Educate me on Bow Mounted Trolling Motors.....

[Niner]

I Might be needing to buy a bow mounted trolling motor to mount on a boat I Might or......might not be getting.

The proposed boat has no trolling motor, or fish finder......but we'll hit that subject another time.

I know there are a couple of different kinds from looking at them in the catalogs. One seems to have cables or something leading from the foot controller, to the head of the unit... and the other seems to have a "data cable" or somesuch leading from the foot control to the head of the unit.

HOW DO THEY WORK????
Which type would be better for someone who might have ummmmmmm "impaired" leg strength? Do the "foot controllers" take a lot of "leg muscle" to use????

IF we get this boat, 99.9% of the fishing/operation will be done sitting down.....

Question #2:
In your opinion, which of the reasonably priced bow-mounted trolling motors would you recommend......and why????

[Chicken Dinner]

I'm not ignoring you Bill. I just don't have anything to add...

[Captain]

I've had several each of Minn Kota and Motor Guide. Leg strength is a factor. My buddy and fishing partner that recently died had MS and got to where he could not steer his boat.
There has been good advances in them since I purchased my last one that I currently use. If it goes out I will try to find one that does NOT have the cable drives from the foot feed to the power head.
The cable drives are pretty easy to use on Flats boats where you are standing all the time casting. But sitting and casting like I do in my small "pond hopper" boat I think a non cable model would be the shit.....

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[Bwana]

I put on a Minnkota Terrova a couple of years ago that I bought used for a little more then half price (read: SWEET deal!). The remote control unit is so handy that I have never even used the foot control and the electronic anchor feature is the cat's ass! You can also "teach" it to follow several trolling patterns if you have various locales where you always run the same line while fishing. I have yet to use that feature but I could see where it would be pretty handy.

They don't give them away but they are nice.

[Captain]

Bwana, does yours have the iPilot?

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[BarryBobPosthole]

I've used the gps ones and the remotes are easy to use and you wear them on a lanyard around your neck. I've always used a foot controlled cable style control andtotally had to retrain myself and had it down pat after onlly a day of using it.
The only physical issue I see with the one I used was it had to still be manually deployed andthat required a lot of bending and contorting and I thought the standardgator style mount was easier. They may make one that will autodeploy but theone and only unit I tried didn't.
I wouldn't rule out a transom mount tiller model or even maybe a bow mountvtiller model. The Minnkota Maxxum is one that is pretty versatile. They're easier to raise and lower IMO. Like everything else, the more bells and whistles the more spendy.

What kind of boat and what kind of watervwill you fish? That likely as important as how easy it is to use. The one thing I know for certain is that the wrong trolling motor will frustrate you beyond belief on a little bit of a windy day.

BKB

[Bwana]

Cappy, yep.

[Cards01]

Bow mounted tiller handle is a definite option. I flipped the top around on an old transom mount one just so the reverse and forward would be correct and mounted it up front and fished a lot on Lake Barkley that way many years ago.

[Niner]

The proposed boat would be used for....what I guess y'all call "skinny water".
There's a river that feeds an impoundment (West Point Lake) here. The lake has LOTS of little inlets and "creeks". If we end up with it that would be most likely where we'd fish. NO big huge bodies of water. This boat, by the way is a stick-steer unit. Kind of like the Tracker Panfish boat.....but not that one. It does not come with troller and soar as "standard equipment".

Anyway.....it's something we've been talking about here in the horsepistol to help keep my mind off of the reality of what's going on with me.

Heck, by the time we get home and out to where the boat is it might be sold.

[Niner]

Another idea, and MAYBE more economical....maybe not...

I HAVE an old Minnkota 36# thrust transom-mount tiller trolling motor that I've had for.....prolly 20 years so....

I guess, I could try scrounging up the parts and removing the (cast metal) transom mount assembly from the shaft....

Attachment 2792

And re-configuring it with somekindof bow-mounting hardware, like a factory rig....
http://www.ebay.com/itm/MotorGuide-T...dfea28&vxp=mtr


Of course, by the time I pay $200 for a used bow mount....that money could go a LONG way toward the purchase of a brand new unit.

I'm NOT objectionable to a hand controller....but I DO have to have it up front where I can get hold of it. Once I sit down to run the boat & fish, I don't wanna have to be getting up an moving all around the boat.

[Egghead]

Niner, if this is the direction you head, please let me know - I have pretty much that same bracket sitting around, doing nothing. We also have the 36-volt trolling motor to go with it - but we replaced it all instead of trying to get the motor repaired. The motor only works on full speed, kinda hard to finesse that on the river!

[Niner]

Egg, I might just take you up on that offer. That is IF we decide to get that boat. That'd save me several hundred dollars if it worked out. Heck, even if I had to get a longer shaft and rewire it that'd be cool too.

Before we moved in 2000, we used to take the Gheenoe up on the Chattahoochee for trout in the Lake Lanier talitrace.
Before I bought a worn-out old 6hp outboard we used to use that minnkota to run upriver a couple of miles and drft-fish back. Well, one day the "head" started smoking as we were going upriver and we lost several of the speeds.

On that motor, there's a big ol' resistive switch in there that is the speed selector. I called the factory, and they sold me the part. Wasn't too terrible hard to put in, and now runs good as new.

But don't fix yours.....I might neeeeeed your mounting bracket if I get that new boat!!!!

