Fish finder and new trolling motor

[Pappy]

I got a good size boat and I have a electric trolling motor on it now but it is a bow type mount and you need to stay up front to steer it. I have had a minnkota auto pilot before and it was great but it just did not have enough of power to troll all day. I was thinking of up grading to the Minn Kota® Ulterra™ 112 US2 i-Pilot® Bow-Mount Trolling Motor. This is a 36 volt system and will has 112 alb of thrust power. I know its a lot of money but I am retired now so I plan to do a lot of fishing. It has been a long time since I have looked at a fish finder. So many electronics out there, I was planning on visiting bass pro to check them out. What I want in the fish finder for mostly is trolling for Kokanee and lake trout. I am sure I will use if for bass and crapie sometimes too. I have a Lawrence now but I would like to upgrade to a bigger screen. So many to choose from. I really don't want to spend anymore than $1000. I would like to have one with GPS and two sonars. One for the rear of the boat and one for the front while using the trolling motor. What should a person look for in purchasing a new fish finder.
Thanks Pappy

 

[DRM]

I just put an 1199si on my boat and had the first trip out last Saturday... I am loving the big screen. Every graph company has its own little gimmick, but they all will see the bottom, fish, GPS, tracking ect ect.
Get the biggest screen that you can afford or are will to pay for. I know that does not help much, but I have looked at every graph out there and it boils down to the biggest screen for the $$, at least for ME.
I'm sure there will be a lot of opinions, but that's mine.

Make sure you have enough room to accommodate the screen size where ever you want to install it... learned this the hard way. thank goodness for Ram Mounts.

 

[liketrolling]

I have a minn kota I pilot link 80 24 volts I put 4 battery's in it so I can troll all day plus I have a kicker motor that I use and set the speed on the minn kota down just to steer the boat then the batters last longer
I have a fishing buddy that has a 36 V minnkota his battery's last all day without using the kicker motor but his boat is not as big as mine.
I would buy the I pilot link. It is great for Kokes. using a humminbird fishfinder If you mark fish it will take you back over them.

 

[Pappy]

Well I was looking at the I pillot along with the Hummindbird fish finder. I saw some video demonstrating them together. Well I plan on doing some more research but I am diffidently leading that way. Thanks for the advise.

 

[apex1]

For comparison I run a 36v motorguide with 3 group 31 batteries mounted in the bow of my 24ft boat. I can troll 2 days with wind before I need to recharge. I have a yamaha kicker too, but prefer the quiet of the electric.

 

[Wyo307]

Well I was looking at the I pillot along with the Hummindbird fish finder. I saw some video demonstrating them together. Well I plan on doing some more research but I am diffidently leading that way. Thanks for the advise.

I have a Minnkota terrova with the Ipilot Link system tied into a Humminbird Helix 10SI. Love the set up for sure. As far as hooking everything together if you just use one fish finder and the electric with the Link system you don't need the 5 port ethernet hub but as soon as you add one more fish finder for the bow you do. For $1000 fish finders I would either suggest a helix 9SI or the Helix 10 sonar/gps combo. The SI will have sonar, GPS, down imaging and side imaging where the other one would just have sonar and gps. I don't know if you are wanting any kind of imaging in your new units. Also if you get one SI unit and hook them together using the ethernet hub you can pull the SI images to the non SI unit so that will save you some money. A couple other things to note on the helix's. The helix 9 and the helix 10 are in the same size plastic housing the 9 just has a smaller screen in it. Also the helix 9 SI comes with the non HD transducer while the helix 10 SI comes with the upgraded HD transducer. These are both fairly heavy graphs that weigh somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5 pounds so I would suggest a better mount that the RAM. The RAM will work but after a while especially if you are in waves it will move no matter how tight you get that clamped down. I have mine on a Cisco Sure-lock mount and there is no way that it is moving. They are a little more than the RAM but well worth the money in my opinion. Another thing to mention is that you will not be able to share maps over ethernet between your bow mount and dash mounted fish finders. The waypoints and tracks will transfer over but not the actual maps them self. In order to get the maps on both you have to buy two copies of it so that each unit has the SD card in it. Both the Helix 9 and 10 come with autochart live built into them so that you can create your own maps as you drive around which is awesome but that is a whole other conversation in itself.

