Like the guys have said above, put all of the gear you can in the front to weigh the nose down to keep from getting wind swept. My dad actually put both of his batteries under the front deck of his jon boat for that reason.
Also, for the guys talking about speed on the trolling motors, Minn Kota has about a 5-6 page manual with different size props. Most are about $25-$30. So you could play around with the prop size to see if that helps.