Quote Originally Posted by Cray View Post
A lot is going to depend on how you fish and how you intend to fish in the future. If your strictly a jig fisherman and fishing from front of boat a 45 in shaft is what I would recommend. If you ever intend to long line or pull cranks with it from back of boat then you need a longer shaft. I run a 52 in 55 lb thrust terrova on a stick steer about same size as your boat. Work great for spider rigging and pulling but I have to put motor all the way down when towards back of boat to keep prop from cavitate government at high speed. No comparability between a SI unit and terrova with Ipilot, you would have to step up to the link and larger unit to link. Where your fishing and how you fish would determine if added cost would be worth it. 9 inch would be better but perfectly happy with my 7 si mounted on trolling motor.
I primarily jig with a straight line into brush. I haven't tried cranking yet, but would like to start when I have a better fish finder. The spot lock will be great for keeping me on brush piles without having to fight the trolling motor while fishing. My lake is pretty windy most of the time, so spot lock will make life much easier on me. From what I have read, is that you can mark a waypoint on the Hummingbird and the Minnkota will troll lock on that position.

This summer has been difficult fishing. The water is really hot and the water is at least 3ft low, so my brush piles that were 18-19ft deep are now 15-18. I am catching alot of crappie, but they are not big enough to keep. Cranking will be a way for me to fish deeper water and hopefully catch larger crappie.

Thanks for the response on the trolling motor. It is appreciated.