Choosing a Trolling Motor
By Paul Crawford
There are few pieces of equipment that get as
much use in bass fishing as your trolling motor. You may own 3,
6, or even 10 rods and reels, hundreds of baits, but normally
just one boat, motor, trailer, and trolling motor. The boat and
motor were matched for you, generally by the Coast Guard ratings
on the hull. The boat and trailer were matched by the length and
weight of the hull. But how did you choose your trolling motor?
Generally the answer is one of two, either you bought the most
motor you could afford or it came with the boat from the dealer.
Most boat buyers check the gas engine, and wouldn't hesitate to
upgrade if the proposed package was under powered. But few folks,
even on their second or third boat, think it's worth the effort
to worry about the trolling motor. They may have chosen between
hand controls or foot controls, but brands, ratings, or mounts
were generally left up to the dealer's markup. The first time we
think about the trolling motor is either when we're not happy
with the performance, or when the old one breaks and it's time to
buy a new one! It seems a little late either way. Let's take a
look around at trolling motors and the features they offer. They
come in a wide variety of styles and options, and they certainly
aren't all the same, or the same price.
It's very difficult to describe the features on a trolling motor,
because we really don't have a point of reference. About the best
we can do is compare one motor to another, maybe on a laundry
list of subjects. If you treat a trolling motor as a Chinese
Menu, selecting 1 from column A and 1 from column B, then you can
get a pretty good idea of the style, power, features, and
ultimately price of motor best suited to you and your boat.
Notice I did bother to include you, since trolling motors tend to
be about as personal as your underwear.
First thing let's try to get over is power, or as normally
presented on motors, thrust. We could argue all day about this
one. As one guy put it, "I've never heard anyone complain
about too much power." To a point this is true, but budget,
weight, and physical size come in somewhere. Let's just break it
out with some general guide lines. I'll say you need enough power
to pull into the waves up until they break over the front of the
boat. Given that, we can say 14' and under can make do with
something in the under 25 lb
range, for 15' - 16' boats we'd look in the 35 lb range, for the
standard 18' tournament boat, you'll want 40 lbs or a little
better, and big boats need over 50 lbs of thrust, (if you can
afford the 20' boat you can afford the big trolling motor.)
While we're on power, lets talk about efficiency. Just because
you have a high thrust rating doesn't mean you're all that
powerful. You may put out say 42 pounds to get started on a 12
volt system, but depending on your batteries, you may be all done
within an hour. The power ratings are made at maximum thrust
setting. Motors have different speeds, (we'll get to that
shortly), but the thrust is measured full throttle. Depending on
how efficient your motor is, (along with those all important
batteries), you may be able to hold for an hour, or for 8 hours.
There are a few other things to worry about, (we'll get to them
as well), but the overall efficiency of the motor will be the
biggest contributor to how long it pulls. Most of the higher end
motors now use Pulse Width Modulation (PCM) which improves the
efficiency by about 35%.
That doesn't mean you get more power, just that you can stay on
full power for a longer time.
For those who know all about batteries, skip on down and we'll
catch up in a minute..... For the rest of us, lets finish off
power by talking about the batteries that make the motor go. Most
all boats use a 12 Volt system, or in other words, the single
starting battery that powers the starter and all of your
electronics has a potential of 12V, (we'll skip the basic DC
electronics for another day.) You'll badly want a second 12v
battery, at minimum, to power your trolling motor. About the last
thing you want is for your trolling motor to suck your only 12v
battery dry, leaving you stuck on the water unable to start the
big engine. The normal Wet Cell batteries we use weigh about 60
lbs or so, (there are other types of batteries, but that too will
have to wait for another day.) This means to you just adding a
trolling motor and a single battery to your boat is adding around
100 lbs or so. If you're running an 18' Ranger, this probably
isn't a problem. If you're in a 12' Jon boat, it well may be a
problem. As we said, we really don't have much choice on the
first battery, but realize the power hogging bigger motors run on
24v, and therefore you need 2 batteries. Again, this is standard
in most of the bigger boats, but if your adding a motor to a
small boat, then really worry about whether or not you want to
lug another 50 lbs or so around all day to get that extra 7 lbs
of
thrust. Now even the bigger boats can sometimes get away with a
12V motor. On the 18 footers, a few years back one of the best
motors out there was the Mercury Thruster which was a 12V motor.
Many using this motor carried 2 extra batteries, but wired up to
deliver 12v instead of 24v, giving them max power all day long.
