Trolling motor for 21ft pontoon

[wheelers4life]

I purchased a 21 ft tracker fishing barge. It came with a motorguide xi5 55lb thrust. I can get 1 to 1 1/2 mph wind the wind is not blowing. A few days ago I was fishing in 15mph wind and my outboard died while I was pulling into my trailer. The wind blew me sideways. I put my trolling motor down and it would not move my boat in that wind. luckly I was in shallow water and had a few family memember with me. We were able to get out and push the boat out of the fence I got impailed on and got it trailered. I just got my boat back from the shop and it is running good. But I do not want to be in that situation again. Here in TX it is always windy so if im waiting on a low wind day I will never be able to take my boat out. What size do you recomend. I would like to go at least 3mph trolling but would perfer 5 if posible. I looked at my battery compartment and I think I can get atleast one more battery in there for a 24v set up. I can put another battery somewhere else if I need to go to a 36 volt. Im looking at picking up one pretty quick. I have a 9" simrad fishfinder that works with the morotguide, so maby staying with a motorguide would be great. Thanks

 

[Scott Danforth]

without wind, you will do fine with the 55# thrust
with wind you could need up to 15hp. (thats called a kicker, no longer a trolling motor)

pontoons make great sails in the wind.

use the main motor for trollling in windy days, use the trolling motor for light wind and drift fishing.

 

[ahicks]

A good guide system for funneling the 'toon into position on the trailer may be in your future!

 

[HotTommy]

IMHO, the only solution for an unreliable outboard motor is a reliable outboard motor.

 

[Sea Rider]

IMHO, the only solution for an unreliable outboard motor is a reliable outboard motor.

Can turn any unreliable motor to a very reliable one by propping it right to run towards its max wot rpm range powering whatever floats and runs with a motor. Highly desirable for kicker motors...

Happy Boating

 

[wheelers4life]

The mechanic said I had bad gas. I guess since its ran great this morning. But anything could happen on the water. Plus I would like to troll a little faster for striper. Would the 80lb work for this or should I step up to the 105

 

[Scott Danforth]

with wind, you wont cut it with an electric trolling motor while on a pontoon

simply google wind load generators

estimating your pontoon at 65 sq ft of sail area. in a 25mph wind, it will take over 120# of force to counteract the wind force

so now, lets look at the actual square footage assuming wind is perpendicular to the boat. for a 21' 'toon with side fences, your logs alone have an area of about 30 sq feet above the water line. add the deck and M brackets which is about another 18 square feet. then add the fence area which is about 40 square feet. at that 88 square feet of sail area, you would need much more force (about 160#)

from there, only you can make the determination what size trolling motor you want to run since we dont know what wind speed you want to fish in.

 

[wheelers4life]

I'm sure I could buy a kicker motor and figure out how to put that on my pontoon, would it hurt my trolling motor leaving it down for steering and being pushed by the kicker at say 3 to 4 mph

 

[Cat nip]

Using a trolling motor to steer as a kicker pushes should work. If you had the tm facing sideways in the water i would suspect that you could just bump it forward or reverse to steer quickly left or right. I had a 10 hp kicker on my 22' pontoon and it would push the boat upstream on the Mississippi river at minor flood stage in the middle of the channel at 2mph. I now have a 15 hp but haven't had a chance to test it out yet. Also my old kicker was mounted behind the starboard log and that made steering kind of a pain. I now have the kicker mounted in between the transom and the port log and i think it will steer better and get better water flow but time will tell.