Minn Kota Ulterra Installation

[JoeBfishing]

Looking awesome!

 

[live bait]

Looks like a fishing machine Capt. Looks really, really good.
John

 

[Jack_Daniels]

I have the Minnkota Ulterra 112 on my 27' cc. It's a gave changer for sure. I use the 3 batteries from Costco as well. Not ready to put down the 3G's for lithium batts, but having the ability to charge off the outboard is pretty sweet.

I did have an issue i just had to have fixed with the power trim motor. I've learned that it's a pretty common problem, and it's been recommended that manual deploy is the way to go. I still love the auto deploy feature, especially fishing alone. I was covered under warranty thankfully. It would've been close to a $900 repair otherwise...

A word of advice, Minnkota only has 2 Authorized Service Centers for our area. One in NJ, and the other in CT. Both about 2 hours away. I made the unfortunate mistake of going to the NJ because he was a little closer... he was terrible. Didn't listen to what the issue was, and didn't fix it. I wasted 2 days driving, and 3 weeks waiting for a repair that was never done. On the flip side, after that, i brought the motor to Reynold's Boats in CT, and Jason and Chris were fantastic. They fixed it right the first time and kept in touch with me on the progress all along.

 

[Capt13]

That's good to know Jack, thanks for posting. I know there was a problem with the stow feature getting hung up and think they might have made some changes to the newer version. I used it yesterday for the first time. There are so many features on it that I haven't learned yet. It did hold the boat perfectly on a very small piece that we pulled some sea bass off. Wide open in still water it ran 3.2 -3.4 mph. I used it to make a few passes trolling at 2.0 mph and it was wonderful, except I had to move away from the wheel because I kept trying to steer with it. If it was a little calmer I probably could have used the outboard to steer, but in those conditions it wasn't reacting fast enough for me.

 

[Jack_Daniels]

When i first got it, it was a little intimidating.

There was a thread here not too long ago where some of us were taking about using our motors for different things.

I've found the Spotlock will hold my boat in position in up to about a knot and a half of current. After that it would start to slip back. I would raise the outboard out of the water to reduce drag too.

I'm addition to the Spotlock, I use it to cancel the wind and just drift with the tide for fluke. It's great to be able to use a 1oz bucktail straight up and down when a opposing wind against, or across the tide would otherwise need 4, 5, 6-oz or more.

You need to install the heading sensor to be able to jog around with Spotlock. Did you get that?

 

[Jack_Daniels]

Older thread on this:

Spot Lock

Does anyone have experience with this anchor-less system? Contemplating adding to my 25ft walk around but the idea of running the boat and burning gas all day seems to be costly. If i have to keep the boat running to use the system while drifting it might not be so ideal. Correct me if I’m...

nyangler.com

 

[Capt13]

Older thread on this:

Spot Lock

Does anyone have experience with this anchor-less system? Contemplating adding to my 25ft walk around but the idea of running the boat and burning gas all day seems to be costly. If i have to keep the boat running to use the system while drifting it might not be so ideal. Correct me if I’m...

nyangler.com

moved recent posts to the older thread .....

 

[live bait]

I will admit I wasn't very interested in Minn Kota spot lock at first, but the more I see of the unit & what it can do, the more I like it. I may be missing something, but most all of the on line videos show boats with no bow rails, & it looks as though a bow rail will be in the way of the auto deploy feature, unless the unit is somehow completely mounted outside the bow rail, which would leave it vulnerable to one mistake at the dock. I guess it could somehow be manually deployed, but my main use would be black fishing from mid Oct. till early December, & really don't want to be climbing up around the cabin that time of the year. Am I missing something.
John

 

[DarthBaiter]

Very nice, it's amazing what trolling motors are capable of these days.

I have 2 friends who are waiting on delivery of these trolling systems. One for a 32' SeaVee and another for a 23 Parker.
I was looking into one of these but my blown motor put a stop to those thoughts.

Wish I got a $2000 stimulus check...lol

 

[Jack_Daniels]

Very nice, it's amazing what trolling motors are capable of these days.

I have 2 friends who are waiting on delivery of these trolling systems. One for a 32' SeaVee and another for a 23 Parker.
I was looking into one of these but my blown motor put a stop to those thoughts.

Wish I got a $2000 stimulus check...lol

I think that your friend w/ the 32' Seavee is going to be a bit disappointed if he's using it for spotlock to bottomfish up here w/ any kind of current.

 

[Jack_Daniels]

I will admit I wasn't very interested in Minn Kota spot lock at first, but the more I see of the unit & what it can do, the more I like it. I may be missing something, but most all of the on line videos show boats with no bow rails, & it looks as though a bow rail will be in the way of the auto deploy feature, unless the unit is somehow completely mounted outside the bow rail, which would leave it vulnerable to one mistake at the dock. I guess it could somehow be manually deployed, but my main use would be black fishing from mid Oct. till early December, & really don't want to be climbing up around the cabin that time of the year. Am I missing something.
John

There's a guy on FB or YouTube or both in our area that has one mounted on his Parker. I believe he has a bow rail, that it seems to work just fine with.

I realize it would be a PITA to walk up to the bow all the time, but just a word of caution. I had the auto-deploy model, and it kept having issues. Luckily I was under warranty, and I got rid of that and went back to a manual deploy model, which isn't much of an issue to do on my CC.

 

[DarthBaiter]

I think that your friend w/ the 32' Seavee is going to be a bit disappointed if he's using it for spotlock to bottomfish up here w/ any kind of current.

That was my first thought but apparently there is a guy in LI south shore with a 32 and the trolling motor and he seems say it holds it's spot pretty well in current and wind.

 

[george]

I was in a bass pro the other day looking at these and the salesman said that they get a lot of returns on the unit that self deploys?

After fishing on "Jack's" boat this year I was sold fast. There are so many advantages, many of which have been mentioned above.