Hi all,
Considering purchasing an 80lb bow mount Minn Kota Terrova electric trolling motor.

Primarily will use it for backtrolling on the Sacramento River.

Two questions:
1) Will the 80lb thrust be powerful enough to effectively backtroll in faster river currents. It will be running on a 19.5' Jetcraft.
2) How many hours of run time can I probably expect per charge?

Thanks in advance for any help.

What size battery are you planning on buying (Amp-Hrs)? With enough battery, you can run all day.

I'm open to suggestions on battery size...

I have a 50lb bow mount Minn on a 16ft Wooldridge. I would not recommend an electric for this purpose except in gentle river currents. I use mine on lakes and in tidewater and it works great but not enough hp for serious river backtrolling.

The term "backtrolling" down here is kind of used wrongly. Usually it just means trolling with the bow in front, like you would do with a kicker, at least around the Sacramento area.

If that's what you are planning the 80# thrust will be good for you, it's what I have on my boat.

If you mean real backtrolling (with the transom upriver) up at Woodsen or Hamilton city, then it'll still work, but might not be enough for very long. Also, with the bow mount you'll get spun around if you are really backtrolling.

Good luck,

Food for thought.......I used a electric motor on 2 of my boats....worked great to position boat IF I was boondogging. Problem I had, only one battery......don't do that, more than once, not enough left in battery to start big motor(thank heavens for the ability to wind a starter rope).

On the rivers I fish, at higher flows, the electric just didn't have the power to "hold boat", if I wanted to pull plugs.

I know the cost electric vs. power, weight......but I do like the power of my Yamaha 8 HP, plus electric start and power tilt.

4 strokes are really quiet.....

Good luck.......

Won't work in faster currents and even in gentler currents control will be quite weird with a bow mount.

Abandon that idea and get a gas motor.

Thanks for all the replies. As eugene1 mentioned, maybe I'm using the term "backtrolling" incorrectly. I'm referring to trolling downstream (at about 1/2 the speed of the river current) with the bow pointed up river. Typically backbouncing roe or plugs.

I have a 15hp kicker, but would like to use that only for the really fast currents, and switch to the electric for the majority of the "backtrolling" we do in slow to mid-speed current.

I think it just depends on current speed as to how well this is going to work out for you. I can't imagine it working very well in even medium currents for very long, but I have successfully back-bounced slow pools off of our electric a few times.

Using a bow-mount would be really hard IMO. Maybe not if it was remote controlled so that you could sit in the back of the boat, but I feel like the guy running the motor wants to be right next to the rods to see what is going on.

The 101# is needed for easier-to-push drift boats for similar applications.
So you're going in under-powered and then trying to control from the bow in current.

I'd use a true* 8 HP for all conditions.


*true
as opposed to a de-tuned larger powerhead



If you go ahead with it and it doesn't work, you'll have a bunch of crap you can't use and multiple holes drilled into your boat for the bow mount.
If you lake fish for bass it would be useful.

I have a 80 pound 24 volt on an 18 ft freedrifter. Works great in big rivers with medium to slow current. I could push it upstream all day against the tide and and current in the lower Chehalis if I had to.

8 hp kicker.Good luck,
SZ

Thanks. I'm not too concerned about the control aspect. I'm going to have the iPilot remote control added which will supposedly hold a GPS heading pretty well. That's a separate discussion, but in general I've heard and read good things about the iPilot.

I'm just wondering about the power - if it will be enough to hold in medium river currents. I know the 101 lb thrust is an option, but I'd rather not go that route, and I'm getting a lot of differing opinions as to whether the 80lb will do the job.

I have a 55lb on my 16ft boat. It will do about 2mph ground speed. Control is awesome. In faster water, I lock the gas kicker on the stern in place and steer with the bow mount. I do that back bouncing eggs or what I call bactrolling plugs (bow upstream, moving downstream about 1/2 mph-1 mph). I'll still use the manual control in really rough conditions to anticipate a needed change rather than make the motor try and catch up.

With the speed at 80%, I get about 4 hours out of a group 24 battery.

Here's fishing this fall. There was gusting, swirling wind. You can see the boats in front of me actually turn toward the shore to keep from getting blown sideways. My bow mount turns to hold the bow in place, and we could keep fishing.