Tip #1, When using real worms as bait I will use an old insulin needle to inject air into the worm to keep it off the bottom. This will keep it in the fishes field of view.

Tip #2, I have read on many forums where people are asking, "where I can find a used outboard motor?"  I personally have never bought one from these people But I have spoken and emailed them many times to see if they had what I was looking for and they have always been very friendly and helpful. If you need a small used outboard check them out smalloutboards.com.

Tip #3, In line with above. I have also seen, in forums,  where people are looking for a used trailer for their 10 - 14' aluminum jon or v bottom boat. I have looked for used trailers and they for the most part where used and the asking price was to high. I also looked at new ones and they where outrageously priced.

So now I always refer people to the trailer I bought for our little boat. I bought it from, because it was cheaper,  Harbor Freight. It is also available from Northern Tool. The shipping was only $10.00 from Harbor Freight.

Keep in mind the weight rating for this trailer is 600 pounds. It should only be used for small aluminum boats. Another thing is do not use it in salt water. As with any painted trailer it will rust away in no time if subjected to the harshness of salt water.

The trailer comes it three boxes via UPS. Assembly can be done by anyone who can turn a wrench. The only problem I had was fishing the electrical wire through the frame for the lights. That was more my fault than anything. I should have fished them through before final assembly. The only other place to pay close attention is to grease the bearings properly when assembling. They have some on them from the factory but not enough in my opinion. Failure to do this and you will end up with junk in 10 miles. It took me only 4 hours to assemble by myself. It can be hard to line up pieces by your self. Two people can easily do it in two hours.

Tip #4, another thing people ask others in forums is. What propeller do I need for my boat? That is a tough question to answer without knowing some important information about your boat. This information is the same no matter what size your motor is or how long your boat is. So, what do you need to know?

First, you need to know. What is the maximum recommend RPMs for your motor? You can find this out my looking at the manual for you motor. If it is not there, look on the web or call the manufacture. The key to getting your boat to perform is getting the motor in that range a full throttle.

The second thing you need to know is what RPMs your motor is turning at full throttle. For that you need a tachometer. If your boat does not have one, I recommend one of these www.tinytach.com or www.sendec.com these are inductive tachometers that measure RPMs by counting when the spark plug fires. Please make sure you order the correct one for your motor. Both manufactures offer two and four cycle models. They also offer a model that can be used on both.

The third item you need to know is, the current pitch of the prop you have now. This info is the most important. With out it you will not know what size to get when you buy your next prop.  It should be stamped somewhere on the prop. If not there may be a part number you can lookup. If either of that info is not there a prop shop may be able to tell you.

An optional piece of equipment you might like is a GPS. This will tell you how fast you are going. The speedometers that use a water pick up are not accurate. The paddle wheel types are much more accurate. With GPS receivers available for under $100.00 you can also use it to save your favorite fishing holes.

You have gathered all the equipment from above. You are now wondering how do I make my boat go faster or improve my hole shot. Here you go.

Load your boat to the normal load you carry when you go fishing 90% of the time. Start your motor and head out at full throttle. Once your boat reaches its top speed for a minute look at you tachometer. Is it within the max RPM range from the data you gathered from above? If it is, that is all the faster your boat will go. If it is higher that the maximum RPM you should be able to get more speed by buying a larger pitch prop. You should do this anyway because you risk the chance of damaging your motor.  If the RPM is below the max RPM rating you can lower the pitch of your prop. This should allow for a better hole shot and increase boat speed by getting the motor into the RPM range where it makes the most horse power.

If you remember from above I said load your to what you would use it at 90% of the time. What about the other 10%? Those other times are when you bring or leave that extra person. One 175lb person and his fishing equipment with change how your boat performs. If you have great performance with just your self and a buddy with a prop with a pitch of “Y” you may find you add another person and their equipment you can not get on plane and you notice your motor RPMs is below the max RPMs allowed. This is where you need to have an extra prop with a pitch of “X”. The lower pitch will allow the motor RPMs to reach up to where the motor makes the most HP allowing your boat to plane better.

Now the opposite is true. If you go out in your boat by yourself you find out your boat get up on plane at break neck speeds, the RPMs are way high and top speed is low. This is when you need a prop of pitch “Z” with the lighter load you can get way with a higher pitch prop increasing top end speed.

After experimenting you will know what prop to put on before you leave your house. If I am going by myself I’ll put on my 13” pitch prop. If the wife or a friend come along I put on the 11” pitch prop. With the right prop on before I leave, I always have the best performance.

On last thought to help you. Think of the pitch of a prop like a gear in a car. The lower the pitch the lower the gear. The lower the gear the more power but less speed. Since boats do not have multi-gear transmissions like a car we need to change gears by changing the pitch of the prop.

Hope this helps.

Tip #5, 12 or 24 Volts. Another thing I see asked a lot is, "How do I hook up my 24 volt trolling motor?" To run a 24 volt trolling motor you need two 12 volt batteries hooked up in series. Like this:
 
Being hooked in this manner will give you 24 volts to your trolling motor.
The next question that is asked is, "How to I charge them?"  You have several ways. The easiest is to get a 24 volt charger. They are available but not easy to find. You would hook it up to the terminals you use for the trolling motor. The next easiest way is to buy an on board charger that has two 12 volt outputs, one for each battery, and hook it up per the manufactures instructions. Another method would be to hook the batteries in a parallel mode and use your current 12 volt charger. You would hook them up like this.

This will allow you to charge your batteries at the same time. It will take longer to charge them in this method. The next method is to charge them one at a time, individually not hooked up to anything else. The last method is to buy two 12 volt chargers and charge both batteries as the same time independently.

To learn more about batteries and how to use them read this. www.batteryfaq.org

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