dumb trolling motor question
 

Finally have a way to transport my canoe again, so time for a new trolling motor (the old one died after 20 years of use/abuse)

But.... previously I was all lakes and rivers.

Now I'm going to be doing a lot of salt/brackish....

There are saltwater-rated motors.... for about 2x what a "regular" one costs.

But.... as long as I flush/rinse the motor in fresh water (ie, a 50 gallon rain barrel, put it in and run it for a few minutes or stop at a river on the way home and do it there) should it matter that I'm using it in salt vs fresh water?

Rinse & carry on...

My buds & I still laugh about us on Rodman decades ago ... a Motorguide that was noisy enough to wake the dead.... at noon... in the heat.

We didn't know squat .... but had beer and fun :)

I have a friend who has been a charter Captain around here for probably over 40 years. He was telling me about an old boat he had with an Evenrude motor that he used for years and years and never rinsed out once…always used in salt water.

Would probably void warranty.

Yeah ... the St. John's is brackish .... nobody ever gave it a thought.... buddy made it back to the ramp with a big ol' hole in his old Evenrude .... it wuz runnin' a bit rough tho'....

It got respect :)

It's a sealed unit and it's not like you are going to dunk the thing in the drink. Or are you?
Maybe hose it off if you want to.

Thanks guys, what I figured but nice to have the confirmation of the brain trust

Before you go out and buy a new one, look on Facebook marketplace for a used one. You will find plenty of almost new ones for sale. Serious fishermen are always moving up to the latest and greatest.

I have a lot of experience with trolling motors in saltwater, but for me that means a 4 stroke 2 cylinder high thrust between 4 and 15hp pushing boats up to 10 tons. Many folks never rinse, personally I do rinse by either using "earmuffs" (like these) or on some motors a direct thread on hose connection. There are products like salt away which some people use either in addition or to try to clean out passages which are gunked up from previous owners but I cannot say I have ever used them.

But, for a canoe, wouldn't an electric motor work better and be lighter? Maybe depends on your real intended use though (are you actually trolling or are you going from point A to point B).

I have a Yamaha 8hp high thrust with electric start and electric tilt that I am looking to part with, but it weighs 115lb so I think it might sink your canoe :p

No, electric trolling motor. Just got home from picking it up - 34ft/lbs of thrust (my old one was 27) which is more than enough to motivate me up-current on our local rivers and deal with the tides on the gulf spots I hit.

I pass two or three boat ramps on the river on the way to/from the gulf, so stopping for 5 min to dunk the head and swish it around a few times is nothing, or I could even use a 5 gallon bucket at home to do it.

Since it's 18 degrees outside .... I'm not :) .... just found an old, tiny tackle box back in a closet... a folded Rodman Reservoir map inside from 1980 ... we never used it that I remember .... like new!

I had a trolling motor on my canoe for years. Put the battery up front so I needed to extend the wires. That's easy to do because you really should have a breaker. You going lithium?

No, cost prohibitive for amp hours available

Picking up a battery after class tonight I hope and then a charger

Every time my eye scans past this thread my brain registers the title as "dumb trolling question".

I had to click just to make sure that's not what it was about.