Thanks for all the great information people here have shared with me! I
didn't expect to receive so much relevant and helpful info all in one
message thread. I appreciate the help that people have offered.

o Is this realistic to use a trolling motor to push a
rowboat for a distance of 1 mile back and fro?

Sure, it can do it. I run a 20' bass boat miles and miles
on the electric int he course of a day. Then I am running
a 36Volt off three batteries in series. My 24 Volt motors
running off two in series work ok too.

... Its not too much, but if you go with a small cheap
motor you won't go very fast, and you may find a strong
wind will over come the force of your motor. Go big and
you won't have that problem.

... I am using two group 27 Trojan batteries on that boat.
By the end of an 8 hour tournament its getting a bit weak,
but it does the job.

8 hours of running time on a trolling motor is _much_ more than I
expect to use. Great! This means using a trolling motor on a rowboat is
quite practical for my very moderate use as long as I use a powerful
trolling motor with enough number of batteries. I have a question
though: What does "two group 27 Trojan batteries" mean? How many
batteries are we talking about here? How many in a group?

Well, a canoe moves so easily you won't need as a big
of a trolling motor. Batteries on the other hand are
quite heavy. ... You don't need much anchor to hold a
canoe in place. I used a relatively light mushroom
anchor in mine it works fine in any circumstances I
have tried so far.

Good to know these. This means canoe is also a practical alternative.

DO NOT ANCHOR FROM THE MIDDLE OF THE CANOE.

Thanks for pointing this out. I will keep this in mind.

If your primary motivation fishing go larger. Get a
big wide beam flat bottom john boat with lots of room
to fish. Mount a fishing seat in the front and go with
a bow mount foot controlled trolling motor. I have a
65 lb thrust mounted on a Waco 2050-16 and I can fish
all day with it going almost non stop. I am using two
group 27 Trojan batteries on that boat. By the end of
an 8 hour tournament its getting a bit weak, but it
does the job. Its a very stable boat and I can keep
fishing even when the wakes of passing wake board
boats start to bounce me up and down.

Thanks for your suggestion. Based on your suggestion and other
suggestions in this thread, I have a feeling that using a rowboat is a
better choice for fishing. The benefits of using a rowboat a
1. As suggested by many people, a row boat can hold more stuff.
2. Moreover, it is a stable fishing platform. It is a big plus.
3. I can mount a gas engine on it and use it near coastal area.
4. I can permanently mount most of the devices on a rowboat.
On the other hand, a canoe will be mounted on the top of
my car, and I will not be able to permanently mount any
of the device on the canoe.

The downside is that I will not be able to use a rowboat in a river. I
expect to do some boating in a river. But I will only do this once a
year at the most. I likely will rent a canoe instead of using my own
canoe. Therefore, not able to use it in a river is not really a concern
to me.

Jay Chan