My opinion is if you troll a lot spend the money and get the auto pilot. You can shoot docks with the auto pilot but if I primarily shoot docks I would save the money because you can do much better job controlling the boat with a regular trolling motor. That's my opinion and I am sure many will disagree. I use both type trolling motors. One for trolling and one for shooting docks. I have a base plate on my boat and each of my trolling motors have a base plate attached. I can change out the trolling motors fairly quick depending on what type fishing I want to do that day. Of course if you go trolling and decide to shoot some docks then you have a problem. You can shoot docks with the auto pilot but it's a little slower reacting and in my opinion you can shoot twice as many docks in a way with the regular trolling motor.

You might want to go shooting docks with someone that uses an auto pilot and then you can judge for yourself.