In my opinion, for lighter aluminum boats, 12v motors and a
single battery is all you'll probably need for a day on the water
and the weight savings makes the compromise worth it even for
those that can afford a bigger motor.
OK, back to motors. Everyone with Us? Great.
The next most obvious decision you'll need to make is Hand
Control verses Foot Control. This is another debate that will
never be answered. Foot control motors rely on a pedal with a
built in momentary switch to control power and steering. A hand
control normally also has some type of floor mounted button for
controlling power, but instead of the pedal/cable arrangement,
the user just steers by moving the motor head directly.
Hand controlled motors are probably the most popular and have a
couple of advantages. The most obvious advantage is a relatively
clear front deck since you don't have this giant pedal and cable
laying around. This is important if your boat has limited room on
the front deck or if you're fishing with 3 people in the boat and
need to keep as far forward as possible, (the reason this style
is used almost exclusively by guides.) Normally you add, (at
additional cost), a couple of foot switches screwed into the
front deck in the front corners. You need 2 since you're never
sure which way you'll be facing when fishing. You also add an
extension to the head, generally known as a "guide
stick", so you don't have to bend over or lean forward to
steer, (all respect to Bill Dance.) Expect to pay around $30 for
the two switches and another $40 for the guide stick. Add that to
the cost of the motor, and you'll find out that even though the
hand control motor is cheaper to buy than a similar class foot
control, the end cost is roughly the same. One thing you'll
notice about hand controlled motors is that a lot of people
generally steer with their foot. Rather than free up a hand to
steer, they just kick the guide stick with their foot in the
general direction they want to go. There are even extensions
specifically made to be kick steered. This kind of shoots the
idea that hand controls let you keep both feet on the deck, which
wasn't all that true to start with because of the deck mounted
switches. The disadvantages of a hand control has to do
with your hands. If you grab the trolling motor, you're stuck
with only one hand on your rod. This is noticeable when you are
running a shore line or contour with a lot of points and cuts, or
in rough water where the friction holding the motor in a
particular direction never seems to be quite enough to keep it
there. And, of course, when ever you do need to grab the motor,
you always see to be facing the wrong direction requiring you to
switch hands with your rod before steering, (which in turn always
leads to an immediate bite, which you miss.) The less you need to
steer, the more you'll like a hand controlled motor. The open
water types love their hand controls, and they work great for
that application. Anyone with bad knees will love a hand control,
except if they fish setting down. Hand controlled motors are
generally a pain in the posterior for guys who like the comfort
of a chair on the front deck, even given the clutter of the
alternative.
Foot controls, when they first came out, were thought to be the
greatest thing since sliced bread, for the first 3 hours. Foot
controls do represent hands free fishing. The normal
configuration is a rack and pinion steering mechanism on the end
of a cable controlled by a pedal. Push down, you got one
direction, lift up you go the other. A momentary switch is
mounted on the pedal, and generally even the speed can be
controlled with your toe. The pedal is either screwed to the deck
or has a weighted plate on the bottom to keep it in place. With a
little practice you can control the direction of the motor and
the switch while still keeping at least some weight on your leg.
Unless you're closely related to a flamingo, this is a good
thing. Those that like to sit and fish will adore foot controls
if they can avoid tripping over the cable and falling out of the
boat when they do stand up. And anyone who need precise boat
control in tight quarters, this one's for you! Most of the folks
who love to flip near tight cover love their foot controls. When
combined with the new near-weedless props maneuvering around
tight cover is about as easy as fishing open water. Since you
generally just keep your foot on the pedal, (at least after you
learn that keeping your weight on the pedal trick), rough water
isn't even an inconvenience anymore. Assuming you are equally
coordinated with either foot, and that you didn't screw the pedal
into the deck, switching sides is merely a matter of fighting the
cable into the new position. If you own a foot control, you
quickly master the art of adjusting the trolling motor bracket.
You can control the angle of straight ahead in the pedal by
simply turning the head of the motor in the bracket. And you
quickly figure out that raising the head of the motor higher in
the bracket means the cable is up in the air, nor wrapped around
your feet. For the most part you never want the head of the motor
pointing straight ahead even though this means you can steer
equally in either direction. By turning the head to one side, you
not only adjust the straight ahead setting, but you now can back
straight up, something you can't do with the head centered on the
boat, (only 330 degrees of rotation for most motors.) Turns out
not having equal steering to either side isn't much of a problem,
even in tight quarters. About the biggest challenge you have with
a foot control is trying to stay aboard the boat. Without an
obvious indication, like the tiller sticking you in the side,
it's all too easy to punch a motor, generally on full power at
the time, directly to one side. This has the disturbing effect of
moving the boat directly out from underneath you, your partner,
or both. A few of these adventures quickly demonstrate the value
of either a butt seat or hand rails with a foot controlled motor.
