I owned a new 14' Lund (SSV-14) and matched a 20 hp tiller Honda 4 stroke to it. The Honda 20 had pwr tilt/trim.
Now I may be wrong and am here to learn. But you've described your "home" lake as rocky and lots of submerged reefs, etc, making for treacherous navigation. With my Honda 20 tilt/trim the motor was basically locked down, unable to "flip up" if/when it hit an object. In my two trips into ONT (Missinaibi Lake and White Lake) it scared the bejusus outta me to not be able to flip up, risking the entire lower unit somewhere remote.
I sold the rig after a year, thinking my next boat buy will be tiller with no tilt/trim for this reason.
Thoughts? ?