The first timeI saw a kayak rigged with an electric outboard in the stern and trolling motor in the bow, I immediately imagined the places I could go and the fish I could catch. With the possibilities swirling in my head, I never imagined the hard work required to achieve the dream.
How Many Motors Does Your Kayak Need?
The process started with choosing a kayak and deciding on the number of motors and batteries. Before I knew it, I was purchasing tools and parts by the box full. Before I drilled the first hole, I stopped my project and called more experienced friends for advice on building the ultimate motorized kayak.
New Jersey-based fishing guide and Wilderness Systems pro staffer, Rob English needs a motorized kayak to reach the fishing grounds where he drifts for flounder. To cover rough open water, English rigged a Wilderness Systems Radar 135 with a stern-mount Torqeedo electric motor. The stern mount electric motor is fast and efficient to cover miles of rough, open water. The set-up suits his fishing, too. “After making a drift, I motor up current and start another drift,” he says.
I expected to use my motorized kayak to cover open water, so I needed a stern-mount electric outboard. But I also wanted to maneuver around the fishing grounds, so I considered adding a trolling motor to the bow.
A trolling motor spins 360 degrees to turn the kayak on a dime or hold it in one position. Tournament angler Jeff Sherwood uses a trolling motor with a 36-inch shaft on his Hobie Pro Angler 14. “Combining the trolling motor with the MirageDrive is best for cutting through grass and the PA14 is super stable,” he explains.
Sherwood says the trolling motor contributes to the way he fishes. “I like pitching and flipping and the trolling motor allows me to slowly move along a weedline while I cast and retrieve my lure,” he says.
Sherwood relies on the trolling motor for pinpoint accuracy while he fishes, but he doesn’t have long open-water runs to the fishing grounds, so he uses his trolling motor for both tasks. While a trolling motor is great for maneuvering, powering the boat from the bow isn’t as efficient as pushing the kayak with a stern-mount motor.
I need a trolling motor to maneuver the boat and an outboard motor to carry me to the fishing grounds. Looking for the best of both worlds, I connected with Southern California NuCanoe team member AJ Ramirez. To fish big bass lakes, Ramirez faces open water in his NuCanoe Unlimited powered by a Newport NK300. Once he reaches the fishing grounds, he switches to the MotorGuide Xi3 trolling motor.
Ramirez stresses the importance of kayak capacity and stability when adding two motors and supporting batteries. “The Unlimited is an open platform with a 650-pound capacity and a 41-inch beam,” he explains. To calculate capacity, add together the weight of the boat along with the angler, gear, electronics, motors and batteries. Then subtract the total from the boat’s recommended capacity.
Armed with advice from these pros, I rigged my Bonafide PWR129 with a Newport NK300 outboard and MotorGuide Xi3 trolling motor. Choosing the motors was the easy part, running the wires and rigging the batteries required hours of labor and hundreds of dollars in parts to make my dream fishing kayak a reality.
How many motors do you need? | Feature photo: Patrick Hayes
