best small boat/trolling motor

[Tim P]

I recently had my old outboard stolen and am looking for a new one. I will be using this primarily as a trolling motor on my 19 foot fishing boat. I don't want to go with a high thrust motor which would limit me to just trolling because I will also be using it as the main motor on my 14 ft alluminum. My old motor was a 15 hp 2-stroke. I am thinking I would like a 9.9 hp 4 stroke, manual start, long shaft. The Yamahas are very popular in my area (Seattle), but I have heard they can be difficult to start. I am wondering if others have had this problem. Any recommendations on a good, reliable motor?

 

[spunkyjr]

Re: best small boat/trolling motor

If it was me it would be aa Johnson 9.9 from the late 80's on in a 2 stroke. Light weight and very, very reliable. Easy to repair also. Use mine for trolling on a 18 footer and 14 footer during the fall hunting seasons . Put about a 1000+ hours on mine a year since 87. Only just replaced the lower unit this spring and 1 fuel pump. For around a $1000 you should be able to find one in good shape.

 

[ondarvr]

Re: best small boat/trolling motor

Many of the new small 4 strokes are set very lean when new to meet emission requirements, if you have starting issues it can normally be remedied by a carb adjustment. The only difficult thing about the adjustment is removing the cap over the low speed screw that keeps you from messing with it. (its actually not hard to remove)

Yamahas are the best, not that others aren't good, people just like the Yamahas better.