So, it's 7:45 pm on Saturday, fishing Poormans open night tournament... intial run... round the point and heded up the Washita arm on Texoma.. storm in the distance, wind kicks up a little... we're running hitting waves, having a good old time thinking about all the 5 pound small mouth we plan on catching on washita point... all of a sudden, I hit a wave, nothing major, but my Terrova freaking deploys itself!!!! As soon as the prop touches the water the entire trolling motor just rips right off the mounting bracket, sling shots off the front of the boat tearing all wires and destroying everything in its path and sinking to the murky depths in about 80 feet of water. all happens within about 5 seconds... I stop the boat, and just sit there with dumbface.. .look over at my partner, he has dumbface too, although, I think he looks dumber... but that's another story.

Thanks to lineman for going out of his way to meet us in Sherman and letting me borrow his TM... and after all that.. the fishing sucked anyway on texoma..


Anyway, that sucked!! anyone else had this problem? Saw a pontoon guy at the boat ramp, said the same thing happened to his.

Wow! I guess you're lucky that TM didn't fly off and knock your dumb friend in the face....

I've heard of it happening more than once. Here's what I have to prevent it...

yes you have to tighten that nut at he base every time you run. I bought one before they put the warning sticker on them and I think I was one of the reasons they put those stickers on the motor.

Will insurance pay for it?

I don't have a terrova, but I wouldn't run without strapping it down. I use a Velcro rod strap to the base.

+1 its amazing how something so simple can save you so much money. Actually any type of heavy strap will do...

im sorry but your description of the event was absolutely hilarious. I hope you get it taken care of.

after fishing the same event as Goat.... it was brutal out there when the wind kicked up. We finally made it over to Solider from the dam... and it was quite a ride.

Sorry to hear about losing the TM...but...that's what that's called?...dumb face...I always thought of it as an adult looking like a baby soiling his/her diaper...we've all had it at some point.
Good luck with the remedy to your problem...I do appreciate your humor though.

Insurance should cover it !

Yea that bites hard, I use one of the old school nylon straps that's about 2" wide to lock mine down.

How do these straps keep the trolling motor from engaging? I just put one on the bow of my boat and DEFINITELY don't want this happening...Just curious how these are mounted and how they prevent it from deploying.

Mine goes completely around the bracket and TM shaft and locks in with a buckle. Unless the bracket itself comes undone the TM cant go anywhere.