Recommendations on Fish Finder + Trolling Motor?

[onewhippedpuppy]

Hey all, my father in law is the proud new owner of a Yamaha 195 FSH, and as the only active boater in the family I'm helping him figure out how to best outfit his new boat. I know very little about fishing equipment, so I'm hoping to get some wisdom here. I'm an engineer and former mechanic, so ultimately I'll be installing it for him. The boat will be a combination of fishing freshwater KS lakes and Lake of the Ozarks, along with family pleasure boating. He isn't a competitive fisherman so there's no need for the absolute cutting edge equipment, but we would like quality stuff that is easy to use and works well.

His boat will have the factory Yamaha trolling motor mount on the bow, so I assume that installation will be fairly universal. There is space in the battery well for another two 12V batteries, so he will have the option of a 24V system if needed. For features at a minimum he would like a decent sized screen on the plotter/finder, and we will be mounting it on the top of the helm station so there won't be size limitations in the dash panel. He would like the GPS hold functionality, wireless remote, depth finder on the plotter, some basic chart functionality, and a good fishfinder. Since we are installing them together, it would be nice to have the plotter/finder networked with the trolling motor.

So, any recommendations on brands, equipment, other features, trolling motor size, good places to buy, common gotchas, etc? I'm just starting my research, so any information is useful. Thanks!

 

[MRS]

Check out trollingmotors.net they have the best price and all of the information. Plus with the Minnkota units you can control your trolling motor with your fish finder if you get the right unit and they come with the remote control . Some of the units also have auto deploy and retrieve with the remote.

 

[beinicedo]

GPS – If you want GPS, you can use mobile apps but your phone might always have a signal in the middle of the river so it’s to buy a GPS for your boat. Popular choices include Garmin Striker 4, Garmin Echomap CHIRP 54 CV, Raymarine Dragonfly 7 Pro, and Simrad Go7 XSE Chartplotter. For fish finder and trolling motor, you can buy the combination of both from companies like Minn Kota, Humminbird, Garmin, Lowrance, and Motorguide.

 

[gm280]

Amazing how much "stuff" today's trolling motors and fish finders come with. I do remember building a Heath-kit fish finder back in my early fishing days that was a simply flasher type. If fact I think I have a couple of them yet, the Hummingbird types. And everyone had to have one. Now it is totally computerized and communicates with every other electronic gear onboard. Nice when it all is working. Not so much if it needs repaired. And the simple cost of a flasher is/was miniscule compared to the amazing cost of such things today. But technology moves on. I need one that not only finds the fish, but makes them bite as well whether they want to eat or not...