Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Peter7288]

Hello Everyone, Im was just wondering what an adequate electric trolling motor would be for my 14' canoe.  But heres the issue, my girlfriend and I (who just recently started to take fishing passionatly) usually go out with a friend of ours and his pup. So to spare you the aggony of listening to every little peice of equipment we bring along with us I'll just say it like this, we have somewhere between 4-8 inches of freeboard given the amount of stuff. Hypothetically speaking for sake of argument say we have 4 inches of free board, including the  600+ pounds in our canoe, do you think that a 30lb thrust Minn Kota Endura C2 30 Freshwater Transom Mounted Trolling Motor (30" Shaft) that weighs about 30 pounds in itself (along with the 12v battery that can weigh up to about 60 pounds) is going to be too heavy? or not enough power? I know that it would be adequate for just my girlfriend and myself. I've also read a couple reviews about an ASP T18-FW snakehead which weighs about 7 pounds if im correct. But, Im assuming, that would be way to insignificant in a power aspect. I hope I can get some advice (seeing as paddling in the tidal fraser near fort langley can be exhausting at times).

Oh one more probably stupid question but how much do most electric motors weigh? Im assuming that when it talks about 50lb thrust they're not implying that it also weighs 50 pounds.  But that seems to be information that Im just not able to find online.

Thanks

[Peter7288]

Looks like I should have used spellcheck

[troutbreath]

 You can by a smaller 12 volt battery. I use one from an alarm system back up and it is the size of a motorcycle battery. I get about 2 hours use befor it starts sapping out. But then I hook up another one because I have about 15 of them. I use to use one of those big honkin 12 volt marine batteries that weighed the same as a 20 hp motor. But when it packed it in I never replaced it with a simular one preferring to use some of my old car batteries. River fishing with the electric is where you will really wear it down. Lake trolling your usually using the lowest setting. Some prefer the motors that have no set speeds but are more varible to get the lures working just right. I have 2 electric motors and I would say they weigh abot 20 lbs each.  I have two canoes one 12 pointed stern and a 14 square stern. I also have a 2.5 hp 4 cycle motor which weighs about 30 lbs with a full (1 Litre ) tank. That might be what you want if your going to do a lot of river fishing. Depending on how fast the water in the river is moving you can really suck the power out of your big marine battery. Remember Craigslist is your friend when looking for cheap batteries.

[Peter7288]

Thanks a lot troutbreath, I'll try to keep all that in mind when I do make my final decision on what to do.
Do you think that the 18lb thrust watersnake would work for a lake even if the canoe was loaded right up?

[troutbreath]

Yes it would. I've had a 12 foot canoe loaded to the t!ts with beer and it went the same as if it were spokesperson for the temperance league. Just watch out for the wake from other boats. Garbage bags tied up keep your gear fairly dry and floating as back up. Also I am a strong swimmer who likes cold water so you have take that into consideration.