A lifetime angler I bought my first boat in the fall of 2013 at the ripe old age of 67. Growing up in Central California I became an avid backpacker and backcountry angler. Though I'm getting up there I still go down and backpack in the Sierra every year, for at least a month. I generally get close to 40 backcountry days a year. Still planning on at least a month this year with one trip possibly as long as 18 days. Anyhow I sprung for a 17'3" 1999 Alumaweld Stryker with a 50 hp Honda, 9.9 honda kicker, scotty electric down rigger, two fish finders, including one with charts, and a ton of fishing equipment. I'm the 3rd old fart to own the boat. I started fishing at Lake Billy Chinook in late March then managed one trip to Odell before heading south. I had hoped to make the mouth of the Deschutes but that didn't happen. Tried the John Day Pool in late september but with no luck. In October managed to pull a Coho out of the Coquille. Just learning this stuff.
On one trip to LBC I met a guy with a bow mount gps electric motor and fished with him a couple of hours for Kokes. What a pleasure. So now I have a riptide 70 with Ipilot, 2 twelve volt agm batteries, a Minn-Kota three bank precision charger and I am getting ready to set it up. Any suggestions on how to mount the motor given the deck on the bow is so small on the Stryker? I am considering having an additional 14 inches of deck installed to provide a larger platform for the mounts and then to create space for the batteries underneath. If there was a way of mounting the motor without extending the deck i could put the sealed batteries in the storage compartment directly in front of the pass thru but then I would lose storage space. Oh yes any work will be done by pros, not me.
Any advice on this project would be greatly appreciated.
Mike
On one trip to LBC I met a guy with a bow mount gps electric motor and fished with him a couple of hours for Kokes. What a pleasure. So now I have a riptide 70 with Ipilot, 2 twelve volt agm batteries, a Minn-Kota three bank precision charger and I am getting ready to set it up. Any suggestions on how to mount the motor given the deck on the bow is so small on the Stryker? I am considering having an additional 14 inches of deck installed to provide a larger platform for the mounts and then to create space for the batteries underneath. If there was a way of mounting the motor without extending the deck i could put the sealed batteries in the storage compartment directly in front of the pass thru but then I would lose storage space. Oh yes any work will be done by pros, not me.
Any advice on this project would be greatly appreciated.
Mike
