Whether or not you’re preventing an incoming tide in a saltmarsh or simply preventing the wind whilst you unhook and weigh a bass, spot locking trolling motors have confirmed to be an angler’s finest good friend time and time once more.
And from event champions to constitution captains, weekend anglers to critical amateurs, some great benefits of a trolling motor that may stick your boat to a spot with none consideration from you is an apparent benefit.
Now comparatively widespread expertise, spot lock nonetheless comes at a premium, and which trolling motor is the perfect funding on your hard-earned cash comes all the way down to cautious analysis.
We’d like to assist simplify that course of for you, and beneath, you’ll discover evaluations of the perfect spot locking trolling motors in the marketplace:
Desk of Contents (clickable)
Finest Spot Lock Trolling Motors Reviewed
Lowrance Ghost – Most Highly effective Spot-Locking Trolling Motor
Thrust: 97 or 120 lbs.
Shaft Size: 47″, 52″, or 60″
Mounting: bow
Management: digital and fly-by-wire pedal
Voltage: 24V and 36V
Lowrance isn’t any stranger to fishing electronics, and it’s no shock that they’ve greater than dipped their toes within the trolling motor water, taking the plunge with the wonderful Ghost.
As silent as its namesake, the Ghost employs a brushless motor to generate huge thrust and hold your batteries on full far longer than older motor tech.
On a 24V system, count on 97 kilos of boat-turning, wind-bucking energy; on a 36V system, the Ghost’s silent energy leaps to a full 120 kilos!
That may lock the most important, heaviest bass boat on any lake in America to 1 spot, regardless of how windy it’s. If you happen to try this math, 120 kilos of thrust is sufficient for a 6,000-pound boat, and most of us aren’t operating something practically that heavy.
And with three shaft lengths on provide, there’s no query that you simply’ll discover the appropriate one for you.
Lowrance equips the Ghost with superior management options, and whereas maybe not as excessive tech because the Garmin Power, it’s nonetheless fairly wonderful.
Utilizing fly-by-wire tech moderately than conventional cables, the Ghost’s foot pedal presents unparalleled really feel and utility. Customizable for both foot, it options absolutely programmable buttons, together with choices for Energy Poles and waypointing in addition to – you guessed it – spot-locking.
With merely wonderful ranges of thrust and exact GPS networking, the Ghost will lock you down like your boat is on a decent chain.
Lowrance additionally presents a easy distant that permits you to regulate velocity and path on the contact of a button, or anchor-lock in place. That’s a pleasant contact, and whereas not fairly as spectacular because the Power’s revolutionary distant, it will get the job accomplished for busy captains.
Lastly, Lowrance networks the Ghost to Lowrance fishing electronics, permitting you to navigate by way of your HDS Reside, HDS Carbon, Elite FS, or Elite Ti². That unlocks highly effective navigation choices that may actually change the way in which you fish.
The Ghost could be very quiet, extraordinarily highly effective, straightforward in your batteries, and easy to manage. It additionally presents loads of highly effective networking choices for Lowrance GPS/Chartplotter/Fishfinders. The prop breezes by way of thick grass, and the 360-degree break-away mount protects your trolling motor from impacts.
About the one factor that the Ghost can’t do is perform in saltwater, and although loads of anglers will run a freshwater trolling motor inshore, washing it fastidiously on the finish of the day, Lowrance could be very clear that it will void any guarantee.
That limits the Ghost to freshwater functions, which isn’t that massive of a deal because the overwhelming majority of consumers shall be on the lookout for a spot-locking trolling motor to mount on the bow of their bass boat.
One factor to not love, nevertheless, is that the usual transducer Lowrance provides with the Ghost isn’t Lively Goal 3-in-1 succesful; for that, you’ll have to shell out some extra cash, including to an already excessive price ticket.
With that reservation within the combine, the Ghost remains to be a implausible choice, particularly in the event you run a giant boat.
Professionals:
-
Highly effective
- Environment friendly – noticeably improved battery life
- Very, very quiet
- Powerful shafts
- Superior foot pedal
- Networking with Lowrance HDS Reside, HDS Carbon, Elite FS, and Elite Ti²
- Autopilot
- Anchor-lock
- Constructed-in transducer
Cons:
- Lively Goal 3-in-1 compatibility requires buying an improve
Garmin Power – Finest Total Spot-Locking Trolling Motor
Thrust: 80 or 100 lbs.
