# trolling motor question



## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

Bought a Sea Hunt 220 few months ago. I want to add a trolling motor for Tarpon fishing. Figured this would be the best place to ask because the use will be specfic for tarpon fishing. It is a deep V boat with not much of an area to mount a bow trolling motor. Also figure since I will be using the boat to run offshore a times a trolling motor on the front beating around may not be the best ideal. 

So I have three other choices. I have 12"x9" lenco tabs on the boat and have looked at the tab mounted motors. I would like anyone with these to give me the pros and cons. 

Other choice is motor mounted trolling motor. In my mind this would not be the best for a few reasons. But I would like to here from anyone who has these. 

Last choice would be a clamp on transome mounted motor. Add a square bracket to the transome of the boat and a plug. This seems the best choice becasue I can remove the trolling motor when I am not tarpon fishing. I also do not have to worry about damage if I bump into anything. But controling the boat direction would seem to be tuff. I would hope the large motor could be used like a tiller and this would be how to control direction. Seems this may be very sluggish and be almost impossible to make a quick turn without cranking up the big motor. 


I am looking for any suggestions as to what yall have found to work or have seen work in a case like this. Tarpon are one of the main reasons I bought the boat. So I want to set up my trolling motor best as possilbe. Thanks.


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## CrazyYak (Mar 16, 2005)

One of these should work, your boat is only 6ft longer than mine!


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

CrazyYak said:


> One of these should work, your boat is only 6ft longer than mine!


I would loose my gut fast tring to paddle it around. May be only 6' longer but it has a few thousand pounds on you.


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## Blackwater21 (Jan 16, 2009)

I have run both a dual setup and a single trolling motor on brackets on the transom. The singe 36v 101 thrust worked the best but neither was as good a bow mount 36v hand control unit. I am not a fan of the engine or trim tab trolling motor set ups. Everyone I know that has them has problems with them all the time.

Good Luck


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## Hunter (Sep 3, 2004)

The MinnKota trim tab trollers are great. I have used them for two seasons.

I have heard bad things about the Lenco version.

Barring a switch to MinnKota tabs, I would recommend a transom mounted troller. Use your main as a rudder.


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## Wading Mark (Apr 21, 2005)

Great White 36V transom mount with 3 Optima batteries is an outstanding set-up.


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## Txfirenfish (Jan 8, 2005)

Wow TJ, gettin out of the yak business?


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

Txfirenfish said:


> Wow TJ, gettin out of the yak business?


yep, sold the kayak last week.

You get a weekend off let me know. I will be fishing most all weekends the weather is good enough. Black drum run is coming and I have some primo protected locations for them.


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## guillotm (Jan 7, 2010)

I am in the same boat as you Jolly. I have a 23 footer that weighs close to 6000lbs that I will be using for trolling. I may purchase the 202 MK engine mount as I already have trim tabs. I know several people that troll for tarpon with their thrusters. If an inboard doesnt spook them then why would a small four stroke outboard around 10 horsepower, like a kicker. Have a friend that caught a 6 foot plus Tarpon trolling ballyhoo behind an outboard.


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## Wading Mark (Apr 21, 2005)

guillotm said:


> If an inboard doesnt spook them then why would a small four stroke outboard around 10 horsepower, like a kicker. Have a friend that caught a 6 foot plus Tarpon trolling ballyhoo behind an outboard.


It's because inboards don't exhaust under the water and outboards of any size do. I've seen the small outboard thing tried time and again and those people don't catch any tarpon while the trolling motor/gas inboard crowd are hammering them.


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## guillotm (Jan 7, 2010)

Oh, that's why. I am still researching all this. Good thing I got plenty of room for batteries.


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## Supergas (Nov 30, 2004)

*Batteries*

If you want max performance from your trolling motor do not use Optima or any other gel cell battery..

The acid deep cycle batteries will give you much more run time & withstand the constant recharging much longer than the Optima. Plus they are considerably less expensive.

From my experience building custom golf carts the last few years, the best deep cycle batteries are:

1. Trojan (most expensive a bit longer life)
2. Interstate (most cost effective, do not buy the blue top Extra Capacity, just use the Red Top Workhorse.

As with any battery, keep the water level up, keep the connections clean, use the best cables you can afford. I use 2 Ga. welding cable with copper ends...

I have rigged up a three battery system using 3ea 8 Volt batteries giving me 24 Volts... If this does not give me the power I need, I will go up from there..

The 8 Volt Interstate are sold at Sams for around 70.00 ea but the 12 Volt are over $100 each.. at Interstate.

The best system would be 6 ea 6 volt batteries giving 36 volts with a fantastic run time... this is what Club Car has gone to in their golf carts. They tried 4 ea 12 Volt batteries, but could not get the run time out of them and they were wore out much sooner than the others...

Of course, the drawback to using the smaller voltage batteries is the charging of them.. you would have to have a 6 or 8 volt charger or get an onboard one designed for golf carts.. (that would be 2cool)

Anyway, just my 2 cents worth.. I buy a bunch of batteries... and this is what I am rigging on my V20 Wellcraft.

Supergas


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## jared_simonetti (Jul 17, 2006)

Minn Kota troll n tabs http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/trim_n_troll.aspx


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## Jolly Roger (May 21, 2004)

thanks for the info guys


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