Dustin Connell’s MillerTech Lithium Battery Setup: “That Is a Bulletproof Setup”
Dustin Connell learned to fish Lake Mitchell, a stretch of the Coosa River outside Clanton, Alabama, from a 14-foot boat with a little 25-horse Mercury on the back. No graphs worth mentioning. No lithium. Nobody was checking battery voltage from the kitchen table.
He’s a three-time REDCREST champion now. When he filmed his 2026 boat walkthrough on the bank of that same lake, the first compartment he opened after the outboard and jack plate was the one holding his MillerTech lithium batteries.
He’ll admit it’s not his natural state.
“I really enjoy opening this compartment,” Connell said. “I’m not really an organized guy. I don’t really keep my stuff organized, but this is organized. This don’t even look like me, does it?”
The tackle box two compartments up proved his point. The battery box is the one place on the boat he doesn’t leave to chance, and his career explains why.
From a 14-Footer to Three REDCREST Titles
Connell won Elite Series Rookie of the Year in 2017, then moved to Major League Fishing and became the first angler to win REDCREST twice: Lake Eufaula in 2021, then Lay Lake in 2024, just up the Coosa from where he filmed this. He made it three in 2025 on Guntersville. Add five Bass Pro Tour wins, three of them in 2022 alone, including Stage Seven on Mille Lacs, and a 2024 season opener on Toledo Bend. That’s nine MLF wins, 35 top 10s, more than $2.29 million in MLF earnings, and a fourth-place ranking on the 2026 Bass Pro Tour.
At that level a dead trolling motor isn’t an inconvenience. It’s the tournament. Connell has been there.
“I remember a day probably on this lake,” he said. “I’ve had it happen on EVERY lake. I had it happen on Lake Dardanelle. We’ve all had it happen. You run your batteries down. You’re done. Your day is over with, bud. It happened here to me several times.”
Three 36V Lithium Trolling Motor Batteries
His answer starts with three MillerTech 36-volt 60Ah Sport Series batteries on the trolling motor side of his Ranger 520R. Each one packs 2,304 watt-hours into a Group 31 case. Two would get the job done. The third is there because he’s lived the alternative.
“I got the 36-volt 60 amp. I have three of them,” Connell said. “I love the lithiums. They have complete power all day long. I am running three. Three is not a must. I never run these two down. But I have a third connected right back there. I have enough room in this 20-footer to have a third. It has a quick connect right here. So, if I had an issue where these two run completely dead or they didn’t charge, something happened … boom. I got a whole other 36-volt. That is a bulletproof setup right there.”
Charging on the Run With Dark Speed
Keeping that bank full is the MillerTech Dark Speed On The Run charger. It pulls from the outboard’s alternator, takes care of the starting side first, then sends the extra to the 36-volt trolling bank while the boat is on plane. Every run between spots puts power back.
“We’re running the Dark Speed Marine charger from MillerTech. I love that charger,” Connell said. “It actually charges while you’re on the run. I’ve just ran that this year and I’m very happy with it. Keeps these batteries fully charged all the time. No battery issues.”
12V Lithium for Cranking and Electronics
The 12-volt side gets the same over-built treatment. Connell runs two MillerTech 12V 135Ah batteries for cranking and electronics, and his electronics list is long. There’s a Lowrance HDS Pro 16 and a 12 at the console, another 16 and 12 on the bow, two ActiveTarget 2 units, NEMA-linked deck lighting and a stereo. He runs it all through a Sea Clear Power harness wired straight to the breaker so the graphs see
full voltage all day.
“I run two. I don’t honestly think I need two, but I have two just in case, because we’re running two 16s, we have two 12s,” he said. “If I am fishing five-fish limit tournaments, I would want to have two as well just for the fact that I’m running live wells. When you’re running live wells, four graphs, whatever you got, you got everything powered up. Let’s say you’re fishing at night, you got lights on. Just have you one more in there just in case.”
Then he made the case for the 135 in plainer terms.
“I’ve got a pontoon. I’ve literally set out on a sandbar drinking sweet tea, listening to music,” Connell said. “You can listen to music for five hours out there.”
Checking Batteries From the House With the MillerTech App
Halfway through the shoot, his buddy Josh idled up in the Ranger 521R Connell ran last season. Connell opened the MillerTech app to show the batteries, and his phone grabbed Josh’s bank before his own. Both boats were reporting in from the bank of Lake Mitchell. That’s the feature he uses most, and he uses it from the house.
“You can be sitting in your house and check them out,” he said. “If you’re getting ready to go fishing and let’s say your batteries were ran low, I need to know if they’re charging for sure, because you never know, a breaker may trip. I do not want to wake up with batteries that are dead.”
He’s had the other version. At one event, his crew plugged a row of boats in for the night, and somebody walked down later to find the power cables pulled completely off.
“Who wants to walk around their garage or outside in their underwear checking their batteries?” Connell said.
We hear some version of that from a lot of the anglers who run our batteries. They don’t want to think about power. They want to fish the grass point, run 20 miles to the next one and know the trolling motor will be there when the boat comes off plane. Connell is a three-time REDCREST champion, and he still spends part of his boat walkthrough on what happens if two batteries fail at once. That’s the
standard we build to.
He gave the full 2026 rig a 10 out of 10. It’s a long way from that 14-footer on Lake Mitchell, and that boat never had a spare 36-volt battery on a quick connect.
Follow Dustin’s season on his Major League Fishing angler page.