Shaft Size: 50” and 57”
Mounting: bow
Management: electrical and pedal
Voltage: 24V and 36V
If you happen to’re on the lookout for a tournament-winning mixture, pair one in all Garmin’s top-of-the-line fish finders with the Power and also you’ll be as properly geared up as any angler on the water.
Garmin makes use of a robust brushless motor within the Power, and two batteries generate a whopping 80 kilos of thrust, whereas three will muscle-out a full 100 kilos from the prop. For any boat lighter than 5,000 kilos absolutely loaded, that’s greater than sufficient energy to struggle the weather and lock your boat in place.
That energy additionally turns out to be useful within the salt – and the Garmin Power is absolutely prepared for inshore and offshore fishing. So whether or not you are making an attempt to remain put in a present, preventing wind and waves, or simply want to remain off some nasty rocks whilst you re-tie, the Power shall be with you.
Amazingly, this energy is delivered by a prop that reduces noise and cavitation to unprecedented ranges – fairly actually. The Power will be the quietest trolling motor on the water, and when the bass are pressured and cautious, that may make an enormous distinction.
One other enormous distinction you’ll discover is improved battery life. Switching to the Power felt like we had contemporary batteries swapped in mid-morning, and in the event you’re utilizing older motor tech, you’ll be merely amazed by the distinction an environment friendly brushless design makes.
Garmin presents the Power in two shaft lengths: a 50-inch and an extended 57-inch. One or the opposite ought to work fairly properly for all however the smallest or largest boats, contemporary or saltwater.
And maybe the perfect characteristic the Power presents is revolutionary management choices.
Garmin’s fish finders are leaps and bounds forward of the competitors when it comes to ease of use, and their engineers have clearly been working time beyond regulation on the Power’s management schemas.
Three choices can be found for management, and the primary two are nothing wanting revolutionary.
A wi-fi foot pedal gives the standard controls bass anglers know and love. And although there’s nothing connecting the pedal to the motor aside from an intangible sign, the Power responds such as you had been a Jedi Grasp.
That’s spectacular.
However the floating, waterproof hand management is next-level tech.
Along with all of the bells and whistles you’d count on, it options gesture management. By miserable a button, you’ll be able to change your heading and course simply by pointing the distant.
Busy within the stern? Steering from the middle console?
No sweat!
That is really wonderful tech that Minn Kota and Lowrance have to combine to catch up.
And when paired with a Garmin chartplotting fish finder, contact display controls enable straightforward navigation, in addition to efficient spot locking.
Not like Lowrance, Garmin provides the Power with an built-in transducer that works with all of its fishfinding tech. So from CHIRP, to Extremely Excessive-Definition ClearVü and SideVü scanning sonars, to the unbelievable Reside Scope on the Garmin ECHOMAP Extremely 126sv, the Power is with you.
Professionals:
- Highly effective
- Environment friendly – noticeably improved battery life
- Very, very quiet
- Powerful shafts
- Subsequent-level management tech
- Networking along with your Garmin chartplotter
- Autopilot
- Anchor-lock
- Constructed-in transducer
Cons:
Minn Kota Riptide Terrova – Finest Saltwater Spot-Locking Trolling Motor
Thrust: 55, 80, and 112 lbs.
Shaft Size: 54”, 60”, 72”, 87”, and 100”
Mounting: bow
Management: digital
Voltage: 12V, 24V, and 36V
The Riptide Terrova sequence is Minn Kota’s king of the salt, and in the event you’re on the lookout for a robust, teched-up, bow-mounted trolling motor that may get you into place and hold you there, look no additional.
Minn Kota packs loads of punch with this trolling motor, and it delivers 55, 80, or 112 kilos of thrust when powered by a 12V, 24V, or 36V system, respectively. MOst saltwater anglers are going to need to go for the 36V, and it’s greater than able to holding a 5,000-pound boat nonetheless in a heavy present.
4 shaft lengths are on provide, permitting bow mounting even for the massive boys.
And in the event you use the Riptide Terrova in freshwater, too, you’ll be actually proud of the swept blades on the prop. They lower by way of weeds like they’re not there, permitting you to get into shallow water and place your self proper the place you must be with out worrying.
