I grew up fishing Mille Lacs with one of the first large 10x20 steel drum pontoons that my grandpa had made and the ONLY thing that chased us of the lake was lighting. The old metal raillng style was the only thing that keep everything from washing overboard when as much as 2' of water rolled over the deck cutting thru the white caps. We custom built racks to keep all the fishing gear high and dry(most of the time). Wore wader and heavy rain gear to TRY to keep dry(water was pretty chilly most of the year). Wind was so strong some times that when we tried to cast the 2 oz sinkers we used to use with the old level winds it would blow right back and the terns would grab the minnows in the air. Used wooden chairs to sit on so if they washed off we could go back and get 'em. Back then most fishing was long drifting or trolling so precision boat maneuvering wasn't needed. When slip bobber still fishing came along it was great to have space for the whole family(3 generations), the grill, multiple beverage cooler and still have room to walk around for a whole night of fishing.
My Dad was a deep water Navy man who had several hurricane under his belt so wind and waves and water in the face(and every where else) made him smile. Many times it was us and the resort launches the only boats on the water and did we catch fish. And the flying tiger shark mouths we painted on the front of the pontoons looked assume when we surfed the rollers into the shore at the end of the outing. One time we even camped with a pup tent on the deck and went for a four day ride around the whole lake. So I have no bad reasons against 'toons. It was only retired because it rusted away so bad and couldn't be patched anymore no matter how many coats of silver rust paint we put on a year. The only thing we complained about was getting it on and off the 30' roller rack it took to get it past the wave line(long before lift racks). And keeping the homemade electric winch operating(the local hardware ordered fuses by the case just for us, lol). As they say "those were the days".
