Advice on Trolling from a 30 Footer?

[CaptKen]

Moving up this season from a 23' center console outboard to a 30' twin inboard cruiser. Wife wanted more creature comforts. SeaRay Amberjack 290 to be exact.

I had success trolling the center console boat on the big engine with trolling bags and autopilot, down to about 1.5mph on the GPS. Not sure what to expect with the new boat at 3x the weight and 3x the horsepower. I have purchased the Amish Outfitters large bags as a first guess.

Appreciate input from any of you guys that have been trolling with a similar setup.

Thanks,

[rickerd]

See where the boat will run on single engine, then throw the bags out as necessary.

IMHO then invite a 3rd person on the boat each time, or more, so you have a person to steer. My buddies autopilot is great, works most of the time. But, I keep telling him its not as good as someone watching the electronics, then zig zagging at the right time to catch the fish. Yes the captain catches most of the fish.

Rickerd

[rickerd]

Also, when setting the bags, understand with inboards you might have an exhaust port right where your back line for the bag may run. I found this out on a friends boat during a tournament. The rope burned through, bag went under boat and into the prop on that side of boat.

Our solution worked which was use dock hook to push down on front rope and bag while going slowwwwly in reverse. Yes it came out. We were lucky we caught it in time.

Rickerd

[sherman51]

I had a 28' sea ray amberjack with twin 4.3 V6 motors. I had no problems getting slow enough by using only one motor. but it had Mercruiser outdrives. if you must use bags tie them off on forward cleats then let them out just far enough to tie the back of the bags on the rear cleats or do what I did on my 21' Cobia and tie them to my rod holder bases. with the cobia I troll with the wind and most times I used 2 bags but on calmer days I only used 1. but on really calm days, I didn't use any bags as I could idle my 350 Vortek motor down enough to get down to 1.6 MPH without using bags. we have a 26' sylvan now with a single Mercruiser 350 280 HP that seems like it will work great with the Mecyry 9.9 4-stroke kicker mounted on a panther tilt unit with the panther 3" plate in front of the unit. we use an EZ steer for string. but was going to get a Garmin 40 autopilot for the kicker but my Merc is too old for it to work.

[PatSea]

I have a 32' with twin 454's. I troll with one engine with one large Amish bag. I can get down to 1.5mph. Yes you need a full time captain to steer the boat.

[sherman51]

even though my boat was only a 21' I liked the boat running a little off course and then steering back using my autopilot. it gave the lures different action as the boat made its turns and we wasn't going in a straight line.

we have a 26' Sylvan now but use a kicker with the EZ steer from the outdrive to the kicker with the main steering done with autopilot. but we haven't used it enough yet to see how it's going to work. we troll with the wind 98% of the time. if I see steering with the main autopilot isn't working for us I may check into an autopilot for the kicker. I was going to get the Garmin reactor 40 but it doesn't work on my 2000 9.9 mercury. It's recommended for 05 or newer kicker motors. I also have a 02 9.9 four stroke Merc that's had very little use and it shows. but it is a tiller electric start and has a 20" shaft. but it's too old for the Garmin to work. I plan on selling it one of these days if I ever get around to doing it.

if you have a trolling motor that has course steering I would just use the TM for steering and use you motor to push the boat.