So I got to the dock through on the voltmeter and of course the battery was about 1/2 charged. I knew that I would be in trouble if I decided to flip. So one of my fellow anglers that I use to back boat with told me about some tips on managing your batteries charge if your are in a situation where you need to preserve volts.

Here are some tips:

1. Come to the realization that your battery is dead and you will not be able to run and gun like you could on a full charge. I’m not of the page of fish they way you typically would. My reasoning is if you do get on a bite, you want to make sure that you have some juice in the battery to repeat the pattern until you can start culling.
2. This tips stems from the first one. You will be limited to where you can fish. Run up river pull in tight to the bank. Let the current pull you down while gently tapping on your trolling motor. You can use the resistance to propel you forward or at the very least slow your boat down. I love pulling the current on a freshly charged battery because you are more in control of the boat using the trolling motor as opposed to working with the current.
3. If you do happen to have a dual battery system. Never use the secondary battery for the trolling motor. You want to make sure that you can start your boat and if both batteries are dead you are in some major trouble. Especially if your weighing fish in and need the big motor to get you back to the weigh station. I luckily this morning had two battery’s and was not all that concerned about killing both batteries. I fished up river and new the current would get me back to the dock.
4. The best tip I can give you is to mount some on board trickle chargers that you can easily plug into your boat. In other words…Don’t forget to charge your trolling motor batteries!

I know some simple, but effective tips to making sure you don’t have trolling motor battery problems on your next fishing trip.

I’m going to be hitting up Wal-Mart and Sam’s club to see what type of batteries they have. At first thought I’m thinking about getting an Everlast, but we will see.  A Everlast trolling motor battery is pretty simple and way less expensive than an Optima battery. They offer three stages of batteries or quality types. They are the Everlast with a one year free replacement, two year free replacement and the MAXX which is three year free replacement. I will report back and let you guys know which one I decided to pop on. Many people may not know but Wal-Mart offers some cool services on trolling motor batteries. Here are some and what they charge and you will notice some are FREE!

• Battery Installation, with Wal-Mart battery purchase is Free
• Battery Charge, with Wal-Mart battery purchase is Free
• Battery Check is Free
• Battery Charge, with battery not purchased at Wal-Mart is$2.50
• Battery Terminal is $5.00
• NOCO Treatment is only $2.00

Again, only looking to spend around $100 bucks and what I like about Wal-mart is it’s open 24hours and as mentioned above some cheap and free services they offer if you buy from them. I’m also not going to rule out buying online, but I hate waiting. Although some of the better deals I found on trolling motor batteries have been online.

I’m also going to make it a point to store my trolling motor battery properly. This will be a great test for next summer to see just how well these trolling motor batteries hold up. Can’t wait to get out on the water and land that first bass!

While out checking on my aluminum boat which has two trolling motor batteries in it I noticed that the float charger was not on my Trojan trolling battery. I guess I forgot to put the float on it when I was doing some cleaning in the boat.  AS you can see in these pics the results aren’t good.

I use a standard electric voltmeter that I bought at Sears  to test all my trolling motor batteries. This one is made by Craftsman and very easy to use. Again, as you can see this one is reading at 0.09 which is not good.  This is probably a case of to little too late if I decided to try and put it on the charger and bring the volt levels back up. I will try it, but more than likely this trolling motor battery is done.

I posted this because it’s imperative that you store your trolling motor batteries properly when in storage. Check your fluid level and make sure you throw a float charger on it to ensure it keeps the battery topped off.  I use the cheap battery float chargers from Harbor Freight. Yes they are junk but they do the trick and for the price you can’t beat em. Here is one that I took a quick snapshot of.

These float chargers can actually be mounted onto the trolling motor battery itself or you can mount them to your boat. This is nice because once your done fishing you just connect the alligator clips and plug the charger in.

So to sum up my post…make sure you store your trolling motor batteries in a dry place with correct levels and be sure to have it connected to a battery float charger. Don’t make the mistake I made and forget. This stupid mistake is eventually going  to cost me a about a $150 to buy a new Trojan trolling motor battery when summer comes.

Until next time!

Depending on your conditions you may want to run your deep cycle battery side by side in series with another deep cycle marine battery. This will allow you to run a 24 volt system that is more powerful and more efficient.  If you main body of water is a river than this is a must for being able to handle the current.  As long as your boat has the room you should have no problem wiring up your trolling motor deep cycle battery to a 24v system.  The down fall for this system is that will cost you double to provide a trolling power to your boat.  But, there is way more upside than down side.  Invest the money and you will be glad you did.

Another aspect of a good trolling motor battery is the brand.  Believe it or not you get what you bay for with deep cycle batteries. The most popular place to buy a marine batter is at Wal-Mart.  This should be avoided a trolling motor battery from Walmart might not be the quality you’re looking for.  They carry Everstart MAXX valve regulated lead batteries which will have not have the longevity of a quality flooded cell lead acid battery.  These type of batteries can be refilled with electrolyte  and will tend to have a longer life…up to 4-5 years. The key is quality brands like Trojan, Exide, Optima, Crown and Glentronics are all good quality batteries. With quality comes price and the initial cost of a quality trolling motor marine battery will keep you on the water longer…which is what you want…right?

Last but not least is trolling motor batter maintenance.  Maintaining your battery will save you time and money.  A couple of tips that will have your deep cycle battery ready for action:

• Buying a three stage charger that will bulk charge, absorption charge and float charge will give your trolling motor battery a nice and even charge then be able to maintain that charge using the trickle charging voltage.  Basically these chargers will step down the amperage as the charge in the trolling motor battery get’s to capacity.
• Using a voltmeter be sure your battery is holding a charge of 12.7v or around 2.15 per cell
• Depending on your level of knowledge on deep cycle batteries always use a Hydrometer over a volt meter as you will be able to get a more accurate reading (this is not all the important, but recommended)
• Only use clean water to clean your battery. Avoid chemicals and any other type of battery cleaning chemicals
• Use your battery often. The most damaging element to a trolling motor battery is having it sit on the shelf or in your boat.  A typical deep cycle battery will need at least 10-20 dischargers to get at full capacity.

One last thing about purchasing a trolling motor battery.  Shop online as there are many online retailers that have trolling motor battery sales all the time.  Some may even include free shipping that will be just like going to your local battery shop.

In future post I will review some of the batteries that I use.