Fishing with Capt. George Tunison | Improve your boat’s performance with motor and battery upgrades
Wish you had more horsepower? Takes forever to get on plane while wasting lots of fuel getting there? Can’t get shallow? Top end a little sluggish?
If you could only knock a couple hundred pounds off the boat (without banning or hurting the feelings of your 41-year-old cousin who lives on a diet of glazed donuts and chocolate milk) it would make a noticeable difference.
With today’s high tech GPS 36-volt trolling motor spot lock set-ups even larger boats to 30 feet or more can benefit in many ways from installing a high powered trolling motor, including less anchoring work and also less harm to delicate coral and other protected living bottom organisms that take decades to regrow if at all.
With today’s 36-volt motors and three old school, lead acid batteries at 60-70 pounds each to power the motor, it’s like hauling concrete blocks around. Fortunately there is a solution! First remove the three lead acid batteries or concrete from your boat and sell or dispose of them properly. Roughly 200 pounds lighter already.
Earlier in the day you took delivery of a package, the same size as one standard group 31, 12-volt, deep cycle battery everyone’s familiar with. It was your brand new lithium battery or something similar. Where are the other two batteries you ask? Takes three batteries for a 36-volt motor you know?! Not any more. How about a single 36-volt battery the same physical size as just one Group 31, 12-volt — that will run your motor and electronics all day and weighs only 43 pounds? That can be discharged over 2,500 times and can fully recharge in about an hour, and has built in NMEA connectivity through a micro-port to connect to the network. Wow! Sign me up!
Of course, high tech comes with a high price. With old lead acid running around $150-$200 and slightly better AGM batteries at $200 or more, lithium batteries definitely cost more. A popular shopping destination, lists a top-of-the-line super high output deep cycle 12 -volt battery for around $750, while another company prices its 43-pound, 36-volt battery at nearly $2,800 (plus shipping) that’s the same physical size as a single 12-volt with no maintenance and is warranted for 11 years.
A number of top-end companies produce upscale batteries as well as the more common brands most of us are familiar with.
Hard to beat huge weight and space savings resulting in a faster hole shot and top end while saving fuel, plus super-fast re-charging times and maintenance free for years. Make sure you have the right lithium battery charger for your investment. If you have the cents, going lithium in 2026 makes sense.
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Snook heading downriver to the coast, tarpon flooding the area mixing with our golden-hued resident tarpon, Spanish and king macs in and outside the passes, redfish of all sizes under the mangroves, big-as-your-boat sharks and grouper, snapper and other hard fighting delicious table fare available out deep when the winds don’t blow, if you’re an angler, Cape Coral in May is a hot ticket. Shallow to deep, spin, fly to stand up harnesses and fighting chairs the hard part about living here is what species you want to target today. What a great problem!
The fun under the dock lights continues with juvenile tarpon and snook to 30 inches inhaling small, 2-inch paddle tail soft plastics in the top secret color. (Pearl white)
For light spin fun during the daylight hours, try casting a DOA 2.75-inch Jigging Shrimp on a 20-pound fluorocarbon leader and slowly bouncing it back to you along the bottom which catches everything.
Capt. George Tunison is a Cape Coral resident fishing guide. You can contact him at (239) 579-0461 or via email at captgeorget3@aol.com.