Fishing was tough today -- and having "technical difficulties" with the trolling motor didn't help at all. I tried several colors of 5" Yamamoto super grubs, a couple of small jointed crankbaits, and even the usually reliable 4" weightless senko (watermelon - blk/red flake). No takers...
My trolling motor did OK at first, but seemed to have less power than it did last year. On the way back to the launch, it was crawling even though the throttle was @ full power. I barely made it! Thank goodness the wind was blowing in the direction I wanted to go. Not sure what's going on. According to my charger, the battery was fully-charged but I've got my doubts about that. Maybe the connectors need to be cleaned? Maybe the battery needs to be replaced? (It's 4 years old.) The motor is a Minn Kota Maxxum which has a battery power level indicator, but when I pushed the "test" button after limping back to the launch, NONE of the lights came on -- even the one that says "recharge". Never seen THAT before.
I'm thinking it's time to add a second trolling motor & battery (one on each end). The extra power would come in handy when going from point A to point B -- and if one system goes belly-up, I've got a backup to get back to the launch.
This was NOT a good way to start the season...