Electric or kicker

[Steelheadin360]

I've tested home depot buckets in the place of a wind sock. Two buckets will get me down to a decent troll but it's asking for trouble with tangled lines etc. I haven't tried a drift sock.

get a nice drift sock and hang it off the bow of the boat with another rope attached to the back. i bet that will do the trick for you and save some money

"another rope attached to the back" What is that rope for?

When you wanna pull the sock up it pulls it from the back dumping the water in the process and makes it way easier to get it back in the boat. Instead of trying to lift 10-20 gallons of water. To achive the speed drop your looking for you might need to get a big one, and those arent the funniest to wrestle back on-board

[hewesfisher]

I have a bow mounted 55lb Terrova with iPilot on a 16.5' deep-v boat. My main gas motor goes too fast for trout imo. ~2.7-3.0 MPH.

Anyways, I have a single group 27 AGM battery. I can troll for at least 4 hours basicly non-stop at speed setting 6-7.5 on my remote. This will usually allow me to run at 1.1-1.5 MPH depending on wind or how fast I need it to go. At max speed(10), I get 2.5MPH. I haven't been able to run the battery completely dead, but it was damn close when I was trolling for a little over 5 hours.


It's quiet and lightweight. And because it's bow-mounted, it pulls the boat much better than pushing from the transom.

And complaining about batteries. I have to remove my batteries after every outing because I store my boat outside. I have to bring in 100lbs of battery inside to recharge. You get use to it.

I catch more Trout running above 2.2 by a long shot. Usually more like 3 mph. Spoon, spoon, spoon and make a turn.

For Moto Boat - The jump from single cylinder to twin in most 4-strokes is 8hp. I had a 6hp single and hated it, not because it didn't run well, but the single cylinder thump that rattled everything on the boat. Now have an 8hp twin and very happy.

I charge my batteries when the boat gets parked and leave them on the charger until I go back out, pull the cap, plug in extension cord and walk away.

[AaronW]

Get one of those i-pilot Minn Kota bow mount motors. Very versatile and you can control the boat from anywhere. Getting a 50# thrust or even 46# would work fine for your boat. They aren't as expensive as you'd think either.