The ultera is a great motor and I think that you would like it. I opted out of it just because I have a RAM trolling motor stabilizer on my motor that wouldn't allow it to auto deploy which is really the only difference between the ultera and the terrova. That saved me a few hundred bucks right there.

I have a fair amount of knowledge on these motors and fish finders and how they interact with each other so if you have any specific questions just let me know.

Ryan

 

[SuperD]

For comparison I run a 36v motorguide with 3 group 31 batteries mounted in the bow of my 24ft boat. I can troll 2 days with wind before I need to recharge. I have a yamaha kicker too, but prefer the quiet of the electric.

I'm leaning towards the MG for my next trolling motor. Do you have yours linked to the fish finder? I'd like to know what capabilities are really lost by not having it linked as I don't plan on spending another couple grand for a new fish finder.

 

[Pappy]

Well I had a MG motor because at the time they were the only company that made such a motor that had 112 lbs of thrust. It was a great motor when it worked. I will say one thing before they went out of business, I had a little story to tell them. The MG motor I had was just a lemon. So they were going to send me a new one. While fishing one day with my son. I would always threaten to throw this motor guide into the lake. Well believe it or not it just happen that day. It was rough with 4 foot waves hitting the boat. I guess I forgot to lock the motor down. My boat hit a big wave and all I saw was my foot pedal take off, so I looked up and the motor was gone in a instant. Well I told the story to tell motor guide and they said that they were still going to send me a new motor. I will say one thing is that they stood behind there product 20 years ago. I don't know much about the company now but I seem to have better luck with the Minnkota. If I was in your shoes and didn't need a new fish finder and just a new trolling motor I would diffidently purchase the best one you can afford. I really like the auto pilot in the minnkota. I had one before but it just was not big enough for my boat. I only got 3 hours out of it. But one thing for sure it was nice when the fish were biting. All I did was set the down riggers and watch the kids catch there limit. I really liked that auto pilot while trolling for the kokanee.

I need a new trolling motor, mine is a bow mount and a very short foot pedal where you need to stay at the front of the boat all the time. Not much fun while trolling with the down rigger in the back of the boat. I have seen some good utube videos on the hummingbird fishfinder and the minnkota trolling motor, very impressive. Ya lots of money unfortunately. I think the best thing to have is a good fish-finder along with a dependable trolling motor. I think with the system interlocking with each other just makes the fishing trip go a little easier. Is it worth the money I don't know but I just retired and planning on being on the water a lot more.

 

[gonefishing]

I have the Minnkota Terrova 70lb thrust I Pilot and love it. When the wind is not blowing, it is my preferred means of trolling. With the I Pilot, it has memory for multiple trolling patterns, but I rarely use that feature. I have never considered using it in series with my fish finder. I am sure that is a great feature, but I deemed it not essential. Until my fish finder crashes, I am not making any changes. But when it does, I will heading the Hummingird direction also.

 

[Pauli]

I have a Minnkota Rip Tide 55 pound with Ipilot and Link. What a true joy. I have a 15 1/2 ft Boston Whaler with a jet. I finally have true "hands off" trolling....even in the wind. The GPS is great. Set the speed...the course... and I'm on my way. I got the Rip Tide because the wife and I frequently head to the coast to salmon fish. It's safe to use the motor in salt water. Works great in Puget Sound too. Usually can go about 9 hours on 2 batteries. I too need to upgrade my finder. Lots on sale on the market because the next generation FF went on shelves this early spring. 3D and CHIRP technology are the rage now. I was looking at last years models, which I can buy at quite a discount. Guess it just depends on how you are going to use it. But, someone said to get the largest screen you are comfortable paying for......true true true.