Kicker for Lund Fisherman

[Drew Sky]

I want to put a kicker on my '02 Lund Fisherman 1700. Should I go with 20" or 15" shaft? I am a little concerned about drag vs not enough shaft length. My main engine is Merc 115 4-stroke.

[lundman]

20"

[LundNut]

I have a 2000 Fisherman and a 20" kicker works great. I don't think that you would want the 15".

LundNut

[Atomic Eye]

Just curious. Why do you think you need a kicker if you have a 4-stroke main motor that is only 115 HP? Between that and a bow-mounted electric motor it doesn't seem to me that you should need the extra weight, cost, maintenance, and space loss of adding an unnecesary kicker. Thanks.

Atomic Eye (New Mexico) -- "Gone Fission!" ~~~<}}}:>

[drew sky]

I want the motor mainly for an auxillary because I live on Lake Superior and use the boat during prime salmon fishing, end of July into Sept. The primary purpose for the boat is walleye fishing tho and again I go on some pretty large lakes here in Minnesota. Mille Lacs for example if you are caught out in the middle in 3 footers or so and your main kicks out the electric would be iffy to get off with. Lastly, I also fish a lake that is partially in the BWCAW of Minnesota and partially in Ontario. Saganaga is the lake name and has a horsepower limit of 25 HP max. The forest service tho allows larger boats to pass through a special corridor into Canada but require that the main engine is completely out of the water. Hence the need for a kicker. Once on the Canadian side I can use my main engine.

Thanks to all who have responded.

[Charlie]

I have a factory prerigged 15hp merc with power trim on my 2002 1800 Fisherman. We got it for Lake St Clair (Trolling and an extra in case) My wife wanted for the latter reason. It works great and saves running the big motor for trolling. It is a 20 inch shaft non Bigfoot. I can go up to about 6.5 mph with four people and calm seas.

[John]

I too have a 1700 Fisherman with Merc 115 - 4 stroke. I have a kicker on mine, both for trolling and for emergency back up. My kicker is a 1973 Mercury 7.5 hp that my dad bought new and gave to me.
It still runs like a new motor. I will admit though that I wished it had a longer shaft, but it does the job.

[Atomic Eye]

It never fails to amaze me that what we are required to do is not based in facts but in regulatory requirements.

Atomic Eye (New Mexico) -- "Gone Fission!" ~~~<}}}:>