Min Kota w/ Spot lock
 

I went to the Newport Fishing club meeting last night and BJ was presenting. Towards the end he mentioned hed been using this on his small boat. My eyes lit up. Talked to him a bit after about it and did some more research today. This thing is pretty bad ass. Say goodbye to trying to anchor over structure in any kind of tide. If i still had a small CC id be all over one. Trying to get my buddy to put it on his contender. Figured id throw it out there is anyone hadnt seen it like me.

My riptide on the CC was the balls and 101lbs of thrust would hold position pretty good and I've seen some videos of guides using that same setup in Marathon which has changed they way some are fishing the bridges for tarpon. I miss my CC, but don't miss the money associated with and have had some quality fishing out of the yak last year.

Yeah it seems to be popular down in Florida. I could see it getting more common up here in the next couple years. Its benefits for tog fishing are huge.

One of the better fisherman here in town smoked everyone else past two years cause he did exactly that. Was able to create his own drifts and beat out the wind against tide situations and stay on fish without spookin em.
One of the boats i work durin comm season we are already in process of puttin one on. Already removed bow rail and got some of wires run. Hopin it will be a total game changer for CC bay combined with sidescan will be able to stay on schools better without spookin fish
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I'm going to keep an eye on u guys. ;-) :doh:

It will be a comlete game changer. Should be utilized alot more up here in Northeast. It fits our inshore fishery here. Going to have my buddy put one on his contender and test it more this season.

Sounds good
Would that thing hold a 20 footer on Ribbon 2 hrs before slack?

If it works that there me thinks it will work around the Race :fishin:

Yes in slight chop, but with anything larger if bow mounted, the prop spends too much time out of the water to do anything other than slow your drift. In spring in the Westport river I could easily hold in the strongest current in my 20 foot McKee craft. Add a strong wind in the same direction and I'd start to drift a bit. It's wind and chop combined with current that makes it tough. Even so a slow controlled drift is nice.
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I have the Riptide SP70 with I-Pilot bow mounted on a 15' center console- spot lock is definitely a useful tool, but I found it to be nearly problematic in my estuary at certain stretches with heavier current and especially with a stiff breeze.

A couple times in the spring upstream where I'd use the spot lock to hold on an area at a river bend with decent flow and start casting, boat would start to get pulled off the spot and then the motor would kick in full throttle to get back to its spot- when standing on top of the bow trying to cast and the trolling motor kicks on full speed can almost throw you off the boat! And if you have a cross wind and heavy current imagine a compass that you used to use in school, where you have the point (bow) that is stationary, yet the boat can do a 360 degree turn around that point. (yes this is exaggerated for effect) Although the point remains the same, your boat will not always remain in optimal casting position from where it was intended.

I did not do much experimentation last year with setting up and running any GPS programmed tracks, but will mess around with that more this upcoming season. Open ocean and or bay fishing it worked absolutely perfect.

Buy all the power you can and the biggest shaft you can, longer stiffer and more powerful is the way to go, your women (er boat) will thank you for it.

Is this really a good thing? I was at the meeting and saw the sonar with rock piles in hard currents. BJ said you could never fish these area because you would be swept through them. My concern is that its another technology that reduces the fish population by opening up areas that were once unfishable places almost fish preserves. I often wonder if we fisherman are going to destroy fishing thru technology. just wondering.

My buddy has one on his freshwater nitro boat, it's bad ass, awesome for jigging smallies in deep water or holding on the edges of Rips casting into structure/shore
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Not sure i understand this thought. The regs let you keep a certain amount of fish to protect population. Wether we get those fish on new technolgy that makes it more effecient, or blind folded on a raft. Kills should be the same.

I think the thought process is that as technology gets better and better, it increases the harvest as there are people that may now be catching fish they might not have caught before. I think every generation gets better and better at catching with the advances of technology. Go back to the early navigation vs today's electronics, or the old black and white fish finders or flashers compared to today. Even the advances in the web and social media can also be shown to have an impact on more people fishing and catching. All those advances need to be balanced by really sound management and that is where management I think at times isn't keeping up. You put 100 striper fishermen on a small fleet of boats today, half with old technology and the second group with all the latest electronics and gadgets; my money is on the second to outfish the first all other things being equal.

My point exactly. all of our technology might be the death of our sport. What happens when people start using drones to scout whole areas for blitzing fish and pods of bait? There are side viewing sonars that allow fisherman to choose which bass they want to grab their eel. no way to stop it but I wonder what its effect will be in the future

I have been saying for a few years that side scan sonar is the worst thing to happen to striper fishing, especially comm fishing. For the fishery, not the fishermen