Sold my Gatortrax and building a new one, won’t be ready till end of summer. So rigged my momarsh for crappie. Never fished out of this rig before. Before pics of the momarsh rig below…





My goal was to keep this simple and not mess this boat up for just a few months of fishing, I have it rigged just how I like it for duck hunting. Pull the motor and camo off. Motor comes off easy (7hp long tail). I’m putting my old Tarrova bow mount trolling motor on it, as well as all my electronics from my other GatorTrax I sold.

The trolling motor should be mounted on the bow, and the boat has a nice flat spot for it. But it would require drilling holes in the boat, which I wanted to avoid, and I would have take the bow handle off. I would also have to carve out flotation foam underneath to tighten the bolts. Not what I want to do.



So I looked at the stern (pix below). I really did not want to take that transoms bracket off, and worse yet drill more holes in the boat. That transome bracket is on backwards. The specs of the boat is for that transom bracket to be flipped 180 degrees, it is held on by 3 bolts. It should be using the one bolt on the very back of the boat. I flipped it 180, utilizing the existing 2 bolts, and I had to drill another hole for the other bolt, which required carving out flotation underneath. To taking that transoms bracket off, and drilling more holes, would require digging a lot more flotation out. Also I got thread lock on those bolts, it has been this way for over 10 years and has not failed me, I did not want to mess this up. I flipped that transom bracket around to move that long tail motor closer to the middle of the boat, better weight distribution.



I wanted to some how mount it on top the transom bracket.



So I got the idea to mount 2x6’s to the bracket, and that worked great. 3 deck screws and it comes on and off price and of cake. I like simple.





What is really cool is I deploying the trolling motor and transducer poll before I launch, back down and it sends my boat off, I can hit spot lock with my remote, go park my truck, and remotely drive boat to pick me up at the dock or where ever.

I have only taking it out a few times, and have made some adjustments. Gave it a real test this long weekend. Caught these on the new north Texas lake Saturday, Bois D’Arc. My first time on this lake.



Black nose crappie..


Caught these on Fork Monday, that last one on the stinger was a pig.



I would like to cut the shaft of the trolling motor down, also my livescope transducer poll. My plan was to sell the trolling motor end of summer, I’m getting a new one for the GarorTrax I’m having built. If I cut that shaft down on the trolling motor, I probably won’t be able to sell it, it will become a permanent accessory to the boat, but I’m thinking I might really like this motor as an option for hunting. It is quiet, stealth, and low profile.

Nice haul!

Cool rig and nice mess of crappie there!

Are you full time guiding on Bois D Arc yet?

I've only read about that "radio controlled" trolling motor -- super cool !!

No guiding, just like being on the water. And eating crappie.

That’s pretty cool looking.

Wonder how wind and waves might affect?

You gotta pick wind protected spots, and stay away from wake boats lol. And you don’t want to take accross the lake. Same logic when I take it duck hunting, you got to know the limitations of your boat.

After this summer, I will probably never fish out of this boat again. But it will get me by this summer, and it is fun rigging it.

Looks good to me!

genius

I did see BP has a sale going on their 17.5' Bass Tracker

I like the rig, nice work .

Guy's son and my son went to school together way back when, every now and then we would all dove hunt together, always a great time!
I use to jack with him a little and call him the mad scientist for the creative ways he would like to to hunt.

So it is no surprise that the mad scientist takes his creativity to the fishing world too.

That looks like a good time to me Guy. Don’t know if it’s true but I’ve often heard it said that 10% of the fishermen catch 90% of the fish.

That dog'll hunt

I haven’t fished any this year, have not had a boat. Just getting started, but this summer I’ll fish one day a week, Saturday is my fish day if the weather is right. I have no vacation days for fishing, I pretty much burn all my vacation days snow skiing now.

But I bet if I catch my limit the one day a week I fish, that would probably not put me in that 10% group. Guides are out there catching several limits every day. And I see a lot of people fishing that do not, and will not, catch any. They are just out there to wet a hook and get out of the house, and that’s ok.

Been having fun in this rig this summer. Unloading it hear…

Can't say how much I miss crappie fishing -- especially with a fly rod. Well done!

You should do a ride along

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Kicking those Crappies azz

Livescope is a game changer! What batter did you use? Do you dry off the fish before you coat in batter?

That's a cool setup. Nice catch!

I definitely miss crappie fishing.