Hey guys I am getting a new Crestliner Fish Hawk with a 115 hp optimax with the troll down feature. I was going to put a kicker on but the dealer said do not bother since these new ones troll down to 500 RPM’s just curious if anyone else has any experience with these yet just curious how you liek them I guess. Can see myself putting a T-8 on soon since it is a 2 stoke but just pickin everyones brain here. 
thanks
Erick, First of all Congrats on the new boat! 
I think the SmartCraft Gauges only allows you to run down to 550 RPM’s. I for one would still put a tiller kicker on it, if my budget allows. You will have far superior boat control with a tiller kicker motor, not to mention greater speed range and finer speed adjustments. To take speed control even a step farther, i would also go with a Digital Trolmaster 2. Just my opinion. If you have any questions, shoot me a PM!
I would also look at Mercury’s Pro Kicker as a possible candidate for a kicker. I think the T8 is very nice but each of them have a few different little features and things that are better than the other. Both Kickers are top of line and you can’t go wrong with either.
Uh oh, here we go…. HANG ON BOYS !! 
big g 
Kickers are also good for piece of mind. Especially fishing big and/or remote lakes. In 8 years my kicker has bailed me out twice when big motor got sick. One time was on Kab.
I made this very mistake when I bought my fishawk. I let the dealer convince me the Yammy 115 would troll down slow enough. Well, it didn’t even come close, but it also didn’t have the smartcraft gauges.
If you can swing it now, get the kicker. T8 or Pro, doesn’t matter. Just get one. I would probably lean towards the pro since it would match. Not sure if you ever wanted add the troll master if mis-matched motors makes a difference for hook up?? However, I also would have a Yammi big motor. 
Congrats man!!!
Here is the best idea yet for trolling.
Quote:
Here is the best idea yet for trolling.
Trolling Bag Set up by Jim Carroll and Johnnie Candle
I can see some situations where those bags would work well and some where they would be quite a detriment.
Those bags would be great for long trolling runs. The way I troll on the river with short little runs upstream followed by quick high speed “jumps” back downstream to start the run again… just wouldn’t work. The deploy and pull out time between runs would be quite time consuming.
But I bet they do a good job of stablizing the boat in tough conditions.
One other time where these might be a problem is trolling in shallow water. Whether its at night or durning rough conditions in the day time!!! 3-6 foot of water might scrape the bottom as well… 
I would certainly think the longer more open water trolling runs would work fantastic!!! Good idea!!
i know that technology has came a long way. but is you run a 2 stroke down that far it cant be good. as much as i have read and know is that they are good for high rpms and small power bands. it may be a good way to a short lived motor. i think the kicker is the way to go. i have never had a 2 stroke idle for a damn after a year or two and that is with a 900 plus idle. but like i said technology is great.
If you do the numbers, even at 500 rpms the trolling speed does not fall below 2 mph.
That is fine in the summer with crankbaits==but not for spinners and rigs in the spring or fall. Some guys buy 36v electric trolling motors to troll below 2 mph. I’m for the tiller/kicker, myself.
I had a 175 Opti with Smart Gauges on a Crestliner TS182, and at the lowest RPM 500 it still did not get below 2 MPH. Merc then bumped it up to 550 because of issues they were having at 500. Kickers are still the way to go for precision trolling.
Erick, if you’re budget always, get the kicker and the troll master. I should have let you run mine last weekend, or this weekend if you’re around. I know mr Dean has those in stock, or can order one for you.
Jami
I put the new minn kota 101 lb. thrust on the front for pulling spinners and live bait but I am going to sit down and see what I can work out tomorrow about a kicker 
if not right away I guess I will run it for a little bit with big motor for cranks but bow mount for pulling bait for now but don’t expect to see it that way for to long I do not think Jami I might be around this weekend and you know how much I like Red Wing
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