Trolling motors can be an incredibly helpful – even indispensable – fishing tool, as long as you have the right one for your boat. There’s nothing worse than an underpowered trolling motor, or a battery that dies half-way through a great day on the lake. With the large number of options and motors available, it can be difficult to know which motor to pick. In this guest post, we’ll discuss a few of the most important things to consider and understand when it comes to trolling motors.

Thrust

Trolling motors are rated by pounds of thrust, and the question of how much power is needed is likely the most common trolling motor question people have. Motors range in power for around 30 lbs of thrust for entry-level models to up to 100 lbs upper-end models designed for heavy, large boats.

The weight of the boat is the most important determinant of how much power is needed.   While boat length can be used as a proxy, boat weight is the best factor to use in order to accurately pick a motor with ample power.

A good rule of thumb is that you’ll want 2 lbs of thrust for every 100 lbs of boat weight. For example, for a 2,000 lbs boat, you’ll want a motor with at least 40 lbs or thrust (2000 / 100 * 2). When calculating, you’ll want to factor in the weight of a fully loaded boat with people, fuel and equipment.

If you’ll be relying on your trolling motor to perform frequently in strong winds or currents, you’ll want to get a stronger motor than otherwise indicated. The previously mentioned rule of thumb is a great baseline for calm water operations, but use in stronger waters will require more power.

Shaft Length

Shaft length often introduces confusion into the trolling motor selection process as many motors come with multiple options. Getting the shaft length right is important. If the shaft is too short, the trolling motor propeller won’t be properly submerged and power will suffer. If the shaft is too long, it makes trolling in shallow waters difficult.

The proper shaft length differs depending on whether a transom or bow mount motor is being used:

Transom Mount: 20” to 25” of the shaft should be submerged

Bow Mount: 25” to 30” of the shaft should be submerged

To determine the proper shaft length for your boat, you’ll need to measure the distance from the bow/transom to the waterline, and then add the previously mentioned “submersion factor”. For instance, if the distance from the bow mounting platform to the waterline in 20”, you’ll want a shaft length in the 45” to 50” range ( 20” plus 25” to 30” submersion factor).

It’s always a good idea to err on the long side (vs the short side) when it comes to shaft length. While you can usually raise the depth of the propeller/shaft with the motor’s sleeve adjustment, it’s impossible to lengthen a shaft that’s too short.

Battery Life

One thing you want to make sure of before pulling the trigger on a new motor is that it has enough power to last all day! Nothing is more frustrating than running out of power when you still want to fish. There are two important things to know when it comes to estimating battery life – battery ratings and amps drawn.

Trolling motors use 12 volt marine batteries, which are rated by amp hours. An 80 amp hour rated battery is capable of delivery a total of 80 amp hours of power on a single charge. This could either be 80 amps delivered for 1 hour, or 20 amps delivered for 4 hours.

While it can sometimes be difficult to find, manufacturers (and good retailers) will be able to tell you how much power a motor draws at maximum speed. A trolling motor that pulled 50 amps at top speed would run for about 2 hours using a 100 amp hour battery before running out of power. Approximating, you could assume the motor would run for about 4 hours at medium speed (pulling 25 amps) and around 14 hours at slow speeds (pulling 7 amps).

A few suggestions to get the most run time possible:

• At a minimum, get a battery rate for at least 100 amp hours

• Variable speed motors are more efficient that fixed speed motors, and will run longer

• Purchasing a more powerful motor than you need will extend your run time. While a 50 lbs motor may draw 50 amps at top speed, an 80 lbs motor may only require 35 amps to produce the same 50 lbs of thrust

• Make sure you never let your battery become completely depleted as this will significantly shorten it’s life and ability to hold a charge.

• Once you have an idea of the thrust rating and shaft length you want, you can start looking at individual motors. The two most popular manufacturers or fishing trolling motors are Minn Kota and MotorGuide. While Minn Kota is better known and more popular, MotorGuide usually offers a little bit more motor for the money.

Specific Models

With dozens of different motors available, we’ve recommend a few of our favorite motors in different categories:

Best Value – Bow Mount

It doesn’t have many bells and whistles, but the Edge series from Minn Kota is a well-built bow mount motor at a really affordable price point. While MotorGuide usually offers more value, the Minn Kota Edge series beats out MotorGuide’s comparable Freshwater bow mount line in terms of bang-for-the-buck. Edge only offers thrust up to 70 lbs, so this isn’t a great choice for larger boats.