[Buckrub]

The late brother Whitney, among others, talked me into one of those iPilot thingies on my SeaArk, the boat before this one. It didn't take me long to get rid of it. Only way to stow it so I could drive off was to get up out of my seat, walk up to the motor head that was in the water, and pull straight up, then lay it down. My gosh. Then, the steering that was supposed to be so much easier because it was electronic was difficult. It was made for those beautiful big open lakes that we fished in Canada. Turn it on, and set it, and it kept the boat trolling and in a straight line. If you do that, those work great. But I don't troll. I need my TM to be on/off/on/off/on/off, right/left/straight/left/right, all in the space of 30 seconds.

I got a Minnkota Maxxum 70 and love it.

But that's just me.

You NEED to go out in someone's boat that has what you are considering buying and try it out, fishing or not. Just spend 10 minutes with it, and then you'll know which one you need.

[Niner]

Bucky, can you operate that Minnkota Maxxum 70 from a "regular" seated position? It looks like one of the units with the "fat cables" that do the work????

http://www.minnkotamotors.com/produc...nt/maxxum.aspx

OR.....is yours a hand controlled unit?

[Niner]

OK....I gotta admit........ONE of the boats I am CONSIDERING, is the Tracker Panfish.
THAT unit comes with the Minnkota EDGE troller...
http://www.minnkotamotors.com/produc...ount/edge.aspx
....which I am not sure I would like.

It also comes preconfigured with a fish-finder I am not sure I'd care for either
http://www.basspro.com/Lowrance-X4-P...duct/10210252/ maybe its a good one??)
....so I'm also looking at a different boat that does not come with those two options at all. Gonna try comparing the two side-by-side sotospeak and see if I can negotiate the salesfolk to either remove those optoions or "upgrade" them to what I want at little to no cost.

[Captain]

Niner, the issue I have with my foot control bow mount motor is the foot pedal is connected by a heavy cable(s). This makes for the foot pedal to twist from the position that is comfortable for me to run it.
What I'm going to look for is a bow mount trolling motor that has the lift handle (rope) I can reach from the seat, and I would like to get rid of the stiff cables that connect the control head to the foot controller. A foot control is a must for me. I do not like steering the boat with a hand operated trolling motor. Just a little wind and you spend more time with your hands on the motor than on your rod and reel fishing. I am SO use to working the boat with the foot control and continue to fish that going to something else seems counter productive to me.
I cannot get my head around this iPilot thing. If it is something that you use your hands to operate I don't think it would be for me.
Guess I just need to spend some time at Bass Pro shops and look all the new and exciting things that have now.
Just looking at pictures it would appear they now have a foot controlled, bow mount trolling motor that appears to have some sort of coil wire that goes from the foot control to the motor head. If that is the case and it has the lift cord to put the motor in and out that will be the direction I go.

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[Niner]

Di and I have been talking about it, and she says NO WAY to one of those heavy cable foot controllers. From what we've been able to read up on (and y'all), it sounds like it could become useless to me at some point down the road with my legs and all.

Those ones that have the "data cable" attached to them....like the Minnkota Power Drive V2......are "cable less" in that the cable from the foot feed is kindof--sortof like a computer cable that tells the head what to do. Unless I am just full of crap....I have not laid hands on one yet. The DO offer a WIRELESS foot dealie that runs off of AA batties...so that's where I got that idea from.

[Buckrub]

Niner, the Edge and the Maxxum are both foot operated, not hand. The Edge is just a cheaper model. It has 5 speed settings, the Maxxum is a twist knob with unlimited settings from 0 to max. The Edge is like 55 lbs max and is 12V only, and the Maxxum is 70 or 80 lb thrust max, if I remember right, and 24V. How much thrust you need is a function of how heavy your boat is, and what the bottom is like (v bottom, flat bottom, semi v, etc)

Both are good motors.

I can reach it and stow it from the seat, but it depends on the boat and how far the seat is from the TM, and where and the angle that the TM is attached to the boat.

What cappy doesn't like, the thick cables, is what makes it different from the iPilot or Power Drive with electronic controls. E-controls are supposedly easy, and they are easier to operate. But there was no momentary on/off switch on mine that I could use. My Maxxum has a button, and when I step on the foot pedal, it both engages the button (ON) and also allows me to turn the motor left or right by toe/heel depressions. It takes 5 minutes to get used to all that, and then you can turn it on, turn left, off, turn right, on, off, whatever you need. And the wind and current and location all dictate that you are moving/stopping/moving/stopping and turning a LOT. The cables are 'thick' only from the foot pedal to the motor head........they don't make the pedal harder to turn at all. My pedal can be turned with my pinky finger.

To solve Cappy's problem, you'd have to get the electronic steering control. That's fine, but the one I had, that also sacrificed the pull cable to stow the motor. That unit dropped straight down into the water like a push pole...........and to stow it, I had to get up out of my seat, and go up to the bow, and pull straight UP, and then back, and then stow it. What a mess!!! Maybe they are different now, I don't know. That was in 2005.

The thick cables are not that thick anymore, on the new ones.

I still say you need to go try one out. Someone you know has to own a boat with a trolling motor.......call in a favor and just go try it. It won't take you 5 minutes to figure it out and decide what you like and don't.

As for depthfinders, either get one with built in GPS, or get a Rhino hand held GPS to mark fish locations. Other than that, just get whichever one you can afford that you can read. I have a fancy color Lowrance and a cheaper black/white humminbird up front, and I like the black/white better. But some don't.

[Niner]

After MUCH searching I found a couple of videos of a dude SIMPLY deploying and stowing one of these cable-less units.
Of course these are the expensive Terrova model.

EDDIE....Does the PowerDrive V2 deploy and stow the same way??????????

[Buckrub]

Niner,

Found this for you:

http://www.walleyecentral.com/forums...d.php?t=207588