Motorized my kayak

[Water_boy]

I had some spare time and parts laying around the garage so I decided to motorize my old kayak. It took a lot more work than I expected but I'm very happy with the results. I took it out both Saturday and Sunday and it was great to be ably to fish without paddling. Top speed was about 4 mph on GPS and I had plenty of juice for a whole day of fishing. I rigged the steering to foot pedals and the throttle is the knob just behind the seat on the right side.

[Water_boy]

oops, double post

[rhahn427]

Hey ......... nice job ....looks like a real trolling machine ..... is that a 45# thrust engine .............. did you post that on snaggedfish.com too (Md Kayak Fishing website)

[Water_boy]

Yes, it's a basic transom mount 45 lb motor, 5 speed forward and 3 reverse. Even at the lowest speed setting it was almost too fast to fish rapid fire casting a spinner bait along the shore but i was able to cover a lot of water. I have some video and more detail I'll add later. Will also check out that other site. I'm just in a real long, real boring meeting this week so killing some time.

[Tom Powers]

Don't know about MD but in VA. . . Just a warning if you don't want to get a ticket. it is now a motorized vessel and must have numbers.

You can do what you want just making you aware of the law.

T

[fishtales]

"it is now a motorized vessel and must have numbers". N.C. also!

[Ghostle]

Looking forward to the video as my shoulders ache me more every year, lol, wanting to do this to my kayak

[Water_boy]

You can't see it from this angle but I'm registered and the numbers are there. I think I have all the safety equipment i need, the only thing I know is not 100% legal is I have black numbers on a blue hull but I'm going to wait until I get a warning before I change them because white would be ugly and I'm pretty sure I'll need to replace them often because they don't stick. Depending on how well they stay on I may decide to paint them on if i can find a paint that will stick.
I'm Traveling this week but hope to get out again this weekend so I will do a video. I got a lot of interesting looks and mostly positive comments on the water last weekend (hey! No wake, no fair...) so I figured this would generate some interest here.