iPilot for Minn Kota trolling motors

[ryanmitchell]

Has anyone used this new product from Minn Kota? Have you bought a new one preinstalled, or added the new top yourself? Does the foot pedal still work once the new top is installed? Is it worth the $400. I am looking to make some upgrades to my boat, and this is an interesting option. Thanks and happy holidays.

[Ty Sennett]

I'm not sure where this would come in handy. I guess if you were terrible at running a spot this would help some but for the most part GPS is not going to do you any good at running structure. If it could follow a mapping system(Navionics) that would be good but it doesn't from what I read. The one feature that looks good is the stored trails feature where you can go back through a spot. That would be good to make sure you are hitting a spot the same way if a fish has previously followed on a large piece of structure. If you catch a fish and want to hold the boat while unhooking it in the wind that would be good also, especially near rock structure.

Wait a year and see what the competition comes out with. It might be better.

[ryanmitchell]

Roger that. I like the spot lock feature. Almost works like an anchor. Also mapping out a run and then hitting a button to take you back to start is cool. I wonder if the run you program is based on the actual speed that you stage the run, or during the run you can slow it down. Example, a long shoreline where you dip in and out a little bit to hit a point or dropoff. You run this at 8-10 speed on the trolls during the practice run to quickly log it, but ideally when fishing it, you want to run it at 1-3 speed to thoroughly fish it, but still moving down the line.

I also have the Powerdrive V2, and from what I read the new head for the trolling motor on that model eliminates the option to use the foot pedal. The Terrova setup allows to to use the remote AND the pedal.

[Trav]

I haven't looked at this lately, but if I remember correctly it can only save some 3 trails but up to like 2 miles worth of trails. That wouldn't do much good on places like the Chip, or any waters in WI other than Winnebago or the Great Lakes, where you are fishing many smaller spots, not a few huge ones.

trav

[ryanmitchell]

I don't need the path to be that long. I fish smaller lakes, except for the long trips to Chip, V, and Canada.

My concern was ability to adjust the path speed. Say you record the path and say is 500 yards. 400 of the yards I would want to fish thoroughly at a lower speed, but there may be a section that I would to get through quickly, or skip.

[Trav]

Thats my point, though. The tracks can be obscenely long, but you can only save 3. The ability to save only 3 large tracks is of little to no use when fishing a small lake where you fish 20 (or in Ty's case 2000) small structures.

trav