Electric motor

Does your searay have an outboard or an I/O? If it is I/O you would have a difficult time steering the boat unless the motor was running because of the powersteering.

I have installed one on a friends boat, make sure you have enough of the antivent plate of your main motor under water to accept on. If not the motor would be half in half out and you will be very upset having bought the 1000$ motor and 300$ in batteries, plus time to install.

Giz, If you know a way to troll with the front motor for walleye, I'd like to hear it.  I'm assuming you mean bow mount.

Tull, yeah the front. I've trolled for crappie on lakes and eyes on the river with the one I have now. The pedal is on a 12' cord so I can have it at my feet while still lounging in the captains chair. Not sure thats what you were referring to !
Fisherlady, I'll check that out.
I joked with a friend recently that I was considering getting an actual Erie boat, or filling the tank up on my truck and the boat I have now. Once !!
Again, thanks for all the input !

Shut, you're probally right.I guess I'll just suck it up and run the main motor all day. The only thing that would make sense to me would be to move to Erie, get rid of the ski boat and get a fishin machine. I really dont get out enough to warrent any thing more than another line counter and some more lures !! (dream on )

Would be a great BD present for you!
They are still a possibility for our boat. Erie Mako got a good charging system put in the boat last year, so are now even more tempting!

For what it's worth.... We have an 80lb thrust salt water trolling motor, our boat is a fiberglass deep V, almost 22ft and on calm water we get around 5-6 hrs of trolling at low speed (1.2-2 mph) on inland lakes without charging. But haven't used it for trolling on Erie, and have rarely seen Erie 'calm' enough to expect to get that same performance out of it there. Would be more likely 3 or 4 hrs on a decent day there, I would expect. But, those numbers are just our experiences with it on our boat with our trolling style, not scientific by any means.
Good luck with your endeavor, let us know how it turns out. Trolling info always comes in handy for Erie!

I hear ya. I've had a FEW calm days out there. I think I was dreamin bout primarily using it when trolled with the wind. But I know me.... Turn the boat and keep on fishin. To lazy to shut the main down and set the electric for steering. Besides, with the free $250 worth of gas, no worries........

Gizmo,

What Bulldog said is very true. Though we do have the large electric trolling motor we don't use it on Erie, we use a 9.9 kicker we lucked into finding used at a very reasonable price.
Watch the many web sites that offer free 'for sale' ads, such as craigs list and the area shoppers etc. You may find one very reasonable and the are probably the best option for the bigger water.
Also, from what I've heard, I believe the motors may be less money in Ohio, so check that option out. Others on here can probably give you a lot more accurate info about that though.
Not sure where you are located, but if you provide a general area the folks on here may keep an eye out for something that would help you out.

A TR-1 would turn my boat into my DREAM fishing machine