10 replies to this topic

[Braided Line]

As the topic title asks, what do you like ? Foot-controlled? Hand operated? 12 or 24 volt, 36 volt? long shaft/ short shaft?
Pre-selected speed controls or a rheostat speed control?
If a foot-controlled type, do you secure your foot pedal to the floor or just let it flop around? When moving short distances ,
do you keep you shaft in the water or pull it up? Very slow speed of course. Do you have a spare prop /shear pin on
board? If I`ve over looked something, please add. Batteries are a given.
I understand the size of your boat, type of water you fish (lots of weeds/grass...... no weeds/grass) big water. small ponds.
lots of wind/little wind and what ever else that might come into play.

For me.......................

24 volt (74lbs of thrust) Hand operated-rheostat. Absolute control, no matter the conditions. Could even use more thrust, like what you get from those 36volt brutes but to much weight and
the cost of replacing 3 batteries is to steep for me. The thrust I get from my 24v, will tear up almost any type of weed,
grass or pad field I experience here in Fl. Some pad fields are huge. In the spring when the wind blows mainly out of
the west, you can get blown back aways so you need a T/M with the power (thrust) to get you back out. Some Bass boat
present a lot of drag againat the pads /grass so when I turn mine up (full bore) out I come . Nothing like power!
Have had foot-controlled in the past but never really liked them, but that`s just me.

Alway have a spear prop/shear pin on board. Always!

As for leaving the prop in the water while moving short distances, slow speed......do it all the time.

Where I fish my T/M is really the "big motor". I spend way more time on it than my other big motor so a good one with
power is a given! No matter what the situation, I want to control what ever it is and the proper T/M is the answer.

My big Merk may get me there but I fish all day long on my T/M~

[Musky Glenn]

I'm a 65 year old ole school guy, I want cable driven foot pedal fastened to the deck. I have a 20' john boat with raised casting deck and need about 55 lbs of thrust to get the job done for me. I am getting close to needing a new T.M. and don't like the fact that most of the 55 lb. thrust motors are now 12 volts. Reason being, when volts go down 50%, amperage goes up 50%, and amperage causes heat. This means larger wiring for 12 volts than is needed for 24 volts. I can buy a 55 lb. thrust for around $400. but the lower 24 volt motors run around $700. I never carried an extra prop. I really like varable speed motors best. I like the shortest shaft that will stay submerged in average conditions. When slinging a spinner bait side arm, I want the motor low, out of the way to save on rod tips, been there done that. I leave my motor in the water for any speed up to what the trolling motor would run. I wish I had grass or weeds to run through, but it is steep/deep clear lakes mostly. I tried hand held one time and didn't like the inconsistant boat control that I had with that, it was just me. When you buy batteries, buy the largest you can find. I'm using two size 31's now and have never run them down in a full day of fishing. Lake James and Lake Adger are my home lakes here in western North Carolina. But I love the old Stick Marsh in Fla.Musky Glenn

[Braided Line]

Musky Glenn, on 09 August 2011 - 01:08 PM, said:

I'm a 65 year old ole school guy, I want cable driven foot pedal fastened to the deck. I have a 20' john boat with raised casting deck and need about 55 lbs of thrust to get the job done for me. I am getting close to needing a new T.M. and don't like the fact that most of the 55 lb. thrust motors are now 12 volts. Reason being, when volts go down 50%, amperage goes up 50%, and amperage causes heat. This means larger wiring for 12 volts than is needed for 24 volts. I can buy a 55 lb. thrust for around $400. but the lower 24 volt motors run around $700. I never carried an extra prop. I really like varable speed motors best. I like the shortest shaft that will stay submerged in average conditions. When slinging a spinner bait side arm, I want the motor low, out of the way to save on rod tips, been there done that. I leave my motor in the water for any speed up to what the trolling motor would run. I wish I had grass or weeds to run through, but it is steep/deep clear lakes mostly. I tried hand held one time and didn't like the inconsistant boat control that I had with that, it was just me. When you buy batteries, buy the largest you can find. I'm using two size 31's now and have never run them down in a full day of fishing. Lake James and Lake Adger are my home lakes here in western North Carolina. But I love the old Stick Marsh in Fla.Musky Glenn

Your spot on about the difficulty in operating a "hand controlled" T/M. It does take getting used to that`s for sure.
Lots of hip and body control involved. Once you get used to what you have to do, it becomes second nature. Been doing the hand control thing since the early 50`s. Maybe that`s why I think it`s so .......easy. Besides, I`m not very agile when it comes to standing on one leg in rough water/ waves. To much flopping around for me anyway. But like they say, different strokes for different folks.

Have fished the Stick Marsh............... You can lose a ton of baits on all that under water structure but it`s well worth it.
It does have some HOGS swimming around. Plus, some really "nice" gators.

[Bob La Londe]

Oh, I have a strong opinion about trolling motors.

My first opinion is that you should own the most powerful one you can afford.

Since I primarily bass fish I prefer a foot controlled motor with the pedal firmly mounted directly in front of my fishing seat. I can steer and adjust speed with either foot so I can easily fish off either side or the front of the boat.

