got from Cabela's or should I go with the one that Sea Eagle advertises for their boats?

[QUAKEnSHAKE]

I did more checking, your boat has the 1000 Denier fabric material I had a hunch and was correct you nead higher pressure than I need in my boat. Me I only need like 1.5psi my pump is rated 2.5. YOUR boat needs 3.2 psi you will need more powerful pump or have to use footpump to top-off.

If you havent seen here is manual

http://www.seaeagle.com/img/InstructionalPDF/FoldCats.pdf

video

[Loop_Dad]

I was seriously thinking about buying Foldcat. Let us know how it is once you take it out!

get the minn kota traxxis TM with the digital maximizer.

x2 on getting one with digital maximier.

Without gas engine, you want to conserve your battery juice as much as you can. If you get the ones without digital technology, then you'll end up spending more money to buy bigger or more battery to achieve the same amount of time on the water, unless you only fish for a short time or not move much when you fish.

Traxxis comes with battery indicator. I bought $7 manual circuit breaker and that's all I needed. I bought battery boxes as well (not the minn kota one, too expensive for me), but not using them. They are just in my way.

[Axman49]

Hey Minnow,

My son & I assembled the FoldCat last evening without too much trouble. We should have read through all of the instructions first because after inflating we got to the point of installing the casting bar and discovered we should have placed the stabilizer underbars with an exposed section on the front - which allows the casting bar to slide on and be tightened with an allen wrench. Also pay attention to screwing the rod holders on to make sure the notch that the holders slip over make the rod holders face outwards - we had to remove and re-install 3 of them. I have a 6' x 12' utility trailer with fold up ramp and this boat fits perfectly with ramp up. I plan to keep the boat inflated, at least most of the time during months that allow fishing in PA - and covered on this trailer. It is very easy to load and unload from the trailer when I need to haul other things. The foot pump works well (my son has younger legs than I do ) - but just prefer to have it ready to go when I am ready to fish.

On the water - it's great - but quickly discovered the oars were a problem for me... (probably more a problem with me - I am new to this) ... I kept hitting my knees when rowing from the elevated seat and when I compensated for my legs I was dragging the oar heads and not making much progress. We finally took the oars out of the oar locks and rowed like a canoe - really good upper body exercise and there was no wind today - I will certainly feel it tomorrow!! When we got home, I removed the oar locks from the boat - they are just in the way. Also, I removed the casting bar because my son only used it once and caused the boat to move excessively... it was more in the way of casting and he spent most of his time in the seat - they are very comfortable, by the way.

I am going to take your advice on the Traxxis... customer reviews on Amazon were very positive for the 45. I am a little confused about the battery etc. Are you suggesting I just buy a 12V battery with a "digital maximier" and manual circuit breaker. Amazon offers the "MinnKota Trolling Motor Power Center" for $52.50 but guessing that is just the box and maybe trickle charger.. maybe you can shed more light on this... certainly this price doesn't include the battery - and I'm thinking by what you wrote that, if this is just a battery box, it isn't really necessary.

[Loop_Dad]

Hey Minnow,

My son & I assembled the FoldCat last evening without too much trouble. We should have read through all of the instructions first because after inflating we got to the point of installing the casting bar and discovered we should have placed the stabilizer underbars with an exposed section on the front - which allows the casting bar to slide on and be tightened with an allen wrench. Also pay attention to screwing the rod holders on to make sure the notch that the holders slip over make the rod holders face outwards - we had to remove and re-install 3 of them. I have a 6' x 12' utility trailer with fold up ramp and this boat fits perfectly with ramp up. I plan to keep the boat inflated, at least most of the time during months that allow fishing in PA - and covered on this trailer. It is very easy to load and unload from the trailer when I need to haul other things. The foot pump works well (my son has younger legs than I do ) - but just prefer to have it ready to go when I am ready to fish.

On the water - it's great - but quickly discovered the oars were a problem for me... (probably more a problem with me - I am new to this) ... I kept hitting my knees when rowing from the elevated seat and when I compensated for my legs I was dragging the oar heads and not making much progress. We finally took the oars out of the oar locks and rowed like a canoe - really good upper body exercise and there was no wind today - I will certainly feel it tomorrow!! When we got home, I removed the oar locks from the boat - they are just in the way. Also, I removed the casting bar because my son only used it once and caused the boat to move excessively... it was more in the way of casting and he spent most of his time in the seat - they are very comfortable, by the way.

I am going to take your advice on the Traxxis... customer reviews on Amazon were very positive for the 45. I am a little confused about the battery etc. Are you suggesting I just buy a 12V battery with a "digital maximier" and manual circuit breaker. Amazon offers the "MinnKota Trolling Motor Power Center" for $52.50 but guessing that is just the box and maybe trickle charger.. maybe you can shed more light on this... certainly this price doesn't include the battery - and I'm thinking by what you wrote that, if this is just a battery box, it isn't really necessary.

Grad to hear you are liking your new pontoon!

As Frog Turds listed above, the Minn Kota box has few extra features over a box.

However, for me, I don't need the battery meter, because Traxxis already have the built in battery meter. And I do not need the the extra accessory plugs. Only thing I am interested and every trolling motor user should be is the circuit breaker. So I just bought one and connected between positive terminal of the battery and the positive cable from the trolling motor.

You want to get the one with the manual reset switch as opposed to auto reset switch. This is similar to what I got.

http://www.walmart.c...reaker/16401755

This is how I attach it.

For battery, I was advised to buy AGM battery (no leak kind of battery) and I bought one. These battery are expensive like $200 for 100ampH. The reason these were recommended to me was because they thought the battery might be tossed around on the boat. However, I had installed a custom hard floor and battery are very stable even when the wind is up and the water is choppy. So spending extra money on AGM battery wasn't really nessecerly for me. For second battery I bought $90 Marine battery (wet cell kind) from Walmart. One battery can go about 4-5 hours depends on the water / wind condition for me with my 55 lbs motor. I carry both on my boat so that I can go all day.

[Axman49]

FT & LD - Thank you both for helping me with this one... great information! I certainly have a lot to learn about boating and fishing - and appreciate your insight. I'll keep you posted as I become more experienced with the FoldCat and equipment.