When do you switch from your electric trolling motor to your main motor? Please comment on why at that point do you switch? This is a follow-on to a question on 60" length of a trolling motor's shaft

[Atomic Eye]

[BlackSilver]

I have a 56" shaft length Pinpoint 3700 (60 pound thrust), so wave height is not a problem.

I switch to gas engine when the electric can no longer hold me from being blown by the wind. Obviously this varies depending if my desired track is upwind, downwind, or crosswind.

SET the hook!!!

Hans

[Homer]

.. fortunately, there are a lot of options where I fish, some of which are always sheltered from the wind. I don't enjoy bouncing around in the bow of my boat when the waves get in the 1-2' range, so I just move over to someplace calmer. Guys like me certainly don't need the super long shaft electric motors.

[Hawgeye]

I guess I tend to go with boat control as more of an issue than anything. I will frequently use the bow mount into the waves until they are about 2 feet. At that point, I drive all the way up and use the bow mount to "slip" back with the waves. This way I sort of troll or slip "backward" but point the bow into the waves and wind. When I hit the end of the area, I pull up the trolling motor and drive back up and do it again.

If they get too big, I use the big motor and get wet into the waves. That is when I usually switch to pulling cranks if the presentation is an option at the time.

I suppose it all depends on what method of fishing presentation that I am using when.

[SnellTier]

I agree with the prior posting. I switch depending on the wind, not the wave size. I like to bottom bounce and also vertical jig and I fish Lake of the Woods a lot. Therefore I switched from a 12 volt troller with 36 foot pounds to a 24 volt troller with (I think) 65 or so foot pounds. When the troller cannot keep me stationary over a school of "eyes" for vertical jigging, I switch to the bottom bouncer and use the troller with my bow into the wind and waves to slow my backward drift. Then when I have drifted off the spot we want to fish, I pull the troller up and use the main motor to go IN A WIDE BERTH around the spot we are fishing and get upwind from it -- then I shut off the main motor and put the troller back in and repeat the process.

I have done this even on days when the troller is cavitating even with its 60 inch shaft (and wish it was LONGER!) And, on some of those days I have even taken waves OVER the bow ... 4 such waves in one day, in fact and my Alumacraft Magnum has a fair amount of freeboard so it is VERY nasty when I start taking them over the bow!!). At times like these I make my partner (who is my wife) put on her life vest and I wear mine too. Sorry I cannot give you a wave size estimate ... I am too busy catching fish and enjoying myself to measure them at the time!!!

[s.f.]

easy decision when you have a tiller for the main engine. i don't fight the waves as long as most because that old tiller is awaitin'.
anybody with grey hair understands that! tillers ain't just for gardens....

#49

[Atomic Eye]

HawgEye & TomD,

Interesting approach to use the trolling motor to have a "controlled glide" downwind with the waves or for vertical jigging. I hadn't considered that. Good points.

Atomic Eye -- "Gone Fission!"

[Former IlliniEye]

When the water action is too ruff & exceeds 2', my body action is safe watching pro sports (including fishing) on the tube.

[SnellTier]

Yup, the only time that gets sticky is if you get a bottom bouncer snagged and the 24 volt 64 pound motor cannot take you upwind to the snag. Then things happen pretty fast and the stress gets thick enough it can just about be cut with a knife ... laughing here.

My wife is now yelling at me for telling her snag-grabbing capabilities. She DOES get a lot of them. However, I do have to live with her so I better not tell any more. Laughing again.

[fishy1]

}> whenthe wife runs the boat too close to shore when were supposed to be headed up wind gotta run the tiller before u wind up on the rocks

[Atomic Eye]

I'm surprised that so many WC anglers stay with their electric motors in such rough waters let alond stay on the water! Is this possibly due to Great Lakes fishers with larger boats? Thank you.

Atomic Eye -- "Gone Fission!"

[SnellTier]

In my case, I go to LOW roughly the 2nd and 3rd weeks of July with my wife and we have to plan my trip a year in advance. When we are there, we fish ... and cannot do much about the wind except cope. And there are a lot of open slots in LOW where the wind can drive water for miles with no islands in the way, even in the NE section where we fish.

Besides, my experience has been that the walleyes are very aggressive in that wind, especially if it is preceding a storm coming up.

Add lightning, however, and I am outa Dodge in a heartbeat.

Tom