Of course you can always take the much more direct route of
simply tripping over the pedal and taking a head long plunge
while simultaneously trying to keep the tension on the 5 pound
fish you are playing at the time.
Always ready to magnify any problems with their own products
while extracting additional cash from their customers, the motor
manufacturers how found new and innovative ways to inconvenience
the fishermen. Instead of a bulking, inflexible cable going to an
oversized pedal, you can now buy, for only a couple of hundred
more, a small delicate undersized pedal connected with a highly
flexible wire approximately long enough to reach from your
trolling motor back to your car. This new improved offering
simultaneously prevents you from putting any real weight on the
pedal without breakage, (at least for the human foot), while the
many coils in the new cord assures that you can still enjoy
tripping over the pedal at the worse possible moment. There is
now even an improvement over this one that eliminates the cable
altogether! An RF connection between the pedal and the motor lets
you inject noise into every depth finder and radio in the cove
and gives you one more 9v battery to run down at 8:30 in the
morning. And the redesigned pedal, no longer tethered to the
motor, looks sleek and ergonomic as it flies off the rear deck at
50 mph. I don't guess they are really all that bad, as much as I
hate the new servo motor controls that electronic steering
brings. You do now have an additional motor to burn up and the
strength of the
motor is not sufficient to turn in heavy weeds or against wood.
Since I prefer a foot control in heavy cover, I don't want to
turn over the turning speed or the power to turn the motor head
over to another electric motor. The cable system gave me direct
feedback on any underwater obstruction and I could feel the motor
start to dig in when I ran shallow. The electronic steering
eliminates the feedback when I want it the most. I guess to each
his own.
One electronic steering motor does stand out from the rest. The
Pinpoint motor incorporates an internal depth finder and computer
which allows the motor to actually follow contours hands free!
This truly is a great innovation if you love open water fishing
as I do and can afford the $1500 price tag which I can't. I do
think in the future more motors of this type will be offered and
accepted by the general public. Minn Kota has offered an
"auto pilot" for several years which locks on a shore
alignment and corrects for drift. Going in a straight line in the
wind is not nearly the trick of following a creek channel. Just
make sure you're ready when the creek takes a sharp bend.
One other "feature" on Minn Kota I'm not sold on is
their ramped start up. This little jewel is suppose to cure the
problem of throwing yourself out of the boat with a foot control
on full throttle. Instead of coming on with full power, the motor
ramps up to speed with a smooth acceleration. Suppose to be the
difference between a passenger car and a fuel dragster. I guess
if you throw yourself out of the boat on a regular basis, it's a
pretty good idea. As for me, I'm likely to be found in the middle
of a weed bed trying to hack my way to the next grass mat. When
I'm floating in the weeds, the LAST thing I want is a motor that
ramps to speed. I'm pretty much depending on that power surge to
help clear the prop. Not a shallow water fisherman? Then 1) why
did you buy the foot control, and 2) why do you have it on full
power anyway? I guess ignorance is bliss for one of us.
We've already talked a bit about PCM circuits, but do they just
save power? Turns out the latest answer is no. They have one
other characteristic anyone who fishes in weed beds should love.
When you set the speed, you're setting the prop RPM instead of
just shunting the power from the batteries. This is a very
serious improvement. In the past, when you set the speed, it just
varied the resistance in the circuit so if you loaded up the prop
with weeds, it may not turn at all. With PCM, the frequency is
set but the pulse length can be varied to continuous, so the
motor will pull as much power as needed to turn the prop at the
desired RPM. All this Engineer Speak is about that if you set the
prop to turn at 300 RPM then run straight into a weed bed, the
prop will still turn 300 RPM even after it's loaded with grass.
It's not really
the long term answer to weeds, since when the weeds wrap around
the hub, you're still not going anywhere, but it's an
improvement.
