Trolling Motor On The Bow?

[trapshooter]

Am I able to use my trolling motor with my 12 foot aluminum on the bow? What about a 6hp? This may be a stupid question but I don't know.

[SalmoTrutta]

outside of city limits your good to go. so say south of Policemans flats to be safe.

[Mountain Guy]

Probably I guess. You would need to make a funky bracket to mount it on....and I think the areodynamics of pushing water with the flat side of the transom would be relatively inefficient and somewhat dangerous in rough water. i would recommend mounting it on the transom

[SalmoTrutta]

Hmmmmm.. Bow was capitalized, I guess either was the answer is YES!!!

[trapshooter]

Ok Thanks, I will do this in the spring.

[Willowtrail]

Here's what I did.

[FishingFrenzy]

Kayyy are you talking about mounting it on the bow of your boat? Or using a motor in the Bow river??????



Not sure about the river, but if your bow mounting, a 6hp wont work on the bow, electric trolling motor will work great if you build a bracket.

[trapshooter]

Haha, Sorry about the confusion. I was talking about using it in the bow river.

[Willowtrail]

Ah. Got it. Sorry about that. The Bow I don't know.

[SalmoTrutta]

Originally Posted by trapshooter

Haha, Sorry about the confusion. I was talking about using it in the bow river.

[Dan Foss]

I got a chuckle out of this thread. Also realized it is a little weird that a word spelt the same is pronounced 2 different ways.

X2 on the "not within city limits" comment. south of town your good to go. not sure on the stretch west of calgary. I will throw this out there though. There is a reason why people use jet boats in a river. tree roots, underwater debris, hidden gravel banks destroy propellers. The Bow technically is not really a big river. alot of shallow spots and underwater debris. I would think carefully before using a prop motor in the bow.

[camshaft]

What r ur expectations of an electric on the bow? If u think it will hold u or move you up current I can tell you that it is absolutely impossible.

That being said, I use mine all the time for floats on my inflatable. Its great to get u "across" from side to side and back into the channels. Its also great to get u into the back bays where the water is still.

I launch at fish creek and use the motor from there. Never had any issues and doubt u ever would.

[TROLLER]

Well if you dont' get hung up on the rocks you for sure will tear the prop up on that minkota of your's.

the only motor that will work is a jet or a real small hanle control electric troller like they use on the small one man pontoons. The only boat that works is either a flat bottom river boat or the pontoon/canoes.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

[SalmoTrutta]

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Well if you dont' get hung up on the rocks you for sure will tear the prop up on that minkota of your's.

the only motor that will work is a jet or a real small hanle control electric troller like they use on the small one man pontoons. The only boat that works is either a flat bottom river boat or the pontoon/canoes.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

If you know the river it's quite easy to navigate it with a V hull aluminum and a short shaft prop. at regular flows. It may be a little more difficult during low water, but still doable.

[camshaft]

Originally Posted by TROLLER

Well if you dont' get hung up on the rocks you for sure will tear the prop up on that minkota of your's.

the only motor that will work is a jet or a real small hanle control electric troller like they use on the small one man pontoons. The only boat that works is either a flat bottom river boat or the pontoon/canoes.

sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Not true. Ive slammed my motor so often and hard into the rocks that I can barely turn the wing nuts that tighten the brackets to the transom cuz they are so bent....but no damage to the prop. And no it will not "tear off" derspite what u may think.

Dont forget, u have a lot of notice before u get into real skinny water and have ample time to simply raise the trolling motor. Between 22x and McKinnon Im lucky if my motor touches more than a few times in a whole day. U will snap the brackets off the motor before u do any prop damage Im willing to bet. Dont worry about using an electric. Just raise it for a few seconds when ur passing over water less than a foot deep and lower again, u will be fine

[trapshooter]

Originally Posted by camshaft

Not true. Ive slammed my motor so often and hard into the rocks that I can barely turn the wing nuts that tighten the brackets to the transom cuz they are so bent....but no damage to the prop. And no it will not "tear off" derspite what u may think.

Dont forget, u have a lot of notice before u get into real skinny water and have ample time to simply raise the trolling motor. Between 22x and McKinnon Im lucky if my motor touches more than a few times in a whole day. U will snap the brackets off the motor before u do any prop damage Im willing to bet. Dont worry about using an electric. Just raise it for a few seconds when ur passing over water less than a foot deep and lower again, u will be fine

thanks in both replies exactly what i wanted to here

[Kingfisher]

Last year I was doing a float trip down the Bow with a couple of buddies. We had stopped for lunch and saw someone come by in a 12 foot aluminum. Not sure why but one guy decided to stand up and cast. He went ass over tea kettle as the boat hit a rock and they flipped. We rowed over to them to help but they just told us to take a hike. Not only in those words. So we just drifted back down the river. They had lost all their gear and their rods too. We saw them come by later with only one oar. The guy paddling was just screaming at the guy in the front. Not a good day down the river for those 2.

Any how I won't say you couldn't go down in a 12 foot aluminum. That is as long as you know how to row a boat on the river. You'd be surprised as to how many people think it is the same as rowing on a lake. No so.

Rob

[bikerman]

Originally Posted by SalmoTrutta

If you know the river it's quite easy to navigate it with a V hull aluminum and a short shaft prop. at regular flows. It may be a little more difficult during low water, but still doable.

I do it all the time upstream. You just have to get out now and then and pull the boat upstream in shallow runs. Eventually u will hit rocks though. Tape a shear pin to your throttle handle.A six horse will be slow if more than one in boat. I run a 14ft aluminum and 15hp.

[Dale S]

My trolling motor will not move my 12' alm.upsteam on the S.S.R.I've done lots of float trips downstream with this set up. The trolling motor sure helps through the slow parts.Now that I have a jetboat I can go upstream.

[seahawkfisher]

i have used a trolling motor on my inflatable in the bow lots of times;
mounted on the transom lol

never had a problem, however pretty hard to make much ground trying to go upstream
i think it would be pretty hard to break a prop on a minnkota; never have myself in 10 years of running them, including a very unfortunate experience where a not-tightened-enough minnkota slid into 6hp prop (alum prop did not fare too well....)

[densa44]

You can be in for a lot of grief with a motor boat. The skinny water can come up very fast, the rocks are every where, some with pillows some not.

With a canoe and a little skill, you can eddy out mid stream, against the very steep banks, and catch trout, some times every cast. My best day was 33 Rainbow from 22X to policeman's flats.