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Garmin Force Kraken Trolling Motor: On-Water Test and Review

Dec. 7 2023 Boating Equipment Tips By Ron Boggs

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Garmin Force Kraken Trolling Motor: On Water Test and Review

It’s real! Garmin Force Kraken hits the water before winter! While waiting (impatiently) for my new Kraken to arrive at the dealership I read every word published about it. This HAD to be my next bow mount! But I couldn’t find much coverage with a walleye angler actually using one. Note that I work at a Ranger and Crestliner boat dealership so I’ve run the other brands…including brushless motors like the original Garmin Force. As a dealership that caters to the higher end of the angling community in my region, I’ve been exposed to most everything electrical, and pretty early in the marketing game.

Garmin Force Kraken Has Landed! This is the 63" w/GT56 Transducer

Honestly, my old bow troller was on its last leg and I needed a replacement. I wanted brushless power for the silence. I wanted wireless remote control. I wanted Livescope on the bow. I wanted Anchor Lock, Heading Hold and Cruise Control for the most common walleye methods: jigging/casting, sniping with forward facing sonar, dragging bait and trolling. Integration with my sonar(s) was not as important to me as to many others—who express joy at using their maps to drive the bow troller. I’m so picky that I prefer to drive myself. Well, now I’m driving my new Kraken. Even so, the Kraken connects wirelessly with your fish finder(s) via Wi-Fi. That’s convenient. Having the ability to backtrack with a couple clicks on the remote is also super convenient. There’s so much to like about the Kraken, here’s the scoop.

I run a Northern-style tiller boat—Crestliner 1650 Pro Tiller--with walleye as my target species. Actually, I’m a trophy walleye specialist—Google “Ron Boggs Walleye” to see that I’m not BS’ing you. My boat is a severely overloaded 16’10” one-man seek-and-destroy boat…built-in electronics locker; two rod lockers holding 22 rods under lock and key; electric motors fore and aft; Wave Wackers to close the transom. I already have Garmin’s Livescope LVS34 mounted to the shaft of a tiller electric giving me 360 degrees of aiming from my seat at the aft station. Adding another Livescope transducer at the bow was one of the primary goals of my bow troller upgrade.


This big brute 12.06 pound walleye should have been the Kraken's first trophy. Unfortunately, my Kraken was in-hand waiting to be installed two days later. So I guess I'm looking to do this again soon!

My stern Livescope system displays on a Garmin 8610 GPSMap with the highest resolution available in the industry at 1920 x 1200 screen resolution fitting into a “little” 10 inch screen. That screen is just an arm’s length away from my helm chair so the size is fine. To see the bow sonar from my seat is a little over 10 feet, so I need a bigger screen. Without getting crazy with the big coastal units, I settled for a 12” EchoMap unit. First thing I did was rob the GT56 transducer off the 12 incher and installed it for my stern finder (which had been running a GT54). Holy crap! The GT56 is stunning for the upgraded side imaging. I’m able to read the side images so well that even when anchor-locked I can see fish to the side, cast to them, and catch them! Most side imaging set-ups need a bit more forward movement to work best. With forward movement the GT56 is beyond great!

The Kraken I purchased shipped with the GT56 transducer already installed—perfect, GT56 at both ends of the boat. Then I had the crew at High Country Boats in Helena, Montana install a Livescope LVS34 transducer on the dedicated mount on the drive with the cable running inside the shaft of the Kraken. This integration is a major reason many people are looking at the Kraken. It accommodates Livescope better than any other bow troller. The install of the Livescope transducer could be done by a mechanically inclined person, but with my shaky hands and minimal experience with such things, I opted to let an actual technician tackle the job. It was his first time with the Kraken and mounting it on a Garmin Quick Disconnect plate, wiring everything for both motor and sonar, mounting and routing cables to the black box, adding an adjustable sonar mount, installing the Livescope transducer, extra lithium battery dedicated to the bow sonar system, switch to turn off the Livescope black box etc. took about 6 hours.

