Report on the: Minn Kota Powerdrive/AutoPilot Trolling Motor
As far as the tournament went…..well it didn’t go to well, but that is for another day. Never mind that, on to the important stuff. Much to my surprise, when I picked up my boat on Friday my new Minnkota Powerdrive AP70 it was equipped with the Co-pilot as well. I didn’t ask/pay for it so, heck yeah I’ll take it.
I will also say that one shouldn’t wait until the morning of a tournament to try to learn how to run a new trolling motor. LOL
The first hour was operating the new TM was really frustrating trying to figure out how to “drive” the new TM with electric steer, after that it starting becoming more natural. The 70lb motor whipped my boat around easily around stumps and into 15-20mph winds all morning (6 hour tourney). I really started enjoying the electric steer feature by the end of the day. It takes a little more getting used compared to the cable type system I learned on, but it is worth it with the extra features that the motor offers. The auto-pilot is the cats meow. I was able to navigate down straight shoreline without even touching the trolling motor in a 15 mph sidewind. There were even times, when fishing in shallow water where I didn’t want to run my big motor to get to my next spot 50-60 yds away, that I was able to set my autopilot to take me to “point B”, set it wide open, and proceeded to dig into my tackle box and tie on a new lure before I got there. It was great. The copilot, which I had doubt that I would ever use, was actually quite handy and I would definitely say is worth the extra money. One example that comes to mind was when my partner launch his Royal Shad Super Spot into an oak tree hanging over the water about 8 feet off the water. He proceeded to take over the front deck and pull the ol’ “short, fat kid trying to dunk on a Little Tike basketball goal” trying to recover the lure while I sat in the back keeping the boat from crashing into the shore and keep the boat underneath him with copilot easily maneuvering the boat. Another time I wedged my lure in some riprap and actually stepped out of my boat to retrieve the lure and the boat left me due to the wind pushing it away, but I had no fear. After unsnagging the deeply embedded lure I simply guided the boat back to me on the shore with the copilot. A small thing you might say, but I can see this thing coming in handy when trying to wrestle a fish in the boat from the back and keeping the boat in check with the TM. All in all I will say it was worth every penny I spent, and would do it again tomorrow. Also, the batteries still had 2/3 charge after a hard day in the wind thanks to the “maximizer” on all the newer models.