Trolling motor
 

I have a 23' bowrider stern drive with swim deck that I occassionally use to troll for salmon and lakers. (Much to my wife's displeasure!) Unfortunately it does not go slow enough so I have to put it in and out of gear, probably not the best thing for the drive system.

Does anyone know of a trolling motor that I could safely attach to the swim deck?

Am also open to other suggestions to slow it down

thanks

Justus...

The easiest and cheapest way is to change the propeller. Well, cheaper than a trolling motor anyway. You need to go down in pitch probably 2-4" maybe more. You will have to experiment some. I would just get a cheap aluminum prop. It takes all of 5 mins to change when on the trailer. Just be careful getting on plane because you will rev the engine right to the rev limiter....

You can also try using 5 gallon pails tied to the back of the boat, but I haven't found this too successful.

Woodsy

Trolling plate seems like the best solution to me.

http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/co...010961sq01.jpg

I had the same problem with my bowrider. I used a GPS and found at idle it would do about 4 mph. I tried two 5 gallon paint buckets, one tied to each rear cleat on a 50' line. That got me to about 2.5 MPH, still too fast.
This year I planned on four buckets but I sold the boat. Some people have recommended a sea anchor, basically an underwater parachute, but buckets are free.

I thought about a trolling motor but didn't want to hack up the boat. My swim platform was intergrated so I would have to drill. Dave R's suggestion looks interesting. If it mounts with little or no drilling I'd try it out.

the Happy Troller is the way to go over changing the prop which will change the performance when you are not fishing. A trolling motor, quick release bracket, battery will run you 550.00 plus, the Happy Troller sells for about 128.00 at the store I work at. Works great, just don't go in reverse with it in the down position.

Happy Troller
 

Has anyone had recent experience with this device? Does it work and what does it take to attach it?

Here you go.............

http://www.davisnet.com/product_docu...yTrllrINST.PDF

Happy Troller
 

I've put one on the 100 HP outboard on my Whaler Montauk last spring. Used it all summer. Works very well. Do NOT buy the plastic ones that are similar from Cabela's. Cheaper, but breaks.... You have to drill 4 holes in the horizontal trim plate (?) on the lower unit. Very simple to do with the help of some c-clamps to make sure you get the alignment right.

When you want to troll, you idle the boat, pull the line that releases the plate and it will drop down vertically. You usually hear it lock into place. If your drifting too fast, you might have to put it in reverse briefly. As long as you don't rev the engine, that won't be a problem but helps push the plate into the vertical locked position. When you're done fishing, while still trolling in forward simply pull the cord again and the plate releases. The force of the water will push the plate until it locks back in the horizontal position.

Pretty simple, but effective. I can get my Montauk under 1 MPH with this.