Hello all,<br /><br />Please feel free to respond to any of the below items, but first, a bit of background. I have a 20' Alumaweld open river boat with a Mercury 50 HP 4 stroke. I use the boat primarily for trout and salmon fishing in the Kenai river here in Alaska. Much of the fishing is done by running up river and then drifting down over the fishing holes. Some shut off their motors and use oars to keep the boat properly positioned in the river. It is a fairly smooth riving moving at 4-5mph. I am interesting in buying a electric trolling motor to keep the boat properly positioned in the river. The main thing that it will do is keep the boat rotated the right direction (so it does not spin and the lines tangle) and to move it 10 feet side to side in the river every once in a while. With my current motor I will click into either forward or reverse and turn the steering, never coming off of idle. My questions are:<br /><br />1. Can I / Should I share a battery between these two applications? If not, can I add a second battery and use some sort of a diode or electronic system to allow the 4 stroke motor and alternator to charge the trolling motor when I am heading up stream? <br /><br />2. How big is big enough for this application? All of the information I have seen is talking about using the motor for trolling in a lake. I will not be trying to push the boat against the current, just to keep it positioned in the river, much like oars are used on a river raft or drift boat.<br /><br />3. I was considering a Minn/Koda, and either a Vantage 50 or Maxum 50. I would say a drift (where I would use the electric motor) might be 10-20 minutes, and then I would switch back to the 4 stroke to go back up river. Would it be easier to rotate the motor out, or use the electric raising feature on the more expensive model? Would it be a bad idea to leave the electric motor in the water on these short runs up river? The boat will do about 25mph up stream with the 4 stroke at full throttle.<br /><br />4. Is thsia good or bad idea? I see everyone else just leaving there motors on idle all day, which seems to me to add wear and tear to them, plus, I could do without the noise and exhaust. A lot of the time if the boat is in a good section of the river I will turn off the motor to just have some quiet, but then I feel like I am abusing the starter to restart it every 5-10 minutes.<br /><br />Thanks for any input in advance.
