thought I'd share some photos of my Bonafide PWR which shows my Terrova Kayak Trolling motor installed.

Didn't go to crazy on modifications, but once I use it more and more, I'll see what mods I want to add.

 

you'll notice a "mess" of wire in the front hatch.  the amount of cable that comes with all the accessories is insane.  I have a good amount zip tied together and stashed behind the dashboards.  but as you can see, there is still a lot of cable not hidden away.  I'm not sure what I'm gonna do yet, but for now, its not in the way.  only thing in that hatch is the 50ah battery for my lights and fish finder.

 

I do have a "smart" battery box for my 100ah battery which controls my trolling motor.  I don't have it installed.  i lose a lot of floor space in the far back behind the seat. so I decided to get a basic box for now.  with me using the trac packs on the sides, that will limit my need to get into the large back pack in the rear.  so I might move the black pack pro back quite a bit to allow the smart battery box to be used.  but we'll see.

 

I have my batteries all connected to my phone via bluetooth so I don't exactly need to check the status of the battery from the box. we'll see.

 

here's what I got going on:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

front hatch - front dashboard which holds the Yak Power 5 switch relay control module and a red hull light.  the push button control module is linked to my cell phone.  so no need for me to need access to these buttons.  I like that I can hde that module in the hatch area.

 

 

fronth hatch - rear dashboard which hold the yak power 5 switch relay.

 

 

 

 

you'll notice a hinge right above the speaker on the bridge.  that hinge is to stow the ketch transducer mount in the upright position.  the hinge that you see under the speaker was meant to use the transducer mount as well.  but for those with a captains bridge, the bridge interferes with the bottom hinge.  so adding the one above the speaker, allows me to keep the transducer upright if need be.

 

 

 

 

 

 

under the seat, I have an Anderson plug for easy access to plug charger into.

 

 

here's what I have in my backpack pro.  no photo, but my worms are in the top compartment.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How do you like the Terrova?

 

I see that you have a Garmin fishfinder. Do you think you'll add a Humminbird unit to run waypoints or are you content with the One Boat Network app?

 

I know that you can program routes with the Terrova (like with the Autopilot trolling motor) but you have to run and store those routes first. 

 

I like everything about the new Garmin kayak motor except the price. That got me thinking about the Terrova, but I'd also need a new Humminbird unit because my old Helix 7 can't integrate with the Terrova.

 

What do you like most about the Terrova? Least?

from my experience so far, i really like the Terrova as you see it in the photos (in the garage) 😄.

That's as far as I've gotten with it.  It hasn't seen the water yet.  I am hoping to get it out for it's first ride this coming Saturday.  until that happens, i can't really give my opinion on it. once i do, I'll definitely respond back.  I've never had a trolling motor before on a kayak. so it's all one big learning experience for me. 

 

A friend of mine has a trolling motor with spot lock.  I watched him maneuver while we were on the water and i was sold!!  that feature is awesome. so that led me to the Minn Kota.  As of right now, that was the feature I was most excited about.  When were on the water, I had my paddle with nothing more.  It was windy, and I was constantly trying to right the ship while we were side by side talking.  it got annoying after awhile.  i was asking him how he was able to stand still with ZERO effort.  he then explained the spot lock.  I was jealous!! man oh man

 

from what i have read....the Minn Kotas and the Humminbird work well together.  They can be paired together.  Since i don't have a Humminbird, I haven't looked too much into it.  As of right now, I only plan on running the single graph.  The graph I have installed is the Garmin Striker Vivid 9SV.    Never had a graph this large before.  This is definitely a step up from what I've used in the past.

 

I never looked into the Garmin trolling motor, didn't know they had one.  I saw Minn Kota Kayak trolling motor with spot lock, and my tunnel vision kicked in. 

3 hours ago, crankbait2009 said:

from my experience so far, i really like the Terrova as you see it in the photos (in the garage) 😄.

That's as far as I've gotten with it.  It hasn't seen the water yet.  I am hoping to get it out for it's first ride this coming Saturday.  until that happens, i can't really give my opinion on it. once i do, I'll definitely respond back.  I've never had a trolling motor before on a kayak. so it's all one big learning experience for me. 

 

A friend of mine has a trolling motor with spot lock.  I watched him maneuver while we were on the water and i was sold!!  that feature is awesome. so that led me to the Minn Kota.  As of right now, that was the feature I was most excited about.  When were on the water, I had my paddle with nothing more.  It was windy, and I was constantly trying to right the ship while we were side by side talking.  it got annoying after awhile.  i was asking him how he was able to stand still with ZERO effort.  he then explained the spot lock.  I was jealous!! man oh man

 

from what i have read....the Minn Kotas and the Humminbird work well together.  They can be paired together.  Since i don't have a Humminbird, I haven't looked too much into it.  As of right now, I only plan on running the single graph.  The graph I have installed is the Garmin Striker Vivid 9SV.    Never had a graph this large before.  This is definitely a step up from what I've used in the past.