The software updates and synch’ing of trolling motor and sonars I did myself and though not quick or simple, this old man did get that Wi-Fi task handled. Yes, I finally stepped up and used the Active Captain app from Garmin. I went kicking and screaming, but now I’m in the game. Plan on spending a couple hours getting the networking tasks handled. Thankfully, the networking is all Wi-Fi, not with cables routed all over the boat! Note that I mixed a GPSMap unit (stern) with an EchoMap unit (bow) and the two do not network with Wi-Fi—EchoMaps only talk to EchoMaps. I’m fine with that--my bow system shows bow data while my stern system shows stern data. I use the EchoMap on the bow as the primary sonar for the Kraken and I added the remote control Kraken toolbar to several screen views on that sonar. If I’m in the bow without my remote, I just use the sonar to drive and control the Kraken. Also, the remote control has a button to drop a waypoint, so I don’t have to use either sonar. The waypoints dropped by the remote automatically record on the networked bow sonar.

Here's the New Kit: Garmin Kraken w/Livescope and GT56 Transducers; Garmin 12" EchoMap 126 Ultra and 54Ah Lithium Battery for the EchoMap and Livescope Black Box. Note the Kraken Toolbar at the Top of the Screen--So I Can Drive the Bow Troller From the Sonar Screen. This is a Fairly Simple Bow Set-Up in Comparison to Tourney Boats With Multiple Big Sonars on the Bow.

The first time on the water I spent some time calibrating both the Kraken and the remote control so the advanced features would be active. Perhaps 15 minutes of calibrating and I was running! I had to start with the power test…oh my gosh, I can exceed 4 mph with the Kraken pushing just 24 volts of the possible 36! Though I was not bucking wind, it’s obvious this rig will buck more wind than my boat will ever be in. At either minimum or maximum power the brushless motor is as silent as advertised. There just isn’t much to hear. I must note that my boat is wired as a 24 volt system. The Kraken perceived “low battery” after just a minute wide open, which wasn’t the batteries. I thought my wiring harness may have been a bit light--8 gauge--, but the issue was simply that the Kraken works with anything between 20 and 45 volts and I'm on the low end of that with my system. When drawing hard at high speeds, my 24v system isn't able to deliver all the volts the Kraken is willing to take. Thus, the Kraken perceived low battery. I checked and my wiring is not heating up or anything like that. So, I dialed it back and continued my day. Good excuse to get a new 36v lithium battery and new wiring harness with heavier gauge wires!

A few minutes after calibrating and familiarizing myself with the remote, I went to a cold-season walleye spot where I’d jigged up a 12.06 pound brute walleye a couple days earlier. I opted to leave the Anchor Lock gain at the middle setting to give me room to make it more or less aggressive about staying on point. I’m very interested in dialing in this feature on subsequent trips. It’s a way to control how the motor corrects position when anchored. Set it high for more aggressive maneuvering to stay on the anchor spot. Set low to slowly creep up to the anchor spot. I’ve been frustrated with past GPS anchor systems from other manufacturers struggling in calm or very light breeze conditions. You’ve been there…the motor keeps overrunning the anchor spot so it has to adjust almost constantly…and with the motor noise and steering noise to annoy you and the fish. All this when it’s so calm every noise sounds like a cacophony.

Not with the Kraken! While fishing I didn’t notice it running at all, other than every half hour or so a quick whir while it unravels the cord that gets spun during maneuvering. So the fact that it spun enough to wind the cord proves it was adjusting anchor position, and without me even noticing. It senses the cord issue and does a very quick unwind which you can hear since the steering motor is not as quiet as the propulsion. Still very quiet but not silent when steering at the fastest speed to unwind. The good news is that it doesn't have "overrun" problems like my past bow trollers.

The Kraken has a feature not found on other motors…it can spin the prop backwards while keeping position when anchor-locked. I had hoped this would eliminate the winding of the cord when staying at anchor and adjusting in light or no wind conditions, but nope, actually seems to wind itself up more than my previous motor. But it solves the situation automatically and quickly. While staying right on the anchor spot.

My second time on the water with the Kraken I was in 10-20 mph winds—enough to challenge some anchor lock systems. The Kraken remote shows how far you are off the anchor spot. I was never more than 3 feet off the anchor point in 3 hours anchored in stiff winds and it never wound the cord a single wrap. 

