POWERING YOUR BOAT THE RIGHT WAY

With a new boating and open water fishing season just a few months away, it’s a great time to start thinking about adding or upgrading batteries to your boat.

Never have we had so much technology and equipment available to us as anglers and boaters, and to be honest, staying on top of everything can be a daunting task. Whether you’re planning on choosing and installing your own batteries, or having them installed by a professional, it is certainly worth while to take a few minutes to educate yourself on the application an installation of new tech. As a competitive angler and equipment nerd, I opt to rig my own boats, and I keep my eyes out for the latest and greatest tech for the upcoming seasons. Follow along as I walk you through some new tech and rigging considerations in the world of batteries.

Trolling Motor Battery technology has probably been one of the biggest advancements to the fishing and marine world in recent years. Lithium trolling motor batteries started appearing in the battery banks of some of the most hardcore tournament anglers and guides, but as they become more available and af- fordable, they’re becoming a staple in the boating and fishing world.

For the past two years, I have been using three 12 volt 100 AH lithium batteries for my 36 volt trolling motor. The advantages over AGM have been remarkable, with the most notable advantages in longer run time and a weight reduction of over 150 pounds from the bow of my Lund 2075 Pro V-Bass. My current setup using a Minn-Kota Ultrex would get me around 14 hours of extreme heavy use. The same set-up on my new Garmin Force 36 Volt trolling motor gets around 20 of the hardest trolling hours I could throw at it. A big part of that is the brushless motor in the Garmin, but nonetheless, I was amazed with the results from the lithium upgrade.

In 2023, I’m going to be fishing several Bassmaster tournaments in the US, and because I am all about preparedness, I thought about travelling with a second set of batteries in the event of failure. Technical difficulties in high level tournaments can cost you your entire fishing career and tens of thousands of dollars, so anything I can do to circumvent equipment failure, I want to know about!

After some heavy research, I found that there was already a fail-safe solution in place for a 36 volt system. Powerhouse

Many anglers opt to run a dedicated lithium battery just for their electronics, which has proven effective in reducing interference and taking the risk of killing your starting battery out of the equation.

Lithium

That is a massive amount of power in a small, neat, and light package and is more than capable of powering a tournament angler from dark to dark, or a recreational angler for days. Because this 36-volt battery is so compact, I can add a second one in parallel. This could give me days of power without having to worry about plugging in, and it would also provide me with a failsafe in the extremely low chance that one of the batteries failed. Most recreational anglers aren’t going to have to go to such extremes and opting for a single 24v or 36v 60 AH battery is a great way to take advantage of lithium technology and makes for a clean, space saving install in any boat.

Specialty Batteries:

As a fishing tech nerd, this one is particularly exciting to me. With new sonar tech live Garmin’s Livescope sweeping the fishing world, combined with a general increase in screen size and power requirements on all units, there has been a need for dedicated power in many cases.

Many anglers opt to run a dedicated lithium battery just for their electronics, which has proven effective in reducing interference and taking the risk of killing your starting battery out of the equation.

What excites me, is recently, some of the top electronics gurus on the planet have been utilizing a dedicated 16v power system for all their electronics. They claim improved clarity, especially with forward facing sonar, and your amperage load is reduced by 20%, thus giving you longer run time. Any advantage you can get in competitive fishing can be the difference between winning and losing, and this is one of those things that could be the difference maker. Of course, I won’t know for certain until I turn on my graphs for the first event of the year, but if it ends up being the difference maker people are claiming, I may have to keep it quiet!

Cranking Batteries:

Cranking batteries are my nemesis. While I really focus on having everything operating at a high level all season, sometimes I let my foot off the gas when it comes to off-season battery maintenance. I can’t tell you the number of years where I’ve backed my boat into the garage late in the season and haven’t looked at it for a month, and when I go to power up, everything is dead because I left my cranking battery connected.

The next step I usually take is to hook said cranking battery up to a charger and pray that I bring it back to life, well, it rarely happens. I then go out, spend another few hundred dollars on a cranker, and do it all over again.

Some years, I actually remember to take care of it, so I get halfway through the next season and start to experience low voltage and failed starts when fishing long tournament days with pumps, poles, tunes, talons, and graphs running all day.

This obviously isn’t the case for everyone, but for everyone using high powered electronics and cycling a lot of charge times through your cranker, I would guess this sounds all too familiar. To be fair, this is really only a major issue I have with my tournament boat, loaded with advanced technology.

I have another boat as well,an old 17’ Lund Outfitter with a 5” depth finder, and rarely have battery issues because the battery isn’t being cycled 5 times a week or being drained by the electric playground on my big Lund.

Cranking batteries aren’t like trolling motor batteries, and there really isn’t a general answer for everyone. As I mentioned earlier, if you have a small rig with little to no electronics, and aren’t going far from home, a smaller 24 series lead acid battery will probably suit your needs just fine for a couple years.

If you’re heavy into the fishing game, have a lot of electronics, and have been changing out cranking batteries, checking out lithiums could be the best option.

Lithium cranking batteries are only just becoming mainstream in the last year or two, and very few companies even make batteries that can do so. They offer the same weight saving and long lasting advantages as deep cycle lithium trolling motor batteries, and really, the draw to me is that I can really “set it and forget it”. I don’t have to worry about flatlining the battery and not having it come back to