 

I never looked into the Garmin trolling motor, didn't know they had one.  I saw Minn Kota Kayak trolling motor with spot lock, and my tunnel vision kicked in. 

The new Garmin kayak motor is $3,500. It's also a stern mount motor with spot lock and can be controlled with wireless foot pedals.

 

You will love spot lock and hate spot lock. On windy days with shifting winds and currents it will move you around more than you would like, especially because a lightweight (compared to a boat) kayak is essentially a sail - but you know that from paddling.

 

If you're like me, you may also find that you're facing in the wrong direction when you want to spot lock. So what I do is loop around so my bow faces the wind before I engage spot lock.

 

In fact, if it's windy out, when I get to the ramp, if possible, I plan my initial route so I'm heading into the wind. But sometimes it's hard to spot lock and skip under docks when it's windy out.

 

What I'm getting at is that spot lock is great, but it has its limitations,.

 

 

That's a nice looking setup. I wish I had the patience to rig everything up that nicely, but a lot of mine is thrown together in my very limited free time. 

 

I'd like to get the new Minn Kota. I've got a Motorguide and haven't had any issues, yet, but since they are no more, I'm afraid that I'll be stuck without a motor if it does have issues. I've just always been a Minn Kota guy also. 

I'm definitely interested in your impressions of the Minn Kota. I'm thinking of selling my AP120 along with a ton of extras and buying the XTR130.

 

But in order to rig the XTR with lights, power system, motor mount, and the new Garmin motor and wireless pedals I'd still be about $3,400 out of pocket. And that's without upgrading my 100Ah 12V batteries to a 24V 100Ah battery for the new rig.

 

I could save money by going to the Minn Kota, but I would be relying on the remote for steering. I don't want to add a rudder and foot pedals to that build.

The XTR doesn't have a rudder?

I've never owned a Bonafide kayak before. The PWR has one, i assumed they all did. 

 

my last kayak that i had for years was a Perception Pescador Pro.  It definitely had no rudder.  

17 hours ago, crankbait2009 said:

The XTR doesn't have a rudder?

I've never owned a Bonafide kayak before. The PWR has one, i assumed they all did. 

 

my last kayak that i had for years was a Perception Pescador Pro.  It definitely had no rudder.  

No rudder. It's designed specifically for bow or stern motor use.

got the kayak out today...i'd say I had about 4 hours of getting used to the new set up and actual fishing.  slow day on the water, but pulled in a small largemouth.  at least I didn't get skunked.  Seems like everyone I talked to was struggling today.  

 

now with the kayak completely rigged out, first observation...this d**n thing is heavy!  certainly heavier than what I previously had.  I certainly need to figure out a better routine of loading/unloading.

 

last night, I installed the trolling motor pedal lock release system.  that definitely needs to be reworked.  I didn't install it right so it was not deploying as I'd hoped.  locking and unlocking was a struggle.  certainly operator error.  but I know what I have to do there.  easy fix.

 

I couldn't tell you how many times I was moving along and I reached for my paddle that was supposed to be in my lap, but wasn't.  force of habit, I need to move around a stump or tree, i'd quickly grab my paddle, redirect my path, and continue on.  but this time, it wasn't in my lap.  it was stowed away in my paddle keeper.  I was quickly reminded that I have a remote control to do this.  having to maneuver around obstacles, this trolling motor responded quickly.  I was impressed with that.  it turned when I needed it to without any hiccups.  

 

when I first got into the kayak, I hit the left/right button way to aggressively and it did a strong jolt in that direction.  scared the crap out of me.  I thought I was gonna go overboard.....but that was just cause I wasn't expecting it.  note to self, don't do that again.  once I got the hang of how quickly it responds, all was well.

 

at top speed, with winds around 5 mph, I was able to hit 4.3mph (per my Garmin).  I didn't compare this to an app on my phone.  but at 4.3mph, I was able to cover a good amount of water at that speed.  I was content with that.  I had it at top speed from my final fishing spot back to dock.  I failed to keep track of how long it took me to get back, but it was certainly faster than it would have been with me paddling.  It is certainly different not using a paddle.  takes some getting used to.

 

I am going to drop the depth of the trolling motor propeller next time out to see if I gain more speed by dong that.  i'll update this thread with my experience once I do.

 

auto-pilot - that's frickin awesome!!  I like that.  there were times I had to correct the direction I was heading but it did pretty well at keeping me on track.

