There wasn’t a whole lot that I felt was necessary to upgrade on my Basscat except for one thing in particular. That one thing just so happened to be my trolling motor. I have never been all that fond of the Minn Kota Ultrex. It didn’t seem like it was meant to be on the front of my rig. Felt oversized and clunky. The way it stowed took away deck space and made it a pain to store rods where the bounce buster had to be installed. The head was huge and seemed to catch every bit of vegetation possible which is incredibly frustrating when you fish a shallow body of water like the California Delta. The spot lock was okay but didn’t seem to keep me locked in the exact place I would set it but obviously the most practical reasoning for the switch came down to the fact that I run Lowrance electronics so it didn’t make sense to use a piece of equipment that didn’t link it all together. Making the switch to the Ghost was a no brainer and I am very glad that I did. It is a very well built piece of machinery. The head is noticeably smaller which makes it a lot easier to navigate through the weeds and it’s fast too. You will throw a wake behind your boat on full speed and damn near toss yourself out of the boat if you aren’t paying attention. The Ghost stows very easily and sets up a lot better for the front of my boat. There is a cool feature that automatically adjusts the head to be in the stowed position as well. When linked to your graphs, you can really unlock its full potential by plotting paths through the units. The spot lock is dialed in too. When you want to stay in a specific location, it will keep you in that exact spot until you’re ready to move. There is one complaint that I do have with the Ghost. The motor will not operate if it isn’t completely deployed. This is a significant flaw when navigating shallow waters. Sometimes you need to have the trolling motor halfway out of the water to get in and out of certain areas and not having this option is a real bummer.
There also isn’t a lot of spare parts and accessories for it yet since its so new. If that is an issue for you, I’d recommend waiting a little longer before you make the switch but there is one accessory that I consider a must have. The new Grass Cutter by Delta Precision LLC is awesome. It works better than any other grass cutter I’ve owned in the past and doesn’t have dangerous blades sticking off of it either. Andy Dudna really took his time with designing this thing and it shows. It installs in minutes and doesn’t look all clunky on the head of the trolling motor like a lot of others do. It has made the Ghost operate at a whole new level. Cutting through the vegetation is a breeze and since I’ve installed it I no longer find myself having to clear weeds off the prop consistently throughout the day. They are machined aluminum and anodized. Right now they are only available in black and cost $145. Trust me when I say that it’s a small price to pay after seeing how much of a difference it makes. You can purchase them on deltaprecisionproducts.com. If you’re looking for a trolling motor upgrade, the Lawrance Ghost is a great choice. I have been very happy with the performance and adding the Delta Precision weed cutter made it that much better.