Thread: Trolling Motor vs Fishfinder

Originally Posted by Defiant

Spot Lock ...maybe they will get it fixed.

Anything can be improved, but spotlock can never be better than the underlying GPS technology.

When GPS performance is degraded by solar flares, satellite positions, noise in the radio signal, the weather, terrain, overhanging trees, or for any other reason, all GPS units' accuracy suffers. Even under the best conditions there is a margin of error. If the manufacturer claims accuracy to within 5', you can bet that is measured under perfect conditions. In the real world we rarely get perfect conditions, and some fishing holes will never get perfect conditions. As a GPS' accuracy degrades, "the spot" grows larger. If perfect conditions yield 5' accuracy, that's a "spot" with a 10' diameter. Under typical operating conditions, accuracy is more likely to vary from 10' to 30'. Now the "spot" has grown to a diameter of 20' to 60'.

Regardless of the size of your "spot" from one minute to the next, iPilot will do nothing until it senses that it has drifted off the "spot." On calm days, you don't drift far before iPilot starts your motor and points you back toward the "spot." On windy days (or when you're in a current), you're farther away from the "spot" before correction begins. iPilot bases it's motor speed setting on the distance you have drifted, so in a breeze it will crank the motor speed up...and routinely overshoot the "spot." Then, it senses it has drifted off the "spot" in another direction and begins another correction. In my experience, a 10 mph breeze causes spotlock to whipsaw my boat to the point where it becomes more trouble than it's worth. But that's just my boat...your boat will be different.

The point to all of this is that spotlock is a tool with limitations. On some days, in some locations, and for certain fishing styles, it's a fantastic tool--but if you mainly shoot docks, vertical jig small BPs, or fish in tight quarters (including spots near man-made structures), you will never find spotlock to be very useful. On the other hand, if you spend a lot of time over open water fishing humps, submerged points & dropoffs, grassbeds, rockpiles, and other large structure, spotlock can be very useful.

Thanks Corker i am going to hold off on the Terrova for a while maybe they can improve it more then it is . Seems lime the Motorguide is better at holding spots so if they can get it close to that i might buy one or if not ill just have to not expect to much from the Spot Lock

Originally Posted by Defiant

Thanks Corker i am going to hold off on the Terrova for a while maybe they can improve it more then it is . Seems lime the Motorguide is better at holding spots so if they can get it close to that i might buy one or if not ill just have to not expect to much from the Spot Lock

The xi5 has dual GPS for added calculation data ...

I would guess competition my very well push Minn Kota toward this idea in the future (especially as they start to notice the number of forum discussions dealing with this very topic)...

Rickie