>>5887761. We use a 50# Minn Kota mounted to the transom of a 12' flat-bottom jon. It's enough to push our combined weight (~400#) along with maybe 25# of battery, another 25# in seats/seat-mounts, a day-bag full of water and tools/essentials, and then a slew of tackle. With a brand new battery the motor is enough to put a fair wake behind the boat when turned up to max speed.
2. If you don't want to DIY a deck/board to mount a bow-mount motor to then you may want to look into options for bow-mounting a transom mount trolling motor. It should take less hardware to achieve and be a bit less unsightly. If you've got a decent welder somewhere in town they might be able to do something like in the attached picture. There are also a few companies that produce a clamp-on equivalent to what is pictured. You clamp on the mount at whatever position on your boat and then clamp the transom-mount motor to that. Of course most of the review I've come across for those have been mixed so you might not be doing yourself any favours by going with some company's do-all device.
Assuming you're not currently running any other forms of propulsion I'd go with a transom mount. You'll be able to use it right away without any DIY work or modification and if you ever do put an outboard on the back you can cross the DIY bridge when it comes time to mount the transom motor to the bow.