One other switch I demand on my trolling motor is a continuous
switch. There are even some motors out there that don't have
momentary switches, but on/off switches instead, (greatest open
water guide motors ever built.) When I'm working into the wind,
I'm very likely to put the motor on a slow speed and hit the
continuous button. Now I just creep along working my line and
forget about the trolling motor for a while, (a nice relieve
about 1:00 in the afternoon.) With any kind of fairly steady wind
this works like a champ. You can install a continuous switch on a
motor that doesn't have one, but finding the physical switch that
will take that kind of amperage is a bit of a problem. If
installing a switch for the first time, make sure you can still
grab one of the wires. It turns out on high speeds most switches
will simply weld
the contacts together and now your stuck with a motor you can't
turn off, (funny only 2 years after the fact.)
Speaking of speeds, I'm a huge fan of variable speed motors
instead of having 4 or 5 preset speeds. The reason is simple, the
wind doesn't blow at preset speeds, so why would I want my motor
to run at them. If you're like most people and ignore what your
boat needs and buy the most motor you can afford, then you may be
in for an unpleasant surprise. It's really not that difficult to
get a motor that goes too fast even at its lowest speed. Variable
speed motors are a little bit more expensive, but if you like
that continuous switch, well worth the money.
Now to the business end of the motor, the prop. The Holy Grail of
prop design is a prop that pulls good in open water but still
does not foul when you go into a weedbed. We're not there yet,
but we're closer. Motor Guide has taken to different blades and
numbers of blades. A few years back, they came up with their
"ninja" prop, a little 4 blade prop with a reduced
throw. This was indeed an improvement over the standard prop, and
a larger 2 blade prop, or "power prop" was introduced.
The trouble was the 4 blade didn't move enough water when in open
water to pull the boat and you effectively lost a lot of thrust.
The 2 blade pulled great in open water, but still didn't work
that well in grass. Their latest offering is a 3 blade
compromise, which unlike most compromises works very well in both
situations. Minn Kota took another route and worked on hub design
to reduce the likelihood of the weeds wrapping around in the
first place. This was marginally successful. It worked pretty
well for large, stiff weeds like spaddock and standing hydrilla,
but floating hydrilla, milfoil, and pepper grass would still do a
number on them. I've
seen an after market prop for Minn Kota motor that has a pair of
stainless steel knives attached to the leading edge, balanced and
ready to go. While I'm sure this will work, I'm a little leery of
a 1000 RPM dicer on my front deck. I'm not all that good with
sharp objects anyway and I have visions of being called
"Lefty" with one of these props in a moment of
inattention.
Of course I'm really not much better with a little trick a friend
showed me several years ago. I take RTV and mount a single edge
razor blade to the housing of my motor running to right up behind
the blades. I bend it down to touch the hub, look for the
thickest pepper grass I can find, and make instant salad. It
still doesn't work all the time, (and careful has a whole new
meaning when clearing a mat), but it's far better than anything
else I've come up with.
One of the better reasons to spend all the extra money buying a
Johnson Trolling motor is because of the way they attach the
motor to the shaft. Everyone else did the obvious and ran a
straight shaft to the center of the housing. Johnson did their
homework and puts an offset shaft to the front of the housing. I
didn't realize why anyone would go to that much trouble, (other
than possibly to look cool), until I saw one go through weeds.
The shaft acts as a weed guard for the top of the motor and they
can go through the thickest weeds with the best of them.
Unfortunately, that's still not all that good, but it's an
improvement over what anyone else can do. You can get sort of the
same effect with a couple of hose clamps and a coat hanger. Clamp
the wire where it comes straight over the nose of the motor and
vertically for about a foot. Then bend back to the shaft and
clamp in place. It does help when pulling through an eel grass
bed, but since you now have two vertical shafts for weeds to
catch on, drift through weeds is a problem. The Johnson works
much better since it only has a single wide shaft.
Speaking of shafted, if you opt for a foot control, spend all the
money in the world on the bracket. To make the foot control go,
you've got two concentric shafts which will seriously object if
one or both get bent. Most brackets have either a breakaway
feature or a spring mount, and before going to Lake Fork or
anyplace else with standing timber, make absolutely sure the
bracket works. If you still need some good reason to spend the
extra money, try the following test. Stand in knee deep water,
have your buddy put the trolling motor on high and run straight
at you with your new Ranger. You try to catch the front end and
stop it within an inch or two. After your buddy backs the boat
off of you, assuming you haven't drown, you'll have a pretty good
idea of the amount of force the bracket needs to absorb to
protect your motor.