Best Value – Transom Mount

For the money, you can’t beat the VariMax line from MotorGuide. The entry-level transom mount motors are priced similarly to Minn Kota’s Endura line, but also include variable speed motors and battery life indicators (Endura offers neither). Stepping up to similar variable speed models within the Minn Kota line-up will cost $50 to $100 more.

Best Features

Trolling motors have evolved with the times, and now offer some pretty amazing features. The Minn Kota PowerDrive V2 and Terrova series offer AutoPilot, wireless steering and GPS technology. The AutoPilot feature lets the operator set a course, and the motor stays on it without continual control or monitoring. CoPilot is an accessory that offers complete wireless motor control. The Minn Kota i-Pilot accessory uses a built-in GPS to control motor speed and direction, making it possible to re-trace routes or stay in place despite winds and waves. These features are also available on the Minn Kota Riptide ST and SP series, which are similar saltwater version motors.

Best Built

It may not boast fancy Minn Kota i-Pilot technology or wireless control, but the Fortrex line is built like a tank and designed to last. Using heavy-duty materials and single-pivots, the Minn Kota motor is designed to be used, abused, and counted on.

Understanding Trolling Motors is a post from: Lunker Links

24" Northern Pike

A while back I wrote a review on the Dragon Baitcaster Reel. For those of you that missed it you can read it here.

To recap, I had issues with the reel right out of the box. It was hard to adjust, and after a few casts it started coming apart. For a $70 reel I was expecting more so I contacted OSI with my issues. They promptly shipped me a replacement reel without any hassles at all.

There is no comparison between the reel I had and the reel I have now. I took it with me to Canada for some walleye and pike fishing and abused it. For those of you that have caught 30″ pike, you know that they put up a lot of fight for their size, and they can strip line with the fastest fish in the water. The Dragon reel held up just fine. Once set it stayed set, and after hammering it for hours on end it showed no signs of breaking down any time soon.

So what happened? I can only guess based on my past life in manufacturing. Once in a while a bad part slips through. The important issue after that is how the company reacts. I was more than happy with the customer service and the quick replacement of the defective reel. And I’m thinking that this may become a standard reel in my box of goodies when I plan to do some casting.

We’ll see after I get back out to this new spot we found on the St. Joe River in Mishawaka.

Dragon Baitcaster Revisited is a post from: Lunker Links

The reel is a 6+1 ball bearing low profile baitcaster that comes in a right hand crank only design. The reel looks great out of the box and is very light. Additional features include a magnetic cast control system to help with overruns, 6.1:1 gear ratio, and holds about 130 yards of 12 pound line. I loaded the reel with 14 lbs Berkley Crystal Fire Line and took the Dragon with me fishing down to Marco Island, Fl., to give it a serious workout in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

The first thing I noticed right out of the box was the the reel came with no set up instructions. This wasn’t a big deal for me, but if this is your first baitcaster with a magnetic drag you may find it to be a huge challenge to set up. I would love to see a small insert that explains the 3 drag adjustments. The reel also seemed a bit stiff to start with.

I put a medium weight spoon on the line and started playing with it while standing on the dock. Almost immediately I had an issue. On the third cast the brass line guide popped out and hung up in one of the guides on the rod. this caused a massive overrun on the spool and I ended up cutting out some 20 yards of line to clear out the mess. You can see the missing guide if you compare the two pictures.

I did end up using the reel most of the week. It worked better with heavier lures and really suffered in anything other than a downwind cast. And on real long casts it made a very high pitched squealing noise that was annoying. But, it did have some distance to it, or maybe it was my 6′ 3″ leverage going to town on it.

Toward the end of the week I noticed a clicking noise while reeling in and didn’t really figure out what the issue was until I took the above picture. At some point the line carrier guide shaft detached from the inside of the reel. Under load it let the line carrier move and jam and that was causing the clicking noises I was hearing.

When I got home I talked with the guys at Easy2Hook about the reel and the issues I had. No questions asked, they said send it back and they would gladly replace it. At this point I’m reserving judgment on the reel because this could have been a random bad reel, but I can say that the customer service is top notch. I should have the replacement reel in hand in a few days and after I get a chance to fish with it a few times I’ll be writing a follow up review to give my final thoughts on this reel.

Dragon Baitcaster Reel Review is a post from: Lunker Links

No knot hooks is a post from: Lunker Links