As a long-time bass angler accustomed to big horsepower bass rigs—I’ve been incredibly pleased with the outcome of my “electric motor only” fishing rig. It gets the job done, moves quickly, is quiet and reliable. The 5 HP Elco with 2-24 V lithium batteries can run for days without recharging. No worries at all about getting stranded. The 5 HP is plenty of power for moving this 16 ft Lowe aluminum along nicely even with all the electronics and two trolling motor batteries mounted up front on the rig. I use an extra trolling motor battery to run my electronics, lights and bilge pump. I also put the power trim on the transom as well.
While the boat is used for electric only lakes, it can work well for any small body of water. Plenty of power even against the stout winds we get here in Oklahoma. At full power it clips along at about 4 mph which is just fine given the extra equipment I’m hauling and with one person. I can also run the outboard along with the 80# thrust trolling motor to get a little more speed and direction control in the wind.
I love this rig and it’s a really fun change of pace from running my 250 HP gas guzzler. While using an electric motor seems to make the anti-fossil fuel environmentalists happy—most of the electricity to charge these batteries still comes from clean burning-reliable natural gas! Many thanks to Brandon, Jim and the rest of the team at Elco. Keep up the great work!