You don’t see electric trolling motors very often on Southern California saltwater boats, probably because so little of our fishing takes place in the shallow, weedy waters where most anglers use trolling motors.

But the fact is, electric motors are handy in a wide range of SoCal saltwater applications -- even offshore. And new styles of electric motors are suitable for bigger boats than ever before.
Obviously, electric trolling motors are extremely useful for types of angling that closely resemble the freshwater bass fishing for which they were originally designed. They’re great, in other words, for picking off spotted bay bass from around docks and mooring fields, and working the breakwalls for calicos.

Like freshwater bass fishing, this requires moving your boat methodically along and around structure for precise presentations. It’s possible, certainly, without a trolling motor -- but once you try fishing with one, you’ll wonder how you ever fished without.

Trolling motors aren’t only useful for working shoreline structure. They also make fishing kelp edges for calicos and white seabass and drifting for halibut and sand bass vastly easier.

Without a trolling motor, most anglers use wind and current to set up a drift roughly parallel to the kelp edge, and then fire up the engine every once in a while to adjust the drift. But with a trolling motor, there’s no need to crank the engine, and you can follow the edge much more precisely than wind and current alone will allow.

The same goes for drifting over the flats for halibut and sandies, and for working reefs and rockpiles for bottomfish. With an electric trolling motor, you can “bump” the boat one way or another when the wind and current don’t take you exactly where you want to go, and you can easily rotate the boat to drift at the ideal attitude. You can even slow down or speed up your drift with relative ease.

Electric motors can also come in handy offshore for fine-tuning drifts past kelp paddies -- and even for powering back upwind to start a new drift. Sometimes, yellowtail and yellowfin tuna seem entirely unaffected by engine noise -- but at other times, both species can get maddeningly boat-shy. There’s little question that being able to maneuver around a paddy in virtual silence can make a real difference on some days.

Electric trolling motors aren’t just for lightweight, low-to-the-water flats and bay boats anymore. While it’s true that bass boat-style bow-mounted motors are suitable only for flats and bay boats up to about 24 feet and higher-sided offshore boats up to about 21 feet, other styles are suitable for surprisingly large boats.

Bow-mounted motors are an excellent choice for inshore fishing in relatively protected waters on low-profile boats. They offer far quicker steering response than transom-mounted motors, and they’re quicker to deploy. Bow-mounted motors are available with manual tiller steering, foot-pedal steering and even wireless remote-controlled steering.

Applications are limited by shaft length, which tops out around 60 inches. If it’s more than about 3.5 feet from the surface of the water to the bow deck when your boat is at rest, a bow-mounted motor isn’t really an option. And if you fish in rough water, you need an even longer shaft relative to your freeboard; otherwise, waves will lift the prop clear of the water.

The most powerful bow-mount models produce about 105 pounds of thrust, which is plenty for any boat they can reasonably be mounted on. Prices begin around $500 for a basic tiller-controlled 55-pound-thrust model suitable for small fiberglass skiffs and aluminum boats up to about 18 feet. A fully loaded, 105-pound-thrust model with wireless remote control, an autopilot and all the other goodies can run as high as $1,600.

Traditional transom-mount trolling motors don’t offer the same kind of on-a-dime maneuverability as bow-mount motors, and they’re available only with manual tiller steering. But they’re compatible with a wider range of boat hull designs, they’re easier to mount and they’re less expensive than bow-mount motors, ranging from about $300 to $700.

For bigger boats, a new generation of trolling motors that mount on trim tabs and cavitation plates is the best option. Both types can generate more thrust by employing twin motors, and both are completely out of the way when not in use. The only things inside the boat are the controls and the batteries.

Plate-mount trolling motors (such as Minn Kota models) bolt straight to the cavitation plate of your existing outboard or sterndrive. When you’re cruising, the bullet-shaped motor -- or pair of motors -- rides clear of the water, but when you come off plane and the hull settles into the water, it submerges.

A remote control with an 18-foot cord controls speed, and you steer with the main steering wheel. Response -- depending on the size of your boat and the size of the motors -- is about like driving your boat with the main engine at dead-idle.

Minn Kota’s most powerful cavitation plate model, consisting of twin motors producing 202 total pounds of thrust, is suitable for boats up to about 25 feet and runs about $1,600. A single-motor, 55-pound-thrust unit is about $650.

Trim tab-mounted trolling motors, which are positioned directly on top of the tabs, are completely clear of the water when you are on plane and have no effect on performance. To use the motors, you simply lower your tabs all the way so that the props are facing aft.

Tab-mounted trolling motors offer substantially better boat control than cavitation plate-mounted motors. They’re mounted far outboard, and they can be operated independently. Put one in forward and the other in reverse, and you can spin your boat like a twin-screw sportfisher.

Both Minn Kota and Lenco Marine make neat tab-mount systems. Minn Kota’s Trim-N-Troll is available in a 24v model producing 160 pounds of total thrust and a 36v model producing 202 pounds. Both come with wireless remote control. At around $2,000 for the 36v system and $1,700 for the 24v, they’re not cheap -- but keep in mind that you’re also getting trim tabs that would run $400 to $500 alone.

Lenco’s 24v and 36v Troll’n Tabs produce 164 and 210 pounds of thrust, respectively, and are available with a choice of two very neat joystick controllers. Wireless remote controls and foot-pedal controls are also available. Pricing is more complicated for the Lenco models, with a range of tab sizes and controller options, but the basic cost is about the same as the Minn Kotas.

Of course, there are drawbacks to electric trolling motors, the most important of which is the fact that they require some serious battery capacity. Electric motors suitable for boats larger than about 18 feet require either 24v or 36v power, which means you’ll be adding at least a couple of deep-cycle batteries. That could cost several hundred dollars, require several cubic feet of space and special wiring, and could possibly add 150 pounds of weight.

Depending on your fishing preferences, though, it may well be worth the effort and money spent. For dedicated inshore and bay types, a trolling motor is a no-brainer. And even for offshore warriors in boats up to 26 feet, they’re worth a look.