New Trolling Motor From Minn Kota

I have fallen overboard while operating my bow mounted trolling motor more times than I would like to admit. Unfortunately, many of those times I was wearing a microphone and worse yet, the video camera caught the incident. During each of those mishaps, I was intending to maneuver my boat by controlling the motor. But somehow I had become off balance loss my footing and ended up all wet.

My camera guys are always poking fun at me about this. There is a simple solution. That is to change to a foot controlled trolling motor rather than one that requires steering by hand. I have tried foot control motors and they do work well. But I feel more comfortable with both feet firmly on the floor of the boat. My back also hurts when I operate a foot control motor all day.

Finally, there has been a trolling motor manufactured that will certainly help any angler have better and safer boat control. Manufactured by Minn Kota, this new motor is called the “3X Steering and Tilt/Extend Tiller”. I recently had an opportunity to check it out and was extremely impressed. I am sure their competitors are asking themselves “why didn’t we think of that?”.

Minn Kota’s “3X” trolling motor provides the user with three times greater steering response and a new Tilt/Extend Tiller. The lower unit of the motor turns three degrees for every one degree the tiller is rotated. This means the direction of the motor can be turned a full 180 degrees by turning the tiller only 60 degrees. The new motor is available on select models of Minn Kota’s Riptide trolling motors beginning in 2004.

Minn Kota’s Field Promotion Manager Sam Heaton says “Waves and current make it tricky to maneuver your boat in many saltwater fishing situations. The “3 X” steering feature allows you to react in difficult conditions and quickly adjust your direction. Precise boat control allows you to get into spots and present your bait when you might not be able to do otherwise.”

The Riptide bow-mount motors available with “3X” and Tilt/Extend Tiller include 101, 74, 65 and 55 pound thrust models. Transom mount Riptide motors with the new features are the 101 and 74 pound thrust models.

These new motors will be available in January at marine dealers as well as your favorite tackle stores. It will be a great time for me to try one out. The water will be cold and hopefully, this will help me keep from falling out of the boat while using the trolling motor. For more information on Minn Kota products see www.minnkotamotors.com.