To preface this, I’ve been a cable steer guy for as long as I’ve had boats. It was hard for me to make the switch, but the spot lock feature on the river was the final selling point. Now that I’ve had it for a few months, I keep finding new to me ways to use it. People with power drive motors will probably read this and go, DUH, of course that’s a good use for it.
I was pulling lead core in a fairly stiff breeze yesterday and was having a heck of a time keeping the bow from blowing all over while steering with the kicker. As I looked down at the i-pilot remote still hanging around my neck from pulling crawlers, it dawned on me why I see people trolling with their bow mount down. I turned that on to help keep the bow pointed straight and it made life much easier. Then I tried using the auto pilot so I didn’t have to steer at all, just make corrections. AND THEN, I thought, “Hey, why not just record a track right along the channel edge and let the bow mount do all the work”.
And THAT, was my i-pilot AHA moment of the weekend. I was able to follow right along the top of the break without ever having to watch my GPS and pay attention to when I needed to turn. It was a little hurky jerky on the corrections at times, but with the kicker providing the straight line thrust, it worked pretty well.
Exactly how I felt when I bought my boat a few years back, nice motor, but not for me, couldn’t wait to get rid of it.