Trolling setup

Hello, hope I’m posting this in the right place.
My boat is a 1996 sea nymph tournament tx. It has a 2002 Johnson 25hp motor on the back and a 2013 motorguide x3 45pound thrust, foot pedal trolling motor.
I’m wanting to set up to troll jigs, but I can’t get the boat to go any slower than 1.8 mph. That is going at idle speed while dragging a 5 gallon bucket off the back, an anchor off the front and 2 people on the boat. I could use my trolling motor but it kills the battery too fast.... money is an issue right now, so buying a new trolling motor is probably out of the question for a while.

The way I see it my options are:

1) get a smaller prop to slow down my idle speed. I’d rather not go this route because that will also slow down my top speed going across the lake.

2) add an additional battery and use the trolling motor. I don’t really think this option will work for me either without some serious rigging because space is a big problem on my boat.

Does anyone have any additional ideas, comments or suggestions on how I can slow my boat down to speeds slow enough for pulling jigs?

Thanks,
Jesse

Edit: I know another option would be trolling backwards, or driving the boat in reverse. I havnt tried this option yet, but still believe I will be going faster that I need to.


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Have you given any thought about using a trolling plate mounted on your engine,
Cabelas cost start at $99.00. Also give some thought to drift bags. I use two, one
on each side of the boat. Does a pretty good job.

I did not know about trolling plates. I will look into this. Thank you.


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Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jman5626

Hello, hope I’m posting this in the right place.
My boat is a 1996 sea nymph tournament tx. It has a 2002 Johnson 25hp motor on the back and a 2013 motorguide x3 45pound thrust, foot pedal trolling motor.
I’m wanting to set up to troll jigs, but I can’t get the boat to go any slower than 1.8 mph. That is going at idle speed while dragging a 5 gallon bucket off the back, an anchor off the front and 2 people on the boat. I could use my trolling motor but it kills the battery too fast.... money is an issue right now, so buying a new trolling motor is probably out of the question for a while.

The way I see it my options are:

1) get a smaller prop to slow down my idle speed. I’d rather not go this route because that will also slow down my top speed going across the lake.

2) add an additional battery and use the trolling motor. I don’t really think this option will work for me either without some serious rigging because space is a big problem on my boat.

Does anyone have any additional ideas, comments or suggestions on how I can slow my boat down to speeds slow enough for pulling jigs?

Thanks,
Jesse

Edit: I know another option would be trolling backwards, or driving the boat in reverse. I havnt tried this option yet, but still believe I will be going faster that I need to.


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Jman, I had a Taho ski/fish that I go new in 2003(02 model) with a 150efi and trolled with it up until I sold it later last year and got my tracker 175tf. The 55lb Motorguide wireless trolling motor that I used for 10+ years did a great job until the wind picked up but most boats have issues with the wind. I used this set up to troll for stippers,walleye as well as troll/jig for crappie in fact I kept the attwood mini riggers to use on the 175tf. Good luck !

A trolling plate will do the trick! I've also seen some guys troll in reverse, with a drift sock tied to the front.

How is the idle set? Can you adjust the idle of the motor and get it down? I adjusted my idle screw and can get my 2016 Yamaha 25 hp to idle at about 0.8 mph and it runs just fine for backup on trolling in case the batteries were to go dead on me on the trolling motor.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by cevans

How is the idle set? Can you adjust the idle of the motor and get it down? I adjusted my idle screw and can get my 2016 Yamaha 25 hp to idle at about 0.8 mph and it runs just fine for backup on trolling in case the batteries were to go dead on me on the trolling motor.

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Not sure if mine is adjustable or not. I’ll have to look and see. Thank you for the suggestion


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If heading my 1648 g3 jon into the wind, I will even idle slower speed as I sometimes fish out of the back running the 25 yamaha trolling and fishing for walleyes vs using the trolling motor.