How to Anchor Your Boat in Wind for Fishing On June 17, 2013
Sometimes the fish are located on small structure and you must present your bait in a small spot on a windy day. Anchoring is the best way to do this because you don’t have to control the boat, you can just fish. The problem is how to anchor your boat for fishing in the right location in wind. You must use a long rope to anchor the boat, the wind can switch a little which moves the boat away and it is difficult to get the boat in the right spot. I found out at my last tournament that the new Minn Kota i-Pilot performs in adverse conditions. I used it to anchor in 20 mph winds. The Spot Lock feature has become one of the most important tools for precision boat control that I use. I use high tech electronics but I am always skeptical on new electronics and companies promises. I sincerely say “Thank you Minn Kota”.I put down my Terrova trolling motor, use the main motor to position the boat and use the remote control to activate Spot Lock. After fishing the spot I de-activate it, leave the Terrova deployed and move the boat to a new position and activate Spot Lock again. I can now move around with pulling a 28 lb anchor!
The Spot Lock works by creating a waypoint and then controls the Terrova to stay near the waypoint by turning the Terrova and changing the prop speed to say near the waypoint. I watched it on my Lowrance GPS and used a buoy for reference to confirm that it stayed on the waypoint. Bottom line, it works better than expected.
I fished in winds up to 24 mph and the Terrova was running at top speed so I used my Mercury 9.9 kicker motor and left it at low idle for extra power. This also worked better than expected.
If you anchor fish this is a must have for performance and ease.
The only time it didn’t work was when I didn’t get the head locked into the motor mount when a friend deployed the Terrova. At first I was cursing the i-Pilot for acting crazy until I figured out the head was spinning but not turning the lower unit!!
Use my experience and learn how to anchor your boat in wind fro fishing!
Read more here http://www.minnkotamotors.com/products/accessories/ipilot/freshwater.aspx
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