Trolling Motor Recommendations

Same here. I had the Minn Kota 60" 24v on my last boat and had zero issues. I ordered the 36v 72" for this boat and can't wait to put it on. I also second the quick release bracket and maybe also add the Ram Mount shaft support for travel.

I have a 36 volt 112 MK Terrova on my 23' bay boat. It's at least 4 years old and has not had a single issue. If it failed today I would be ordering another asap. Spot lock is a game changer.

I had a 24v (2 batteries) on my 22' stingray and never need a 36v. If your 2 batteries are in good condition, I'd save the money.

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Rhodan end of discussion

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It's a pretty open discussion. If you research Rhodan, Minnknota, and Motorguide you can find a lot of posts commenting on failure of units and other items such as losing heading, wandering while on spot lock, cord wrapping, etc... You can also find many comments praising whatever brand is on the front of their boat. Not really a clear cut choice although Minnkota does seem to have a slight edge regarding consumer loyalty on the other two.

As far as I can tell it's a crap shoot between all three of them. Deciding factor likely is what GPS do you have and do you use the GPS functions on the trolling motor all that often?

Pretty sure mine is the 54". It is probably a little too long for my current boat but dosent get in the way. I could definitely afford to go shorter. Not sure if I can cut it down or not.

Originally I was looking into upgrading to a bigger boat and thought the longer shaft would have been beneficial, but the the boating market took off and I scrapped that idea.

I've got 24v 80lb 60" on my 20ft bay boat. It swings it around very well and I've yet to even come close to draining the batteries fishing all day.

Regardless of which brand you go with, make sure to get one with spot lock.

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Trolling Motor Recommendations

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always get something bigger than you think you need for your boat.

when dealing with wind and tides what works is often not near enough to work when fighting wind or currents

i was told a 55lbs was all you need for a 17ft flatboat, and thats true in freshwater canals, but in the marsh the wind and current would often hold me still or even push me backwards making it useless. i went to an 80 lbs thrust and thats the right size but honestly there are times i think having 100 lbs thrust would be better but i dont want to go up to a 36v system

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whats worth paying extra money for and whats not

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Definitely get an ipilot. I do not like the self deploy models even though I have one. I've had both, and wish mine was a terrova instead. There's always the potential for thay self deploy stuff to go haywire and ruin uour trip.

Also, get the hard wired foot control for it. That'll save your trip in the event you break the remote, and it's nice to have when bass fishing.

If you've never fishing on a boat with a spot lock / autopilot trolling motor you need to. It's life changing. Tremendously useful device and it will measurably make you fishing trips more enjoyable.

I’ve had motor guide and min kota. Motor guide is small prop high rpm and minn kota is bigger prop lower rpm. My experience is MK wins by a long shot with respect to running in vegetation. I always had to clean the motor guide off even with a ninja blade added. I’ve gone through the thickest vegetation imaginable with minn kota and rarely if ever have to clean it off. I had the top of the line tour pro motor guide. Now I run MK ultrex on my bass boat and MK riptide Terova on my bay boat. I always go with 36v 110+ Lb. IMO the trolling motor is the most important component to the boat given 99% of my fishing is done with it deployed