As far as voltage or power. I have Motorguide Tour Edition TR109s for my 20' glass boat, and Motorguide Tour Edition TR82s for my 16' aluminum boat. With those motors I can pull up current in the river if I have too.

The 109 is 36 volt and the 82 is 24 volt.

Now, why do I like the Motor Guide over the Minn Kota? Steering. The MG Tour has push pull cable steering with spring tension on both cables. This allows me to stiffen the steering force so the motor doesn't flop back and forth at high speed. The Minn Kota steering is adjustable, but does not have the spring tensioners on it (unless its changed in the last couple years) and the plastic pedal (I don't like MG with plastic pedals either) gives to much under my foot in tough conditions. You can tighten the cables on the MK, but they tend to stretch and break sooner if you do.

The Motor Guide does have a couple glaring insufficiencies compared the Minn Kota. The 360 degree ball mount is a far better shock absorber than the Gator Spring Mount from MG. The metal shaft of the MG will bend under some circumstacnes, and one of them is fighting your way through the brush with the motor up. The shaft on the MK will not bend, and its almost impossible to break. I say almost impossible, as I do know somebody who broke one.

If I could have the rigid metal pedal, and spring loaded steering cables of the MG and the ball mount and compositie shaft of the MK that would be the best of both worlds.

Now as to hand control. I always thought of that as a transport type motor as opposed to a positioning motor (getting there vs fishing), but plenty of people do use them with great success for fishing. One thing I have seen that I really like is the use of a Big Foot switch. Speed and direction are adjusted by reaching over and moving the motor by hand, but the motor is kicked on and off my a heavy foot switch screwed to the deck or to a board rested on the deck. That way if you are easying up on a cut or working your way along a bank or brush line you can fish with both hands using your foot to bump the boat forward. You only need to take a hand away from your fishing momentarily to adjust speed or direction.

Speed control. I very much like a continuous variable speed control over a fixed position multi speed control. I always seems like its either too fast or too slow with the multi speed controls. The variables just go wheere ever you need them and you can adjust them by much smaller amounts. The other thing I noticed on the fixed positions multi speed controllers is that they seem to be stiff or hard to move by foot. I have had both MG and MK 5 speed motors (purchased new) and 3 speed high/low (six speed) Evinrude, and I found the foot advanced speed wheel to be too stiff for my taste on all of them.

Edited by Bob La Londe, 12 August 2011 - 11:49 AM.

[Bob La Londe]

Shaft length. Long enough to do the job. It needs to be able to position the top tip of the prop several inches under the water, and be adjustable. In waves I like it deeper, and in grass I like it just under the surface or even breaking the surface. I even have one extra long shaft trolling motor for fishing big lakes with lots of wave action so its not constantly breaking the surface when I am trying to hold on a deep point in the main lake and fish deep. (left over from when I thought I was gonna be a pro. LOL.) Usually I use a shorter shaft motor because it its easier to deal with and is less in the way.

[BobP]

I agree with the "max power you can afford" school to a point but see no need for a 105 lb TM with 3 batteries on a 14 ft jon boat. You'd probably have water coming over the transom! I run a 60 lb thrust Evinrude 24 V TM on my 19 ft glass bass boat and have never run out of juice during a day's fishing. If I fished the Great Lakes often, I'd definitely be running a long shaft TM but that would just get in the way down here. IMO you just need to get a TM that fits your boat, your fishing area, and your fishing style. One size doesn't fit all.

[MuskyGary]

I like hand control models because I've broken to many cabels on foot control. Use to fish a minum of three tournments a month back in the seventies. Breaking a cable can really mess you up. Now I use a hand control one battery motro. Minn Kota and Motor Guide are both good motors. Been looking at the wireless minn kota, and motor guide. Anyone have any experience with these motels?

[Braided Line]

To the guys that have posted.......................You know!

[Musky Glenn]

Musky Gary- I have a couple of friends that have the wireless MinnKota and they love them. For me it just seems slow to react to turning compared to instant cable drive. This was especially evident when being hung and having to make several adjustments in direction to retrieve my lure. The owners really like them and I thought it was a minor matter, I wasn't having to drive anyway. I'm from the older old school of thinking along this line. Musky Glenn

[BobP]

I'm with you Glenn. A buddy of mine had a Minn Kota autopilot TM on his center console boat and it gave him fits. It would lose sync and go off in random directions occasionally and he replaced control boards in it twice. I like the IDEA of sophisticated RF and computer controlled stuff, but for day-in-day-out reliability, simple cable drive TM's still work. Whether it's foot control or hand control is a matter of what you're used to. I like foot control. After awhile, your foot becomes educated and you don't think about it; the boat just goes where you want it.

[RayburnGuy]

Foot controlled for me. I'm 6' 4" tall and bending down to control the TM over a long days fishing can really make your back ache. Especially if you have a bad back anyway. I've tried kicking them around with my foot and that never really worked either. Like Bob said, once you get used to a foot controlled model you don't even have to think about it.

Ben