For Those Who Have Fully Integrated Electronics and Trolling Motor...

[titanxt]

Hello! I hope everyone is well and I greatly appreciate all of your help!

So, I am pretty set now on getting a spot-lock equipped trolling motor. The question now is how far down the rabbit hole do I go for the fishing I do... For those of you who have all of the integrated features between your trolling motor and electronics, how often do you use the following features and could you live without them?

1. Contour following
2. Offset
3. Seeing something on side imaging, marking it and having the motor drive to it
4. Traveling distances between set way points on your electronics versus using your outboard

Also, can any of the Minn Kota units do any of the above just through Ipilot?

Thank you!

[Wayne P.]

1. That can only be done with a Minnkota trolling motor with iPilot LINK==Ethernet connection, AND HD mapping by Lakemaster, Auto Chart or Auto Chart Live.

2. What is "offset" ?

3. Yes, that also requires iPilot LINK-- the display and motor have to communicate to do that.

4. I do that a lot since some of the waters I fish are electric-only.

ONLY Minnkota trolling motor with iPilot LINK do all that. iPilot motors will do some of it since there is some memory for iTracks and Spotlock waypoints.

[titanxt]

"Offset" is likely the wrong term, but it is where the unit offsets 5 or so feet from the waypoint or current position. Which of the four do you use?

[BassinPaPaw]

I, like you, question that stuff. All seems fairly useless to me. Kind of like being able to use your power poles from a graph. Absolutely useless.

[bobcoy]

I believe your “offset i called JOG” hit a direction button and “jog 5 feet in that direction. Twice does 10 feet. Mostly for dropshotting and jigging. Specifically how do you fish and what do you like to catch. Someone might give you some of the ways they use theirs. Some people don’t like new things to learn. There will be some learning to be done before you get all the benefits. JMO Bob

[Wayne P.]

I believe your “offset i called JOG” hit a direction button and “jog 5 feet in that direction. Twice does 10 feet. Mostly for dropshotting and jigging. Specifically how do you fish and what do you like to catch. Someone might give you some of the ways they use theirs. Some people don’t like new things to learn. There will be some learning to be done before you get all the benefits. JMO Bob

2. Jogging is probably it. Both iPilot and iPilot LINK motors do that. Both versions come with a Bluetooth Minnkota Heading Sensor for that purpose. I rarely use it since I use enough Range with MEGA LIVE and MEGA 360 to see fish as far as I want to cast.

[Madeintheshade]

I really like the follow the contour feature.
Never use jog

[titanxt]

I really like the follow the contour feature.
Never use jog

Why/When do you use the contour feature?

[bobcoy]

Again it depends on how you fish. If fish are active at a certain depth you just follow that contour. Could be the depth where weeds stop or start. You can offset your contour by your favorite casting distance(any distance you choose it to be) shallower or deeper than the contour where the fish are active at. Lots of ways to use it. Bob

[99R93S]

I never use any of those features except jog. I will use side imaging to find weed beds from time to time then mark them on my map. I pan fish a little in the spring, bass fish all year and some musky fishing in summer. Lot of junk fishing, running shore line, and fishing weed beds on the bay. For my type/style of fishing I just use electronics occasionally. Again finding weed beds, humps, things like that. I never follow contours, or have troller take me spot to spot. I either drive myself or troll around. I will use jog however running shorelines. I’m pretty basic. My stuff can do it, i just don’t have a use to learn it, I’m fine running my own troller. That said I do like my spot lock and I pilot. To me that’s worth it.

[svh]

I use the jog feature quite a bit while finessing a bank or structure. Hit spot lock, fan cast, hit the forward jog button 5 or 6 times, maybe left or right to adjust position, repeat on up the bank. This works best in windier conditions as the boat stays more stable into the wind. Of course with this technique you have to fish into the wind.

I also use left right to adjust the orientation of the boat to the bank or structure while spot locked in a less favorable wind direction. As the vessel rotates around the TM, you can get creative with the button presses, and predict where the boat will end up. Sometimes multiple button presses are in order to get where you want to be.

Varying the order of presses makes a big difference in where you will end up. Each press moves the boat 5 feet, So, say you want to go 25 feet forward, and 10 feet to the left (depending on wind speed and direction) I would press forward twice, to get the craft moving forward, then hit the left twice to get it turning a bit, then hit forward 3 more times. Additional presses may be required.