First off, your Riptide Terrova can talk through “One-Boat Community” and “I-Pilot” along with your Humminbird fish finder and outboard to permit seamless integration and navigation. That’s skilled tech that issues in the true world when you must fish tight to a contour, retrace your path, or work particular options with out stopping the motion.
Spot-lock is crucial for execs and avid amateurs as properly, as the automated place holding is solely unbeatable when the strain’s on and also you’ve discovered a sizzling spot. Autopilot, too, has a spot in your fishing arsenal, particularly if you’re busy establishing gear or placing the ultimate touches in your sort out.
Battery life is stretched for all its price by the “Digital Maximizer,” guaranteeing you’ll be able to keep on the water longer.
And if that weren’t sufficient, this motor deploys and retracts on the contact of a button!
If you happen to’re a salty angler who wants spot lock expertise to take advantage of wrecks, humps, channels, and drop offs, the Minn Kota Riptide Terrova is inconceivable to beat.
Professionals:
- Prepared for the salt!
- Highly effective thrust choices
- Lengthy, unbreakable shafts
- Wonderful digital management
- Networking along with your Humminbird fish finder and outboard
- Autopilot
- Spot-lock
- Highly effective navigation choices
- Lengthy battery life
- Nice prop
Cons:
Minn Kota Ultrex Quest
Thrust: 90 and 115 lbs.
Shaft Size: 45” and 52”
Mounting: bow
Management: digital and pedal
Voltage: 24V and 36V
Minn Kota now presents an upgraded “Quest” Ultrex that includes a brushless motor, enhancing an already glorious choice for freshwater anglers.
The Ultrex is admirably quiet, however not on par with the Lowrance Ghost and Garmin Power on this entrance. Nonetheless, in the event you’re transferring from outdated tech to this new era of trolling motors, you’ll discover an enormous distinction.
The Ultrex Quest is available in two energy configurations: a 24V that generates 90 kilos of thrust and a 36V that pushes a full 115. The bigger of the 2 is greater than sufficient energy for wind bucking in your favourite bass pond, and between the brushless motor and Minn Kota’s time-tested “Digital Maximizer,” the Ultrex Quest sips energy, supplying you with hours of run time greater than you’d count on.
Minn Kota presents 4 management choices for the Ultrex Quest.
The primary is a foot pedal with “energy steering” and a spot-lock button. This tough-wired unit works properly, and in the event you’ve spent years getting the cling of fishing with one foot on the management, you’ll love the Ultrex Quest.
You may as well function this motor through a fob-like distant, or by way of your smartphone when linked to the One-Boat Community.
And eventually, with a networked Humminbird chartplotting fishfinder, you’ll be able to set waypoints, course management, and spot lock.
The navigation options out there for the Ultrex Quest are spectacular, together with Spot-Lock with Jog and an Superior GPS Trolling system that leaves your palms and ft free for fishing.
And to spherical this superior package deal out, the raise help cuts the load of the motor by 50%, making deployment straightforward.
Face to face in opposition to the Ghost or Power, nevertheless, I believe the Lowrance and Garmin are the higher choices. They’re extra quiet, extra highly effective, and extra superior technologically, whereas nonetheless providing dead-simple management.
However in the event you’re a giant Humminbird fan, otherwise you’re not able to make the change to Lowrance or Garmin electronics, the Ultrex Quest is a tournament-ready choice.
Professionals:
- Highly effective thrust choices
- Unbreakable shafts
- Wonderful digital management
- Networking along with your Humminbird fish finder and outboard
- Autopilot
- Spot-lock
- Highly effective navigation choices
- Lengthy battery life
Cons:
- Not as quiet because the Lowrance Ghost or Garmin Power
- Not as highly effective because the Lowrance Ghost or Garmin Power
Minn Kota PowerDrive – Finest Price range Spot-Locking Trolling Motor
Thrust: 55 and 70 lbs.
Shaft Size: 54”
Mounting: bow
Management: digital
Voltage: 12V and 24V
If you happen to fish within the salt however don’t run a big boat, Minn Kota’s PowerDrive will be the ideally suited choice to get you the tech you need at a value you’ll be able to afford.
