Electrical moter for fishing Skagit River

[fox9068]

My question is i have a 10' Livingston how big of a electrical motor or lbs of thrust do i need to get by, I want to start fishing the Skagit River verses buying an outboard gas engine

[The Quadfather]

I will be interested to hear what other folks say about electric motors on rivers. I have a 55lb Minn Kota, and while it is a great motor to slow troll and get in lakes with, I would not be caught dead on a river with it. I know that a lot of the rivers have big sleepy slow areas without much current. But if you ever for a second got yourself in any kind of current you can find yourself with very little control. Even wind across the bow will make it tuff to keep on course.
Maybe I'm paranoid, and my boat is heavier, but always be cautious.

[mallard83]

My brother and I use a 50 lb thrust Minn Kota for side drifting out of his 14' sled and it works great for that. BTW the sled we use has a 20 horse Merc pump for main motor duties. I would be hesitant about having an electric as the only source of power on a river though. You could get by if you were in a tidally effected area and were cautious of the tides or were in an extremely slow section of river and paid attention to battery life. I have fished the Snohomish River with a 12' boat and a 40 lb thrust electric for humpies, but I made sure I timed the tide so it would be an incoming when I launched. I did this so I could use less battery going up river and if I ran out of juice I could just float back down to the launch and use the oars to navigate. So it can be done with some cation.