Sometimes, depending on wind, the boat will over shoot GPS cooradinates to the desired location because of the momentum of the boat. There is a setting in the TM menu to somewhat help with the thrust power ratio, (the name escapes me) so some maneuvers may be needed to correct, such as turning off the spot lock, and resetting it, as the TM will try to go back to the overshot spot and turn this way or that.

There is no steering while in spot lock, in fact when the steering pads on the foot pedal are pressed, spot lock will disengage, so you can adjust that way as well.

Hope this helps.

[bobcoy]

Ipilot link offers more benefits with the ability to use your fishfinder to see and navigate to any structure or waypoint on the Lakemaster mapping. I have used both for 10 years. Once I converted to LINK, it turned on the lights to all the possibilities and benefits of the system. If you are a 100% Bass guy you may not benefit as much from link. JMO Bob

[Wayne P.]

I use the jog feature quite a bit while finessing a bank or structure. Hit spot lock, fan cast, hit the forward jog button 5 or 6 times, maybe left or right to adjust position, repeat on up the bank. This works best in windier conditions as the boat stays more stable into the wind. Of course with this technique you have to fish into the wind.

I also use left right to adjust the orientation of the boat to the bank or structure while spot locked in a less favorable wind direction. As the vessel rotates around the TM, you can get creative with the button presses, and predict where the boat will end up. Sometimes multiple button presses are in order to get where you want to be.

Varying the order of presses makes a big difference in where you will end up. Each press moves the boat 5 feet, So, say you want to go 25 feet forward, and 10 feet to the left (depending on wind speed and direction) I would press forward twice, to get the craft moving forward, then hit the left twice to get it turning a bit, then hit forward 3 more times. Additional presses may be required.

Sometimes, depending on wind, the boat will over shoot GPS cooradinates to the desired location because of the momentum of the boat. There is a setting in the TM menu to somewhat help with the thrust power ratio, (the name escapes me) so some maneuvers may be needed to correct, such as turning off the spot lock, and resetting it, as the TM will try to go back to the overshot spot and turn this way or that.

There is no steering while in spot lock, in fact when the steering pads on the foot pedal are pressed, spot lock will disengage, so you can adjust that way as well.

Hope this helps.

Boat Scale

[titanxt]

Ipilot link offers more benefits with the ability to use your fishfinder to see and navigate to any structure or waypoint on the Lakemaster mapping. I have used both for 10 years. Once I converted to LINK, it turned on the lights to all the possibilities and benefits of the system. If you are a 100% Bass guy you may not benefit as much from link. JMO Bob

I assume walleye, crappie, stripper fishing would benefit from the features? I do some of that as well.

[bobcoy]

Absolutely, Trolling, bottom bouncing are super using contours or simply following a route you create quickly and easily. Also just following a direction (autopilot) that you can tweak just by using a directional arrow and seeing exactly where the boat will move and the structure and depth you are heading for.(with ipilot link and Lakemaster maps) I use depth highlights to give me the target depths I am most interested in following on the Lakemaster VX maps. The “Plan” all comes together. Bob

[titanxt]

https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/10...g?v=1565462012

Looking at the comparison chart, it seems like a lot of the features mentioned above are found on both the iPilot and iPilot link. The contour following and being able to mark a spot on the graph then travel to that spot are not. I would have to upgrade by electronics to new Hummingbird units to have that ability.

[bobcoy]

My thoughts are the ability to visualize all these features, and be able to see what is available is the only way to get the advantages. I had “link” for years with number unit finders. Pre Helix,Solix and Apex. Same benefits. Your units only need to be is Ethernet compatible for the most important features. Bob

[titanxt]

The units are Ethernet compatible, but looks like if I go with Minn Kota motor, it will not play well with the Lowrance units I currenly own (HDS 7 and 5 Touch Gen 2).

[bobcoy]

You are correct. Why have we been talking about features that nobody has except Humminbird and Minn kota? Besides Spotlock the others are lacking almost all the rest of the features. Good luck

[NoCAL]

I like to make a route completely around a submerged hump on the graph. Then I have the Ghost follow the route either forward or backwards at the speed I want. I just fish while the boat goes all the way around the hump.

NoCAL