Lake Champlain United - Forums

My buddy Ric whom has fished with me for years now has his 22 ft Starcraft Islander hardtop bracket outboard vessel up and running this year full time! I have had the opportunity to fish on it now 14 out of 20 trips logged on Champlain this year with him testing testing testing as he has just about put everything on it except the kitchen sink! Air conditioning next? LOL ... He has an inverter and a hardtop...????

This post is about the new Minn Kota Saltwater 115 lb thrust Riptide Instinct 72" shaft he has mounted on the bow with a 150 amp hour Lithium battery capable of 12 hours non-stop trolling at 2.7 mph! We have tested twice in the last week and it's amazing! Here is a short 10 second video of how quiet it is! Cable noise is now all year hear from the riggers. This motor will deploy automatically and go back to store position as well on the bow.

Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bYy2L_4trM

That is a beautiful fishing machine.
Love the Riptide Minn Kota with that powerful lithium battery.

If I wanted to get on it, how fast would it go ?

No idea top speed. Never tested. I have been on Ric's boat about 30 plus trips this season. One battery for 5 hours and another for 3-4 hours. Two batteries cover a day of trolling.

Very stealthy. You think it would be overwhelmed a windy day? Would it allow for auto pilot?

Fair question Ken! If it's rough your going to chew thru the batteries. Plus the bow will be going up and down with the prop coming out of the water on his Islander 22ft. Bow sits high. He has a 15 hp 4 stroke Mercury EFI for bumpy water and worst case the 150 Mercury will handle the roughest conditions for trolling at the worst case. Very stealthy for early spring fishing until LCI time. I have seen the Dunklee's catch some big fish in short water with there's and that is impressive as hell! And nearly 2-1 salmon over others. Rick has 3 options for trolling!

11/2 Update:

Adding in tomorrow's 6 hours at the shootout summary:

37 trips 240 hours trolling in quiet this season. Been very impressive so far! 6.5 hours with the lines in the water average each trip.

Ill be trying my new batteries tomorrow
I got 2 !00 amp lithium batteries hooked up for 24 volts.
Once my leads run out ill hook these up.
I can usually do 4 hours with regular lead batteries depending on the winds and how many dipsy divers and down riggers balls are pulling threw the water.
Good luck tomorrow