Northwest Fishing Reports

Hello,

I am a total newbie to fishing, and just got a nice 16' Invader bowrider with a couple of downriggers. I want to troll for trout and salmon etc.

I have a 90hp Mariner on it, but I feel it is too fast for trolling even at the slowest possible speed. Would that be a right assumption? I do have a kicker bracket, and now I want to find out if I can use an electric (e.g. Minn Kota) for trolling in Lake Washington? How much thrust does it need to have? Or, should I invest in a small kicker motor? I would prefer electric, but

what does experienced fishermen say?

All input is appreciated.

Thanks

If your going anywhere in the salt and plan to troll, your gonna wanna go with a small kicker motor...I bet you can get like a 6hp 4 stroke for under $1000 used...

If your going lake only, a Minn Kota would do...Go with as much thrust as you can, a 90hp on a 16 footer is a bit of weight, so you'll wanna big Minn Kota to push you around....

If I were you I would get a kicker. If you REALLY want you can through a couple of 5 gallon buckets tied to a rope into the water and that will weigh you down enough to troll, but I wouldnt recomend it, but it will work, but it can also damage your motor.

We got a kicker bracket installed for around $350. Then we got a kicker to match our main motor it looks pretty sharp. Well first we had an all white 115 hp main motor with a 6hp all black evinrude, it did the trick but didnt look as nice a matching motors. Then when you get the motor put in you have to get an EZ steer its a bar that conects the 2 motor shafts together and you can steer the trolling motor with the steering wheel. works pretty good

I wouldnt recomend an electric motor unless you want one of the front mount motors that are used for bass fishing. I have one of those on my boat and have only used it a handful of times, but then again Im not a bass fisherman. But with the prices of gas...... LOL

I agree with GPC. In addition a good kicker motor makes a great back up for when your main motor is being stubborn.

I have a 15' Smokercraft with a bow mount MinnKota and it trolls downriggers all day long (Lk Wash.) Transom mount electrics didn't work for me, especially trolling into the wind. A gust of wind may turn your bow 15, 20 degrees and my electric didn't have enough power to put the bow back into the wind. With a kicker you goose the throttle and you're back in business.

My MinnKota has the Power Drive with the Co-Pilot. With the PD on, the motor automatically adjusts if you are blown off your course. The Co-Pilot (TV type remote for steering and speed) allows me to seat in the rear next to the downriggers. Works great!

gpc wrote:If I were you I would get a kicker. If you REALLY want you can through a couple of 5 gallon buckets tied to a rope into the water and that will weigh you down enough to troll, but I wouldnt recomend it, but it will work, but it can also damage your motor.

We got a kicker bracket installed for around $350. Then we got a kicker to match our main motor it looks pretty sharp. Well first we had an all white 115 hp main motor with a 6hp all black evinrude, it did the trick but didnt look as nice a matching motors. Then when you get the motor put in you have to get an EZ steer its a bar that conects the 2 motor shafts together and you can steer the trolling motor with the steering wheel. works pretty good

I agree completely. While you can use devices to slow you down with the big motor, a kicker is a great thing to have too, especially if you plan to troll for salmon.

I have a pair of Mercs on my 16' Hewescraft, a 90hp 2-stroke and a 6hp 4-stroke:



I have the tie bar gpc mentioned and highly recommend it. However, there is one other item I also recommend, a remote throttle control. The tie bar doesn't do much good if you have to continually move from the helm to the kicker to make speed adjustments. Without a remote throttle, you don't need a tie bar unless you never change trolling speed. I got a basic Trollmaster setup for under $200, was easy to install, and it gives me remote control at the helm. I can make fine adjustments while trolling and when we hook up, I hit the "idle" button on the remote while we fight the fish.

I also have a bow mounted trolling motor for working shorelines while fishing for bass and panfish, but that's a different topic.

(PS - My 6hp kicker was $1200 new from the dealer, so yeah, a used 6hp should easily be under $1000.)

Another nice thing is that a little 4 stroke kicker will just sip gas when trolling...Really nice...Plus you can hook up the gas line to the main tank so you wont have to have a portable gas can sliding around all over the deck...

First of all, thanks for all the great feedback. I think I'm leaning more towards a kicker now..... Hopefully one day, I'll even catch a fish

Sam Kafelafish wrote:Another nice thing is that a little 4 stroke kicker will just sip gas when trolling...Really nice...Plus you can hook up the gas line to the main tank so you wont have to have a portable gas can sliding around all over the deck...

Yep, you're right about that Sam, it took forever to drain the 3 gallon remote tank dry while running the required "extra oil" for the big motor break in. It sure was nice to finally plumb the kicker to the main tank, no more portable on board!

saltwater fishing safety alone says get a kicker, it's your "emergency go home" motor.

Well, I only intend to use my boat on Lake Washington. I could potentially get a good deal on a Minn Kota Endura 55 lbs thrust. Could that work in terms of speed for my 16 foot invader??? It's not a big and heavy boat....

Let me know

How much does the boat weigh...???
If you plan to use it on some smaller trout lakes too, then perhaps go with the Minn Kota

Here's a theory I share with many other fishermen..I love to try new forms of fishing and/or new spots when I get a species or body of water down...I'd think after a while of fishing for sockeye/trout on lake washington, you'd want to perhaps broaden your scope and perhaps go for pinks or silvers or blackmouth out in the sound, which almost requires a trolling motor...Pinks would be a great salmon for any beginner to start with to learn the ropes of. Easy to catch, plenty of them, kinda a starter salmon I'd say....

Anyways, personally I'd love to have a 16' boat to be small and light enough that its not a pain to tow or store, but big enough to handle Lake Washington and even some saltwater applications...If money was an issue, then a Minn Kota should be fine. But if its not much of an issue, you can never have too many toys on a boat, and a gas trolling motor is a great buy because they are pretty easy to resell....

You could also buy a used kicker and a Minn Kota and swap em out when needed to....

I am not sure where I can find the weght of this boat, however think it's about 1000 lbs dry. Found out that max capacity is 1385 lbs including persons, motor and gear - and 6 persons or 835 lbs. Does this make sense? I am only going to use this boat on lakes (99% time on LW). 55lbs thrust should be enough???

Thanks

the Minn Kota will work, 55 lbs. thrust should do it too, but you're going to want to have at least 2 deep cycle batteries on board at all times, because you're going to have to use the 4th and 5th speeds a lot for your boat and those absolutely gulp battery juice. Also as stated above transom mount electrics pretty much suck in a strong wind.

Another thing to consider is perhaps getting a different prop for your main motor. There are prop options that sacrifice top end speed for slower low end speed, and maybe you could get your big motor down slow enough to work.

Good points...

Well, yesterday I bought a minn kota Endura 55, let's see how it works. It was brand new, and a really good price. Got a battery charger today. Now just need a kicker bracket and a couple of batteries. How long do you think I could be trolling at speed 4 with 1 battery (approx)?

I expect to be out only 2-3 hours at the time, as I Love fishing, but love doing other stuff too (-:

Just get the biggest deep cycle battery you can find and that should last you for a few hours.....

The "6-pack" style Optima deep cycle batteries are great batteries but they are a bit spendy...179 to 249 bucks online from Cabelas.
If you are going to troll I would opt for a stern mount motor but if you are fishing the docks or weeds i.e. bass fishing, then I would go with a bow mount. I have an ancient OMC bow mounted trolling motor that still works fine but can't get spare parts for it anymore.

You can easily find a decent kicker on Craigslist, they may be older models but you can easily find one for under 500, sometimes much less.

I use a 35# Minn Kota for pushing around my 16' Alumaweld when lake fishing.