Minn Kota makes the PowerDrive in a single shaft size – 54 inches – and two energy choices – a 12V producing 55 kilos of thrust and a 24V delivering 70. Each choices are dependable, and in case your boat weighs lower than 3500 kilos absolutely loaded, the extra highly effective of the 2 will present loads of muscle to withstand currents and wind.
Take into account that bigger, heavier boats is not going to be well-served by a 70-pound thrust motor, and that preventing a heavy present for hours goes to push this motor – and its batteries – actually laborious.
And whereas this motor isn’t brushless, Minn Kota’s “Digital Maximizer” works properly to increase battery life inside affordable limits.
The PowerDrive is constructed for the salt, and as such, comes with a distant that permits you to management the Superior GPS Trolling System that permits you to spot lock and management your velocity and heading. It’s pretty intuitive, and whereas it doesn’t provide the superior networking choices of the costlier Minn Kota fashions, it really works properly.
If you end up struggling to remain the place you need if you begin to hit specks, or in the event you’re preventing a transferring tide greater than your fishing, the PowerDrive is an economical resolution that may dramatically change the way in which you fish.
Professionals:
- Prepared for the salt
- Good value!
- Unbreakable shafts
- Good digital management
- Autopilot
- Spot-lock
Cons:
- Not as highly effective because the Riptide Terrova
- Not as superior tech because the Riptide Terrova
- Just one shaft size
MotorGuide Tour Professional – Finest Spot-Locking Trolling Motor for Outdated-College Anglers
Thrust: 82 and 109 lbs.
Shaft Size: 45”
Mounting: bow
Management: pedal
Voltage: 24V and 36V
Final, however definitely not least, MotorGuide’s Tour Professional is a superb choice for anglers preferring old-school controls and compatibility with main fishing electronics producers like Humminbird, Lowrance, and Garmin.
Proper off the highest, that compatibility is a giant plus. You’re not locked right into a single model’s choices, and the MotorGuide performs properly with the Huge Three.
The Tour Professional is obtainable in a 45-inch shaft size, and man is that this factor powerful. An outer shell of metal protects an unbreakable interior core, and that, mixed with a 360-degree breakaway design, implies that this trolling motor received’t be destroyed the primary time you bump a stump or strike a submerged log.
The 12V mannequin pushes 82 kilos of thrust, whereas the 36V generates 109. For bass boats – and that’s what the Tour Professional is designed for – that’s greater than sufficient energy to maintain you placed on a windy day.
And MotorGuide has a really correct spot locking characteristic that vastly reduces drift when in comparison with its opponents. So if pinpoint spot locking issues to you, MotorGuide’s Professional Tour shall be good.
MotorGuide goes old style with the management choice: a more-or-less normal foot pedal that’s hard-wired to the unit.
If smartphones and complicated fish finders offer you a headache, and what you need is speedy, user-friendly management, MotorGuide has you in thoughts with the Professional Tour. If you happen to’ve spent a long time on the water steering along with your proper foot, you’ll be proper at house with the Professional Tour instantly: no studying curve, no issues, simply good management.
The Professional Tour’s Zero-G raise system cuts the load of the pinnacle and shaft by 50%, serving to you stow and deploy this trolling motor while not having a go to to the chiropractor.
For old-school anglers, MotorGuide’s Professional Tour is a virtually good spot-locking trolling motor.
Professionals:
- No fuss controls
- Main model compatibility
- Highly effective motor
- Unbreakable shafts
- Nice weed-eating prop
- Spot lock
- Simple deploy and stow
Cons:
- No superior networking options
Shopping for Information
Spot Lock
“frameborder=”0″ enable=”accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture” allowfullscreen> No matter it’s known as, and you’ll ensure that totally different producers use totally different proprietary names for this characteristic, spot locking is basically an digital anchor.
A trolling motor geared up with spot-locking expertise can sense its location with GPS, and makes use of these coordinates to show and regulate thrust to carry your boat in place.
Many anglers describe the distinction this characteristic makes as “miraculous” or “sport altering.”
Why?
In freshwater, you could be preventing the wind to remain within the good place to forged to tough cowl. With spot lock, you’ll be able to focus in your fishing and go away the taming the wind to the tech.
One other frequent state of affairs the place spot lock issues seems if you’re touchdown, weighing, and sorting fish. Whereas all that’s happening, who’s protecting your boat in place and off the stumps and bushes downwind?
With spot lock, your trolling motor has your again whilst you focus elsewhere.