 

with winds being very minimal, I didn't have the opportunity to use the spot lock.  even when I turned the trolling motor off, I didn't find myself drifting a whole lot.

 

as I mentioned above, I was really impressed with the response time from the push of the button on the remote, to the time that the trolling motor responds.  That was like RIGHT NOW.  I assumed there would have been a delay of some sort, but nope.  no issues there.

 

I was playing with the speeds all day long while fishing, but I found that at the lowest level, I was able to maintain about .5 mph.  that was a good cruise and fish speed.

 

for those of you that use a quick release base for these trolling motors and that have to remove them while transporting.  before transporting, I need to remove the quick release bracket and that SMALL hitch pin.  that is gonna get lost, I know it will.  what do you do with this pin, or what kind of routine have you come up with to replace that pin with something better/bigger so that you don't lose it?  Once I remove the bracket and pin, I don't have any place to put it other than in the truck or set it down where I'm at.  which will lead me to losing the parts.

 

until my next time out, I think that's all I have for now. 

I strongly suggest that every time you hit the stop motor button on your remote that you also set the speed to zero or a minimum speed.

 

You definitely don’t want to hit the Go button from a dead stop to be jolted and realize you had left it on maximum speed. If it doesn’t nearly toss you out of the kayak, you may have to change your underwear!

 

Thanks for the update. Keep us posted.

Can you use a length of braid (50/60lb) tied to the hitch pin? Once you pull it  you can tuck it under a bracket possibly.

Thats a good idea

Very nice setup!

Is a trolling motor a game-changer, or more of a pain in the butt?

I really like those YakAttack boxes on the sides by the seat — are they awesome in actual use, or do you find yourself not using them as much as you thought you would?

Love that you pulled the pod out and cleaned everything up with the blanking plate and the Ketch board. Looks super tidy.

Do you ever actually use the rod holders on the sides of the seat? What about the rod tip protectors up front?

How’s the seat position and overall comfort for long days on the water?

@Sethshaun

 

is the trolling motor a game changer?  that's a loaded question.   with me never having a trolling motor before, it's definitely something I'm having to get used to.  I only had it out a few times before old man winter came into the picture.  After using the trolling motor those times, I'm definitely appreciating it more and more after each use. it's only a pain in the butt cause of "change" and figuring out a user friendly routine.  Once I get it in the water, it's like...oh my goodness this is nice!!  The trolling motor definitely adds weight to the kayak.  not to mention the battery.  I found that I need to remove the battery and trolling motor in order for me to load/unload the kayak into and off of my truck.  I don't like doing that, but, it definitely makes loading a lot easier, shedding that 50+ pounds.

 

Only issues I am having are all operator error related.  Getting the trolling motor pedal to release and lock back into place when pulling the trolling motor in.  Things I need to work out.  I originally bought a trolling motor in hull deploy kit, but that was not working out, very frustrating.  I resorted to having the pull cord being routed above, in the open hull area.  That is not ideal for me, due to the possibility of it getting tangled up and wrapped around fish finder, bridge, and whatever else.  but i'm still working with this.  I'll figure something out by this coming spring.

 

As for the TracPaks (the boxes on the sides). those are awesome.  Those 4 boxes allow me to store an assortment of all my lures from the Planos in my blackpak.  all the techniques I use, are in those small boxes.  last time out, I didn't have to turn around once, to gain access into the black pack.  those boxes make it very convenient. the blackpak ends up being a "just in case" or if I need to store additional items in there.  if you do buy the small Tracpaks, just keep in mind that you need to also buy the sorting trays that go inside.  the boxes come to you with nothing, just an open storage box.  I ended up buying sorting trays for 3 of the boxes.  one box with no trays hold all my new technique items that I want to try. I will be adding labels to the boxes to make it easier for me to identify the contents.

 

As for the rod holders on the side of the seat.....I haven't used them yet.  I did placed the rods in there a time or two just to see how they worked.  But any time I need to put my rod somewhere, it always goes into the Scotty mount, or I lay it in between my legs on the floor.  I haven't had a reason to lock the rods in place with the seat side mounts.  With the fish finder bridge that I have in place, it sorta blocks the access to the rod trip protectors that you were referring to.  As of now, I don't use those rod protector compartments at all.  

 

when I first got the kayak, first day on the water, I did not know that my seat was in the lower position. I thought it was as high as it could go.  I fished that way for quite awhile.  At that time, I wished it was a little higher. but even in the lowest setting, it was comfortable. My friend showed me how to raise the seat into it's max height position, and that's where it has been since.  a lot more comfortable. I see a lot of kayakers use seat cushions as well on the seat, but I haven't found a need for that yet.  Seat is comfortable for me, without one. this is my experience from having about 5-6 hours on the water each time out.

 

Let me know if you have any more questions.