Yes, and no. Moderate overvolting is okayish but you will shorten the motor life. Run a 12v motor direct from a 48v pack, and it will probably suffer an immediate meltdown in spite of the fact that the motor is submerged in coolant. (water) I am just guessing on that but I wouldn't try it, and if you do, please let us know how you made out.
BUT... by using a cheap PWM controller you can use a 48v pack to supply "virtual" 12 volts to the motor. This is particularly practical with a cheap motor that uses a resistor network for speed control. As you can imagine, these motors are horribly inefficient except when ran wide open. So leave the built in throttle wide open, and feed it with a PWM controller, for constantly variable min-max power control and better efficiency. You have to keep the power level down to what the motor can handle. With the PWM controller running full throttle, you will still toast the motor. I think.
Better yet, get a 36v trolling motor and run it via PWM controller from a 36v ebike battery. No worries there and you get a lot more power. You can't overvolt the motor that way. You could of course install a bank of deep cycle flooded cell lead acid batteries, and get more range. An ebike battery makes excellent emergency get-home power. They are expensive, for what you are getting, but they are light, compact, and portable, making them okay for emergency power. Best bang for the buck in my experience is golf cart batteries. With 8 6v golf cart batteries, if you motor at about 2-1/2 kts, I would almost bet you can run from can see to can't see.
Some bigger trolling motors and more expensive small ones have built in PWM control, making them quite efficient at low power settings without a bunch of rube goldberg wiring through an external controller.
If you like to tinker, consider building an electric outboard, using an old gasoline outboard carcass. There are a lot of excellent brushless and even brushed motors that run nicely (via controller) off a 48v bank. Or buy one ready made.
Torqueedo is another good option.
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