Ultimate Utah fishing boat.

[Paddler]

One thing to consider as far as number of motors go. Look at the cost of your main motor, that main outboard will be a large percentage of the overall boat cost. Depending on size of outboard you are looking at 12,000 to 30,000 for just the outboard. If you troll a lot you will put a ton of hours on your expensive main outboard. Why do that? I am on my fifth season with my boat and have only 60 hours on my main outboard(175hp). I would bet my 9.9 kicker motor easily has over 1000 hours. No reason to put thousands of hours on a 20,000 dollar motor when you can put those hours on a 3500 dollar motor. Id rather replace the kicker motor when that time comes, much cheaper. Also, max hp is the only way to go. Especially with our high elevation waters.

I've heard that argument before, too, and it's certainly one way to look at it.  The other is that you're not getting much use out of your $20,000 main.  Using something that costs so much so little doesn't make much sense, IMO.  When I repowered in 2015 the hours on my engine didn't affect the trade-in value at all, so you don't increase depreciation by trolling with your main.  Also, I've fished on boats with kickers.  They are much noisier, and I find it irritating.  My Mercury is very quiet at idle and I much prefer it.  Now, one could argue that a kicker may burn less fuel than my 0.3GPH.  That's a big maybe, and I can buy a lot fuel for the cost of a kicker.