James,
I have owned both a raft and a pontoon boat in one-man versions. You wanted feedback on both, here is my $.02:
The raft: It was a Tote-"N"-Float. When Personnal Watercrafts first showed up about 10 yrs ago, this was one of the few around I could find. I think it was around $600, 8 years ago, fully equiped. This meant anchor system, pump, oars, everything. It was light enough to haul around with no problem but I never carried my rods put-together with me on the same trip I was carring the boat around an obstacle. If the rods were broke down, no problem. Ya had to wear neoprenes and ya sat low in the water. This made your butt into a depth finder, ouch! It was slow
to row which made getting out of tidewater areas (Feeders to LaCenter) tiring. It handled Heissen to Lewisville with no problem but I always ended up soaked. It was not very reponsive which meant you had to plan yor moves waaaaaaay in advance. I sold it after one year for the following....

The pontoon boat: Bucks Bag Bronco. Bought it about 7 yrs ago. With everything (Anchor system, waterproof storage, oars, etc) it was about $1000. The tubes are bladder types and are 8 ft long. Lots of controversy over bladder types of pontoons. Anyway, it worked for me as I never had a problem with the pontoons. The frame was awesome. You ended up drier as you sat up higher out of the water. With your feet in the braces, rowing hard, low tide, you could be out of the Feeders in LaCenter within 20 minutes. Very responsive boat and quite a fishing machine. It was heavier than the raft for carrying around crap but not too bad. I even ran it from Sunset Falls down, walking it around the bad spots. It did the Trestle rapids though.
There are lots of options in boats available now that weren't there even as recently as 8-10 yrs ago. A guy can find the cheap boats on sale at GI Joes for < $300. Ya break it, ya buy another. Plus ya can buy two cheap so your buddy can go along.
My $.02,
x