The Minn Kota Spring Mount system holds some promise for heavy
timber. They combine this bracket with a composite nose cone to
protect the motor housing and a graphite shaft that’s suppose
to bend a bit and snap right back in place. These are good ideas,
just not ones that I’m completely sold on. The nose cone has a
sharp point to help deflect off solid surfaces which naturally
means it has a habit of wedging in slots and branches on most
occasions. The shaft may snap back into place, or just snap. All
graphite is brittle to some extent, and the Minn Kota shaft will
fail under extreme use. It’s a trade off like most things and
if you work in tight quarters in heavy timber it’s work a look.
But for me, I’m still a fan of the Gator Mount. If you love the
Minn Kota motors, it might be worth a look at picking up a Gator
Mount on the aftermarket.
The Gator Mount has the front bracket mounted on a breakaway
pivot that allows the motor to bend back under the boat if it
hits something solid. This system is simple and reliable. Most
folks replace the standard rubber compression nuts with a
standard bolt and nut using the rubber sleeve for vibration
isolation. When installed and adjusted right, the Gator Mount is
about as good as it gets for protecting your motor in a heavy
stable bracket. Unfortunately, most guys just hate it when the
bracket slides a little bit when they are trying to back out of a
tight spot with the trolling motor on full power. Consequently,
these same guys tighten the bracket down so hard it might as well
be welded. You can meet and talk to these guys in the trolling
motor section of the local sporting goods stores. If you have a
hand controlled motor, it's likely just a solid shaft so if you
use a cheap bracket, the motor will look funny on the front deck
and may resemble a reversed mounted Johnson. But at least you can
still steer to get back out of the timber. Also consider that
hand controlled motors are a lot cheaper to repair.
I don't guess any opinionated article wouldn't be complete
without a brand review. Keep in mind these are simply my
opinions, for what that's worth, and are based on my experiences
in my area of the country.
I do know a couple of guys in the correct tax bracket to own a
Pinpoint motor. They have nothing but wonderful words to say
about them. Of course, these are the same guys who own their own
business and work 80 hours a week, so they only fish about 15
times a year and I suspect any motor would look good to them. I'd
be awfully sure that I'm getting the motor I want before dropping
enough cash to buy a used Chevy.
Not far behind in the price race, (around $1,175 retail for a
foot control), is Johnson. I know a lot more guys who own
Johnsons and just about everyone of them swears they'll never own
anything else. They are quiet, at least for the first 4 or 5
years, (even Johnsons get noisy with age.) I guess my trouble is
committing to a motor for 10 years, (I have trouble keeping a
wife that long), and compared to the more popular motors, are a
little under powered. But there is no doubt they hold up well and
give good service.
Minn Kota has stepped up a notch or two the last couple of years.
It use to be that if I had a Minn Kota, I'd trade it for a dog,
then shoot the dog. But the improvements in hub and bracket
design over the last couple of years make them a player again. I
still wish they would improve the electronics and give me sturdy
wiring instead of Auto pilots or RF controls. Their price is
attractive and only time will tell if they hold up to the abuse
over the years.
That brings me to my old standby, Motor Guide. They too have had
their problems from time to time, but overall I still like them.
They are by far the most popular motors in my area. They have a
lot of good, innovative features and are competitively priced.
For those that like to play in salty water, their Great White
series is a standard around here. But my number one reason for
buying them is the last one I had one break a few years ago. I
was at a major tournament and was puzzled one morning when my
automatic battery charger was still pulling 5 amps after being on
all night. I couldn't figure out what was wrong until I took off
the boat cover and caught a whiff of something burning. When I
looked at the front of the boat, the trolling motor had a short
in a switch and the prop was stalled out against the deck,
(doesn't everyone leave their trolling motor plugged in?) The
odor was the rubber on the bracket where the head laid that had
melted from 14 hours of overheating out of the water and now had
a form fit an inch deep around the head. After disconnecting the
offending switch, I wasn't surprised that the motor was locked
up. What did surprise me was after half an hour when the motor
cooled off and I was trying to demonstrate the problem to a
buddy, I hit the button and the prop turned. Having few other
options, and already running late for launch, I took a chance and
decided to try to fish with it that day. The motor, with a couple
of interesting new noises, pulled like a champ all day and I paid
for a couple of new motors
with a good check from that tournament. The motor was retired to
the front of a friend's small boat where, still with interesting
noises, it works to this day. I've bought Motor Guide ever since.
Choose a trolling motor that matches you and the way you fish.
There are plenty to choose from and you should find one that fits
your needs nicely, no matter what your needs are. Trolling Motors
have come along ways over the years, and it looks like the best
is yet to come.
Paul Crawford
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