Experience with Sun Dolphin American 120 or similar?

[pauldconyers]

Does anyone have (or have fished out of) the Sun Dolphin American 120 plastic jon boat? Been thinking about buying one and my concern is casting out of them. I do not think I have the time/know how/money to build a casting deck on it. My concern is trying to stand up in the boat to make accurate casts and my other concern is trying to walk a frog, pitching or something where I need to have the rod tip down towards the water and I just can't see how I could do that when my feet are 2 feet below the level they would be on a casting deck. Just wanted to see if my concerns were legit and it would be a problem I could not work around or it would not be near as bad as I think.

[volzfan59]

I just stumbled across your question after doing a search on Sun Dolphin American 12's. I'm thinking about buying one myself to float small rivers.

 

To your question, I've never owned an American 12. However, my first boat was a Coleman Crawdad 12. They are very similar boats although the Crawdad used to be rated for 10 HP, the American 12 is rated for a six. I never had any problems standing, casting, flipping, etc. Don't get me wrong, at 36" bottom, it feels a little tippy. That said, I never flipped mine or fell out of it. If you feel like you need to be higher, you could always stand on the molded seats. I wouldn't recommend it though, the center of gravity would shift and you might come out of your boat.

 

I wish that I still had my Crawdad, you can't hurt those things. I hope that this helps.