Within the salt, you face comparable issues.
Whenever you find that good spot above a wreck the place the fish are hitting your lures like mad, spot lock takes over letting you deal with the struggle.
And when the specks are operating laborious close to rocks, it’s nice to fish with confidence understanding you’ll be able to internet them, measure, drop them in your cooler, and re-tie with out worrying about ending up in a nasty state of affairs.
Briefly, spot lock is the following neatest thing since plastic worms!
Energy
Energy issues – so much.
For transom-mounted motors pushing a small boat, even the weakest trolling motors present loads of energy, and including extra engine received’t dramatically improve your velocity due to fundamental hydrodynamics.
Until your boat is designed to aircraft, using up on the water to scale back drag, you’re in a short time going to hit most velocity regardless of what number of kilos of thrust your motor delivers.
For bigger boats, the usual rule is 2 kilos of thrust per 100 kilos of loaded weight – at a minimal. The two pound rule is nice for calm water like bass ponds, however within the salt, the place the wind, tide, present, and waves will power your trolling motor to cope with better forces, you desire a conservative margin of error.
I’d suggest not less than a bit of additional energy, say, 112 kilos of thrust for a 5000 pound boat.
That provides you some additional oomph when it is wanted, and will probably be wanted.
However remember that extra energy comes at the price of extra batteries and heavier energy attracts.
Shaft size
Shaft size is essential, and this isn’t a call to be made by guesswork.
The shaft of your trolling motor must hold the prop submerged 12 inches underneath water to cease it from sucking air from the floor and making loads of noise, a course of known as cavitation.
Cavitating isn’t simply loud; it can additionally cut back your motor’s efficiency, robbing it of energy.
On a kayak or small boat, an extended shaft is usually a downside as it can cut back your boat’s draught. That’s why we suggest short-shafted fashions for these functions.
However on bigger boats, the alternative is usually true, and also you’ll have to measure fastidiously to get it proper.
First, measure the gap out of your bow to the water line in calm seas.
Add 12 to 16 inches to that size, after which one other 5 to eight inches for waves.
Minn Kota recommends the next shaft lengths for every measurement:
| BOW TO WATERLINE | RECOMMENDED SHAFT LENGTH |
| 0″ – 10″ | 36″ |
| 16″ – 22″ | 42″ – 45″ |
| 22″ – 28″ | 48″ – 52″ |
| 28″ – 44″ | 54″ – 72″ |
| 45″+ | 87″ |
Management choices
4 management choices are widespread to spot-locking trolling motors.
Foot pedals shall be acquainted to the overwhelming majority of anglers, as this management technique has been round for a very long time.
There’s so much to love about pedal controls. They’re palms free, acquainted, and straightforward to function. And the fashions that supply a wi-fi connection between the pedal and the motor may be positioned proper the place you need them – no want to face on the pinnacle of the bow.
And for anglers who actually dislike bells, whistles, buttons, and menus, foot pedal just like the one out there on the MotorGuide Tour Professional is a factor of magnificence.
Remotes are more and more widespread, and just about the usual on saltwater trolling motors. They’re sometimes very similar to a downsized TV distant, with buttons to regulate energy and path in addition to activate options like spot lock.
Many trolling motors pair along with your smartphone as properly, permitting you to entry apps that allow full management over your trolling motor, very similar to a distant.
And eventually, most high-end trolling motors are additionally able to networking with the suitable model of chartplotting fish finder, sometimes then providing extra superior navigation choices.
Which is the only option for you largely depends upon how you propose to make use of your trolling motor and the way comfy you might be with tech.
Closing Ideas
We will’t let you know which of the trolling motors we’ve reviewed at the moment is the perfect match on your boat, your wants, and your funds, however we are able to all however assure that one in all them is ideal!
Some anglers will crave the unmatched energy of the Lowrance Ghost; others will need the unbelievable total efficiency of the Garmin Power; and loads of individuals will love the simplicity
of the MotorGuide Tour Professional.
Saltwater anglers will love the full-featured Minn Kota Riptide Terrova, whereas fishermen on a decent funds will discover the Minn Kota PowerDrive will get the job accomplished at a price ticket they’ll reside with.
We hope that this text has helped you select your subsequent trolling motor, and we’d love to listen to any questions or feedback you might need!
