Alumacraft 1442NCS

[TampaJim]

I just purchased a nice jon that I will be putting a floor into (no decking) with a padded cooler as a front seat and a regular bass seat on the rear bench. Nothing too fancy, I just hate the ankle-breakers and want a stable place to stand and move around.

I fish and bowfish almost exclusively in "no combustion", "no wake", "minimum wake" and "restricted 10hp or less" lakes. I could care less about going fast and most of the lakes that I fish are 20-100 acres with the largest impoundment being 700 acres. 50% of the time I fish alone (175#) and 50% of the time with my wife or friends (125-175#).

I have a thought about propulsion and "balancing" the boat that I would like input on. Electric ONLY on the rear and two deep cycle cells toward the front.

Minnkota Vantage 24V 80# thrust paired with Optima's Troll Fury system (two cells in one battery box) - 120RC @ 24V.

Would this give me adequate pushing power and duration?? I haven't ever used a trolling motor on the rear of a boat AND I haven't ever had a jon boat - just canoes and large powerboats.

Thanks for your input!

Jim -


P.S. This is a great site!! I have been able to gain a LOT of insight through all of the posts and photos. Thanks!

 

[bassboy1]

Should move you pretty well. However, for fishing and bowfishing, don't you want a trolling motor you can control from the bow?

 

[Deadmeat]

If it were me I'd opt for a foot-controlled trolling motor for bowfishing. It sure makes it a lot easier to have one hand on the bow, one hand on the string, and using your foot to move the boat in the direction of the fish.

 

[TampaJim]

Thanks guys! BTW, I don't bowfish by myself ... too hard to drive, spot and shoot at the same time. I do fish by myself quite a bit though.

What do you think of the bow mounted Minnkota PowerDrive 12v, 55# with iDrive built in? The remote use looks very promising - especially the autopilot and spot lock.

I guess that I could possibly find a small (5-6 hp) outboard to hang on the back when permitted. I just don't know if I could completely trust such a high-tech trolling motor. Paddling in a canoe is fun, paddling a jon boat doesn't appeal to me.

Jim -

 

[Deadmeat]

I don't have any experience with the PowerDrive myself but I'm sure there are lots of folks on this website that can tell you all about it. I use a Minn Kota Edge on my G3 1544. Bowfishing isn't exactly the most popular sport on the water so almost all the time I go by myself. With the extended deck and the bow mounted trolling motor I have no problem maneuvering to the fish while holding the bow ready for a shot.

 

[Zum]

I use a MK 50lbs PD trolling motor on my 1652 boat.
I'm not sure how old it is,as I bought it second hand 4 years ago.
Never had any problems with it,use the boat atleast twice a week during fishing season.

 

[longjohn119]

Thanks guys! BTW, I don't bowfish by myself ... too hard to drive, spot and shoot at the same time. I do fish by myself quite a bit though.

What do you think of the bow mounted Minnkota PowerDrive 12v, 55# with iDrive built in? The remote use looks very promising - especially the autopilot and spot lock.

I guess that I could possibly find a small (5-6 hp) outboard to hang on the back when permitted. I just don't know if I could completely trust such a high-tech trolling motor. Paddling in a canoe is fun, paddling a jon boat doesn't appeal to me.

Jim -

I have a buddy that has that setup but just the remote, no iDrive. I could be mistaken but I was under the impression for the iDrive to work on auto you need to hook it to a GPS of some sort. I wish Minnkota would Open Source the communication protocol, I sure would like to interface one to a computer where you could do some really neat tricks with it like automatically calibrate to differing water levels. I make my own depth maps and it's mind numblingly boring going back an forth over an area to map it, it sure would be cool to plot a pattern on the computer and send it to an iDrive and just sit back and sip a cold one while it does it's thing

The system with just the remote is really nice too and probably just as effective for your situation. Lot's of times we use the trolling motor to position us near deepwater snags in search of monster flathead catfish and it's sure nice to be able to sit in the back and control the trolling motor, not to mention a lot safer than being on the front deck in a high current with your back to the snag.

 

[TampaJim]

I have a buddy that has that setup but just the remote, no iDrive. I could be mistaken but I was under the impression for the iDrive to work on auto you need to hook it to a GPS of some sort.

