new boat owner looking for some input

Hi all
Last year I picked up a 99′ 16′ alumacraft dominator rear tiller with a 50 hp Evinrude. I’m looking to get a bow mount trolling motor and a fishfinder before the water opens up for the season. I’ll mainly be fishing around home here in Western Wisconsin on the Mississippi and a few local lakes. What would you recommend for minimum thrust on the trolling motor? I’m looking at getting the Terrova with a 45″ shaft so 55lbs or 80lbs are the options. For the fishfinder does an i-pilot compatible fishfinder make sense to buy? I guess I’m all new to this having been a bank fisherman my whole life. Any insight or suggestions you can offer up would be greatly appreciated.

Consider the 80 Terrova or two batteries ran in series with the 55. One 12V battery probably won’t be enough.

Welcome to IDO, 55 lbs should move that boat around just fine in normal conditions but if you fish in current or wind you’re going to want more. Anything over 55 requires 2 batteries so keep that in mind. More importantly buy what you can afford, you have to save money for gas and bait. With an older boat and you being new to this I would suggest either used equipment or contact your local minnkota service center and see if they can get a refurbished one for you.

The bigger the trolling motor you get the better you will be. Better to be in overkill mode than to not have enough when you need it. Be it fishing main river current or tearing up a patch of slop. I also would suggest the 24v system for extended run time and more power. Im partial to Minkota.

Figure out what you want, I would go PD or Terrova in 80lb especially if fishing rivers. There are only 2 types of sonar out there in my book, ones with side scan $$$ and those without $. Adding GPS is minimal and for me is always a good idea. If what you decide on is more mainstream and has been out there a while check the classifieds here and even post a want to buy ad. you might be surprised at the results. Good luck, and eat more fish.

I don’t know why but I’m answering on the assumption that there is a budget here.
I agree that a 55lb Powerdrive would work just fine and Cabelas always has reconditioned units,auto pilot is a nice feature.
As far as a graph, Humminbird has come out with new models thus creating some clearance deals on discontinued models like the 597. A very good unit with gps and runs the Lakemaster chip for around $400.

Enjoy it, sounds like a great rig!

Thanks for all of the responses fellas. Yeah I guess a little more background would have been good. As far a budget, I don’t have a wife so no restriction there but yeah I’m just a recreational fisherman so I probably don’t need all of the bells and whistles but at the same time I feel like if I go too cheap I’ll be kicking myself later. I’d like to keep it under 2000$, but if it made sense to spend a little more I’d probably be willing to fork out the cash. That 597 looks like a sweet little unit, thanks!

Just remember on the H’Bird line that those that end in the #7 have a single processor and run slower than those that end in #8 or higher, which are dual processors.
Good luck and welcome to IDO…

The 55# will work ok on that boat, but there absolutely will be a few times when you wish you had more power.
The 80# is big time overkill, but overkill is great when talking trolling motors.
If you want to save money and still have more than enough power, I’d look at the 70# Powerdrive which is about the same price as the 55# Terrova.

Ive never wished i didn’t have all this extra power! get the 80!

I have a 16′ Alumacraft with a PowerDrive V2 70lb with Ipilot. I would not go any less than that. If you’re going to spend a decent amount of time on the river, I’d go with that 80lb Terrova with the Ipilot (absolute best thing I’ve ever bought for fishing).

Side imaging is nice, but I would way rather start with the Ipilot. You can’t spot lock with just the side imaging, but you can with the ipilot. You can’t fish from the back of the boat dragging jigs using the remote with the sonar, but you can with the ipilot.

If I had to chose, to me it’s a no brainer. Now, both would be nice.

To keep it around $2K, I’d look at the 80lb Terrova with Ipilot (aroud $1500), and the Lowrance Elite 7Sonar/GPS ($599 at Cabelas right now)or the Humminbird 688CI HD DI combo (includes down imaging $459 at Cabelas).

I have a similar boat, 02 Alumacraft 165 mag tiller. I went with the 80# 60″
Tillers have a higher riding bow due to all the weight being in back. The long shaft is great when solo in the waves. YOu do not have to have it al the way in. I had a 40″ and that thing was out of the water in a good chop. I will get two days of use if I need out of the 24v on this size boat. If you can afford it go 24V long shaft, you will not regret it.

I had a similarly sized tiller boat with a 55-lb Terrova. Ask yourself what you want to use it for. Me, I mainly used the Terrova for bass fishing–moving around slowly and casting lures. For that, I was 100% satisfied with 55 lbs of thrust. It scooted along very quickly on the highest setting and lasted a long time on a charge. If you plan on using it in moderate to heavy current or for long trolling sessions, I would bump up a size to the 24 volt model.

Go longer on the shaft length, too. I think I had the option of 48″ or 54″ on the 55-lb Terrova, and I went with the longer one. My mother-in-law has a boat with a trolling motor shaft that’s on the short size, and it sucks big time.

I would be hesitant about mixing a Minn Kota trolling motor with a Lowrance fishfinder / GPS

Johnson owns Minn Kota and Humminbird and the better units talk to each other.
If you start with those brands it will allow updating of just one component or the trolling motor at a time.

I believe that Motor Guide and Lowrance may also be a compatable pairing but have never owned those brands.

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I would be hesitant about mixing a Minn Kota trolling motor with a Lowrance fishfinder / GPS

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Please explain this logic? Myself and thousands of other fisherman run Lowrance electronics and minn kota trolling motors and they work just fine together. The only thing you can’t get is the i-pilot link. If you want that functionality you need to run birds. There is no reason to be hesitant. They work fine together.

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I would be hesitant about mixing a Minn Kota trolling motor with a Lowrance fishfinder / GPS

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Please explain this logic? Myself and thousands of other fisherman run Lowrance electronics and minn kota trolling motors and they work just fine together. The only thing you can’t get is the i-pilot link. If you want that functionality you need to run birds. There is no reason to be hesitant. They work fine together.

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X2 – Thousands may be understating the number of people running Minn Kota trolling motors & Lowrance electronics.
Basically, it’s quite common!
For me personally, it’s all I’ve ever run.

Thanks a lot for all of the responses! You’ve all really helped me narrow down the selection process. This site is great

the i-pilot link upgrade

Just like many, many others, I’m running I-pilot and lowrance together.

There is no “link” to the lowrance unit but all the other functions of the I-pilot work the same as they normally would.

Do the Lowrance and Motorguide units talk to each other to get some additional functionality?

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Do the Lowrance and Motorguide units talk to each other to get some additional functionality?

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I believe thats exactly what they’re working on. Not entirely sure if that technology is available right now.

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Do the Lowrance and Motorguide units talk to each other to get some additional functionality?

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I believe thats exactly what they’re working on. Not entirely sure if that technology is available right now.

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If it isn’t out now, it will be very shortly. Go HERE to see what all the Xi5 has for functionality.