The reasons I say 30 or 35 lbs thrust is first that is enough for the size of that boat - you don't need much, second that is a small boat without much floor space - you are also going to have a gas tank for your kicker down there too and your tackle boxes; so you want to run both the electric and the depth finder off a single 12v battery and third the price for that size electric is much easier on the pocket book.

Don't overdo it. This a minimal size boat for a whole lot of waters. It doesn't have all that much room for you to go overboard with amenities.

I would stick with the carpet, it comes out quicker and so you can dry it out faster. The price is right for that, too.

My father's boat has its transducer permanently mounted on the transom where it will always be in the water. The depthfinder wasn't all that much of a unit, but it reads the depth and so gives me a structure to follow for controlled drifts, slowtrolling, etc. Remember that it will also be pulling off the battery so buy your dp accordingly. It has an 8 hp for a kicker. I only use that to move between passes, and the 30 that is on it to fish with. I don't find it necessary to even start the kicker on quite a few passes; so a tank of gas is going to last you a long time - Seafoam or StaBil to stabilize it for sure. Even the electric is seldom on anything be the very slowest speeds, unless I am fighting a wind. But I certainly use it to hover over fish when we find them. A little boat like that you can keep real quiet; quiet enough to take quite a few crappies from straight down once you find them, if you can stay over them, yet big enough for two of you to troll a couple of rods each in the hunt, depending on what's legal.

I am mostly a one rod jigger, and a boat that size is almost perfect for hovering to do that with excellent results.

One other thing two small anchors each big enough to hold the boat, one in the nose and one at the transom and you can set up over a hole with virtually no swing. Make sure you have enough rope for each of them, too, but don't overdo that either. If the small anchors can't hold you, you maybe shouldn't be out on the water with that size boat; so you have to balance them to the boat. Dads boat has a couple of small mushrooms to anchor with, although I seldom use them. He fished by himself quite a bit; so he put in a pulley system to raise and lower the front anchor from his driver's seat. That is optional, but he was half crippled for much of his later life; so he made things convenient for himself.

You are almost certainly going to get some spray it there is any water action at all, but that is all part of the game in a little boat. If you are getting significant water over the front or the side, you probably shouldn't be on the water. There is a lot less margin for safety in your little boat than in your big one, but I suspect you will end up doing more fishing and more catching out of the smaller boat. You are not going to be able to run miles up a river or a flowage and back in it or fight heavy current, however.