It sounds like your buddy has the Co-Pilot. The iPilot (not iDrive as I said) looks REALLY neat based on the information on the Minnkota site. It has all the attributes of the Co-Pilot plus TONS more. The GPS is completely built into the control head, nothing additional required. The "Spot Lock" feature is highly appealing as is the "Advanced Auto-Pilot". The latter is more sophisticated than the regular version since it is GPS enabled.

https://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/accessories/ipilot/freshwater.aspx

I believe that I have decided to get that motor, it is just too feature rich to pass up. It isn't inexpensive, but the functionality should make it very worthwhile. Now I just have to decide if I want to trust fate OR find a small 4-stroke kicker in the 5-6 hp range for getting home in case the electric dies.

Once I get the boat rigged and running, I can post a report on the new iPilot system.

Jim -

 

[longjohn119]

It's nice but it really needs some sort of visual interface or computer interface to work with GPS enabled maps and such. Then you could do things like pre-plot a course or take a successful course and put it on a GPS map so you can actually see and analyze your path. Think about it, you could take a GPS calibrated depth map and plot a course right along a drop off, or a creek bed before you ever saw the lake or reservoir.

For instance this map I made (This is a Corps of Engineers hydrologic map that I converted and GPS calibrated)

This is a map of the Mississippi River, the yellow along the shore is the old river bank before they flooded the pool in the 30's and it drops into hole right at the edge of the old river bank, the area has a lot of natural rock so it's a major spawning ground for flathead catfish. Here's another map I made of the same spot that overlays a current photo map on a 1930's photo map showing the old riverbank

There is an additional waypoint not shown but I like to start at that one and work my way downstream to 1, 2 and finally the current break in front of the Interstate 280 bridge. It sure would be nice to be able to send those waypoints to an iPilot and have it put me right on those spots. (What's with putting an 'i' in front of non-internet enabled devices like iPods and iPilots? It's intentionally misleading marketing hype and insults my intelligence) Being able to interface to a computer would also take care of what I see as a ridiculous memory limit of 3 tracks. Now I could live with being able to load only 3 at a time from a computer but having only 3 tracks and no ability to save a track before you overwrite it seems to me pointless. Must have been a Bean Counter decision to squeeze out a couple of extra bucks of profit because GPS tracks don't use much memory (A 1 gig thumbdrive will hold thousands of GPS tracks) and memory is dirt cheap so from an engineering/design standpoint I can see no reason there shouldn't be at least 10 times this amount of memory available. It wouldn't even add 5 bucks to the price and if people were given a choice they'd pay 5 bucks more and the limited memory devices would be sitting on a shelf. I don't need a marketing degree to know this, I just know the market. At least add a SD or USB port to add more memory, again it's about a 5-10 buck addition to the final price.

Maybe next year I can come across an used co-pilot and hack an interface to my computer and show Minnkota how unleash the full potential of GPS/computer enabled devices. They make a good motor but their relatively new electronics division could use a little guidance IMO.

 

[TampaJim]

My guess on the limitations ... they will lead to the iPilot 2, iPilot 3, iPilot 4 and so on. Looks like Microsoft planned this product AND the upgrade path at an additional expense each year or so.

However, it does look like the best thing going AND both the "Spot Lock" and "Cruise Control" look very appealing and SHOULD help with making trips more productive.

At this point, I still have to go talk to the nearest warranty center about their price including shortening the shaft - the booger only comes with a 52" or longer and I need more like 42".

 

[RiverBottomOutdoors]

My experience from bowfishing:

Foot controlled motors are nice when you're sitting but make your legs tired from playing stork all day. Also plays hell on your balance if you're in a smaller boat. If you shoot a fish and want your buddy to drive, he has to get the controller into position for him....and we know what happens when the motor is juiced and someone slams the peddle...bath time.

Remote control motors tie your free hand up because you actually have to hold the controller to use it (think trying to land a fish and fumble with the remote to drive the boat). It's nice to be able to drive the boat from anywhere on the boat. If you fish with a buddy...invest in a second remote so that he can drive while you're tied up.

Hand control, you can bump steer them, quickly adjust throttle and direction with almost no effort in the blink of an eye. No fumbling with a remote...no trying to do a balancing act on a foot control. You and your buddy can switch off on who's driving with no effort. No foot controller to trip over...no remote to keep up with.


Hope that helps someone out!

 

[Ranchero50]

For bow fishing I would get one of the trollers with the autopilot. I have one on my Minn Kota 55lb. It's electric steer with 18' of pedal cord and you can go wireless for around $100 more. witht he autopilot you just point the troller where you want to go and it keeps the boat going in that direction. The hull may skew from wind or current but the troller will keep you going where it's aimed at. Works great for fishing point to point and holding in current. Very little input and the variable speed is worlds better than the Captain Morgan cable steer 33lb I used to have.

Jamie