Trolling Motor Tactics

More and more anglers take advantage of bow-mounted trolling motors these days, and that goes for everyone from bass aficionados to drum hunters. Spot-Lock is the biggest attraction, allowing you to hover in place via GPS as you cast. But in truth there’s a whole lot more that motor could be doing for you, especially if you have a Minn Kota integrated with a Humminbird chartplotter. No matter where you fish or what you fish for, if you have a bow mount and a chart plotter that talk to each other consider using it for these additional tactics (and if you don’t have this sort of rig it’s time to make an upgrade).

Open Water Prospecting – You can tap the chartplotter screen to set in a waypoint, then tell the motor to take you there. Set speed at a crawl, and you can work along vast weedbeds, submerged stump fields, and similar open water areas casting as you go. If you get a couple of bites in an area punch the Spot Lock button and work it thoroughly. When the bites stop, begin crawling along again.

Following a Contour – Upper level Humminbirds allow you to gather bathymetric data as you go and create contour lines down to a foot. You can also set your Minn Kota to follow them. If fish are scattered but holding along an edge, again, a slow creep allows you to work a large area thoroughly. Except that in this case, the motor will keep your path along a specific contour depth as you go.

Record Your Path – When applying either of the above tactics or using your motor to navigate the shallows, you can save your path in the chartplotter. And if it proves effective, you can come back and repeat the experience at a later date.

Will you catch more fish using trolling motor/chartplotter integration? Heck yes. Try it, and you’ll soon agree.