On day one in calm conditions, I did not modify the Anchor Gain setting since factory default setting 5 worked well in the under 5 mph breeze. In the stout winds of day two on the water I bumped the Anchor Gain to setting 8 which is the setting that never let me drift more than 3 feet off point even in whitecaps. Subsequent trips in low or no wind conditions have lead me to dial down the Anchor Gain to setting 2 or 3 on calm days. And selecting is easy...it's on the remote. Still stays within 3 feet of the spot with less winding itself up. Gosh I like having the ability to select the aggressiveness of the Anchor Lock mode!

Initially, I did not test the jog function to move the anchor point…I’ve generally been a “move it manually” guy on my anchor lock status. I just don’t typically jog for repositioning. My typical reposition is more than a cast away so using 5 foot jog steps seems laborious to me. I just set the Heading Hold and ramp up the speed to get to my new anchor spot. On windy day two, I did a few 5 and 10 foot jogs just to see that I could and it worked as expected. You do need to “hold” the buttons to jog. A simple click did not make moves for me.

The Kraken "Head" Contains a Dual GPS Sytem as Well as the Wi-Fi Communications Gear. The Tandem GPS Aids with Heading Hold, Navigation, Cruise Control and Anchor Lock. It's Precise!

Steering in general is different from my past bow trollers. It actually steers differently based on your commands. A quick click on either steering button turns the motor precisely one degree. I’m going to say it was silent though perhaps someone with younger ears might be able to discern some sound? For those constant adjustments when fishing tight contours I simply give a few quick clicks to silently steer a few degrees. Slick, silent and very definite.

More aggressive steering gave me different results. During my high speed test when I first got on the water I hit and held the button for the steering and was pleasantly surprised. The steering is so strong that it doesn’t struggle to turn even with all that high speed thrust pulling through the water. And it’s quick and smooth doing it. At slow speeds from live-bait speed of about .5 to crank trolling speed of 2 ish the result changed. When I held the button down to steer more than one degree for the initial click, the steering seemed a bit jumpy. As if it’s laboring to turn which I knew couldn’t be the case after it steered so well at high speeds. At home later I found that the manual states something to the effect that holding the steering button(s) makes 5 degree steering adjustments. I think that my even longer hold of the steering button was causing it to steer past those 5 degree increments. At slow speeds I could detect the 5 degree spots with just a slight tick in the steering. During my high speed tests this wasn’t detectable. More testing is needed for me to figure this out better, but I’m fairly confident that the less smooth steering was the 5 degree increments. And I have to reiterate that the clicks for 1 degree steering increments are pretty much silent and precise. I like it very much!

To restate, one click equals one degree of steering. And quick clicks add up to more degrees of steering. Click and one second hold equals 5 degrees of steering. Extended hold gets continuous steering (perhaps with “ticks” at the 5 degree intervals). So you have three options on the steering buttons. For actual fishing, the one click/one degree and the click/hold for 5 degrees system is really precise and to my ear, completely silent. I found this system for steering to be absolutely lovely for manual steering—no oversteer, super precise and workable without watching the head of the motor…I could continue to fish and just give 1 or 5 degree commands on the remote knowing where the motor was now heading without having to watch it. The only negative to this is when in Heading Hold sometimes I’m directing a slight change in direction at the same time the motor is already making an adjustment. In that case I don’t always get exactly 1 or 5 degrees due to the motor taking two commands at once.

Transducer Array is Bulky But Also Does Quite an Impressive Job with Live Action Livescope On the Side and the GT56 In the Nosecone Producing Fantastic Side Imaging and 2D Sonar Images

Part of the calibration of the Kraken is to record the bow offset which is the steering angle to follow directly in line with the keel of the boat. This compensates for the fact that the troller isn’t precisely on the point of the bow and in line with the keel. In theory, this helps reduce the amount of wavering the motor does to stay on course. And this is where Heading Hold comes into play. Whether dragging a plain-hook leech presentation or trolling cranks, most walleye anglers like to lock our heading so the boat continues on course with minimal adjustment necessary.

