Minn Kota Talon

Do any walleye guys on here have talons? I have a Lund fiberglass and am thinking about getting a 15’ talon. Never been in a boat with one so have never used one. Only 1 talon would fit because of a kicker, so I know spinning around the talon could be an issue. I am thinking between a talon and spot lock on the terrors the boat would hold really steady. Fishing shallow and casting for walleye is our favorite way to fish, but we also have a livescope that is not on the TM but rather a pole that you move by hand, so when the boat spins it’s a real pita to have to move the livescope. There are other scenarios where I could see a talon being useful, but I could also see it being a PITA. So any experience you have with a talon, good or bad would be interesting to hear.

I have a 12 foot talon on my Ranger. It’s not a fiberglass boat, it’s aluminum. I bought it in 2015 when I bought the boat new. They had to use a sandwich bracket to mount because my transom was irregularly shaped.

I do not have spot lock on my bow mount, as that came out in 2016 one year after I bought my boat. This is the main reason I bought the talon though.

Two talons are better than one, but one is still very useful. I do a lot of fishing in less than 10 feet of water and I sometimes fish by myself. If there is a decent wind it acts as more of a pivot point in conjunction with the bow mount.

I also find it very useful at the dock when loading and unloading.

Most of my targets are bass or muskies, not walleyes. So take that with a grain of salt.

Make sure you check with the boat mfg on voiding a hull warranty. Some transoms are not designed for one. I’d also recommend a tilt bracket, as they tend to stick up quite high.

Hope that helps

I have a 15′ talon on a tilt bracket.
It gets used almost every time the boat is in the water. It works OK with my Ulterra’s spot lock but sometimes the trolling motor wants to fight it and keep moving around. If you adjust the tolerance on the I-Pilot link controller it makes it less of an issue. I use it while the family is swimming, shallow water walleye fishing, docking and whenever I don’t want to have the trolling motor spook fish in 3-4′ of water while crappie fishing. I haven’t needed or used an anchor in the boat for 4+ years knock on wood.

I got a 15′ taking from a guy here on Ido for a really nice price. I run a lund impact 1775, and the talon is probably the most used piece of gear on my boat. Two would be better, but I’ll never buy a 2nd for this rig.

Pull up on shore, talon down. Launch boat and go park truck, talon down. Fishing a spot, talon down. Love this goofy thing.

Find a damaged one and use trollingmotorparts.com, parts for these are surprisingly cheap imo