My first couple hours with the Kraken, I used this feature quite a bit when doing my manual jogging of anchor points and it worked flawlessly. I’m not doing any trolling or dragging this time of year in the 40 degree water, so I haven’t gotten to do the full test. I like that the controls don’t “second guess” me like my previous troller. With that other motor, sometimes it rejected adjustments to the heading and steered back to a previous angle. The Kraken accepted my steering each time and continued on the heading I selected. I’ll need to spend more time to tell if it stays precise as I troll along.

Good news here is that like the Anchor Gain adjustment lets me dial in the amount of aggressiveness of the Anchor Lock system, Navigation Gain gives me a ten-step adjustment of the Heading Hold. Actually, this Nav. Gain setting is for Heading Hold or following routes or tracks on your maps or backtracking or going to a waypoint or any other navigation situation. So if you want the Kraken to more aggressively steer to the precise course, set it high. If you want a less aggressive move to reach the heading you seek, set the Nav. Gain lower. I bumped the Navigation Gain up to 7 on the first day tests and that was fairly similar to the steering I’ve used on other systems. In the blustery wind of day two, I left the Navigation Gain on setting 7 and for my quick tests it worked really well.

I use the Vessel Align setting for Heading Hold which keeps my locked course as an overall heading for the boat. This is the equivalent of Legacy Autopilot on my previous trollers. That’s the walleye anglers’ setting!

Someone out there is reading this and wondering if I used Gesture Control. Well, I set up my remote to be able to do it, but honestly, I was trying to catch a big walleye on the first day running my Kraken, so I didn’t have the time or brain power to try Gesture Control. What is it? Gesture Control is steering the motor by pointing the remote control. Basically, the remote is set-up to point out a compass bearing which the motor can then follow. I intend to use this feature, though maybe not that much since I can steer by pushing a button without having to raise and point the remote. This Gesture Control can also jog your anchor position and in the winds of my day two test, pointing with the remote did get me the 5 foot jogs I wanted. I was actively fishing during the test and only jogged one direction, so I’ll be testing it more thoroughly in the future.

Cruise Control isn’t something I’ve used often in the past—part of that picky side of my brain that likes to be in control—I’ll select and modify the speed myself thank you very much. However, anglers who troll a bunch tend to be more open-minded to dialing in the speed with the bow troller GPS. I gave this a difficult test in the wind on my second day out with the new Kraken. With about 10-15 mph wind at my back I started working down a steep shoreline at the speed the wind was blowing me—1.2 mph. As expected, the Kraken held speed just fine for a couple hundred yards. Then something unexpected happened. The wind gusted up into the low 20 mph range which sped the boat up to 1.3, then 1.4 and then somehow I found it dropping back down to 1.2 even with the wind shoving me harder…how could this be? Aha! The reversing prop on the Kraken to the rescue. I’m not stable enough on my feet to go lean over the bow in 20 mph wind to watch the prop to confirm, but how else could the boat slow down while the wind picked up? Still at the test stage, but it appears that the reversing prop is going to assist with the precision of the Cruise Control setting. Way cool! I may spend more Cruise Control time in the future since the Kraken does it so well!

LIVESCOPE FUNCTION. I set my remote control shortcut keys to let me push one button to bring up the Livescope screen on my bow sonar. With a tiller boat and me sitting in the back end of the boat, this is a great shortcut! One button sets it to the Livescope screen. Another button sets it to a combo with side imaging on the top half of the screen…2D and Chart on the bottom half. When I pull the motor to stow, I don’t want the transducer(s) chirping away out of the water. So another shortcut button brings up the screen with the transducer(s) turned off and just the fishing chart as the entire screen. This is perfect when I’m running somewhere with the main engine. Haven’t had time to check if the system can detect that the transducers should be turned off. I may end up saving this screen to one of the shortcut keys on the EchoMap rather than on the remote…that’s something I’ll figure out over the next few months. But make no mistake about it, having shortcut keys on the remote is a tremendous feature that I’m already using multiple times a day!

The Kraken Remote is Intuitive and Works Well. Note the Shortcut Buttons at the Bottom With Menu and Waypoint Buttons Directly Above. The Display is Easy to See and Carries Important Info Like Distance From Anchor Point, Compass Bearing of Heading Hold, Speed, Battery Status and More. And for Us Night Anglers, It Has Adjustable Backlighting--Brightness and Timing--for Both the Screen and Buttons.

Using the remote steering to find and lock on to fish with the Livescope has worked better than expected. The one degree clicks make it easy to focus on a target--it's hard enough to hit the narrow beam with my awkward casting skills. Having the fish centered in the beam--right down to the single degree of angle--makes my occasional accurate casts better, and my innaccurate casts are easier to adjust. When attempting to follow those roaming and feeding fish, the precision of the remote steering reduces problems with oversteering the aim and losing sight of the fish. In this cold water season, roaming walleye aren't as common as they are in the warmer water of summer. This year I'm running a Kraken so I'm ready to follow and catch those big roaming (and feeding) walleye!

The Livescope transducer does a remarkable job and has almost no interference or screen fuzz running as a part of the Kraken. And I’ll be honest, after almost 40 years as a fish writer/trophy angler, my ability to ignore interference is quite high, so I’m not the guy who even notices that. With two Livescope systems in the boat—one on the bow troller, one on the stern troller—I can see that the one on the Kraken has less interference than the one in the back. Some of that is likely due to the fact that I’m running more automated gain and range up front where I don’t have arm’s reach ability to adjust settings. As others with multiple Livescopes have found, there is pretty much no cross-talk between the two Livescope set-ups (unless you aim them directly at one another). They work together quite well!

Deploying and stowing the Kraken is smooth and intuitive. The shaft of the motor slides through the steering box more smoothly than any of my past motors. The balance is good so the whole production doesn’t seem heavy or unwieldy and I’m retirement age with physical issues. Not a problem deploying the Kraken! And when you start to stow the motor, it automatically swivels to either “prop left” or “prop right.” My Livescope transducer array is set up on the side of the motor requiring “prop left” and it was super simple to set that option on the remote. And the Kraken automatically engages the steering cog so you don’t have to spin the engine searching for the cog to fit. And I must admit that when the original Garmin Force came out I snickered at the coiled wiring around the Force shaft. Well, the Kraken also has coiled wiring. Now that I’m using it, I can appreciate not having to worry about the wiring or if it’s catching on anything like past bow trollers I’ve owned. Apparently, coils are for me!

Before I can comment on the power consumption of the Kraken, I’ll need time to run the heck out of it! This time of year, fishing in frigid conditions, I typically limit myself to half-day trips which are unlikely to challenge the batteries. The fall full moon night trolling game will be a big test, but that’s months away. Maybe I need a trip out to the Columbia River this winter for some hard-core trolling against current? I learned to fish for walleyes on the Columbia 40 years ago, so I always relish time on “the big puddle” as we call it in my group of cronies.

So back to my original wish list: I wanted brushless and thus silent operation—check! Wanted wireless remote…got that plus lots of features built into the remote—check. Wanted Livescope built-in without wonky aiming devices or parallel support rods etc.—check. Wanted Heading Hold, Cruise Control and Anchor Lock—check. Wanted integration with my sonars which I’ve barely started scratching the surface on—check. I have to say that I’m very pleased with my first few hours with the Kraken. I’ve caught several fish while utilizing it and anticipate LOTS more! There are still lots of features I need to examine more thoroughly and the good news is I enjoy the Kraken so much that further testing will be fun and productive. See you out there this weekend!


Addendum: Apologies to the folks looking for input on the foot pedal. Yes, I have the optional foot pedal but my physical issues limit my ability to stand in the bow or to stand on one leg while driving with the other. Pedal is FAST and has additional features like anchor lock and heading hold built-in. 2024 Montana Walleye Unlimited Angler and Team of the Year champion, Matt Fischer, runs his Kraken exclusively with the foot pedal--hasn't even tried the handheld remote. It worked well enough for him to win two of the four tourneys on the circuit. So clearly, the foot pedal is functional at a professional level.