Fortrex or I pilot

[geeb]

I am looking at a different bow mount. Currently have cable steer, but the ipilot has me interested. How fast is the ipilot and how is the foot pedal design. I did have an autopilot once, but it was too slow to fish the timber very good. I am having a tough time on this one. Any input with these 2 would be appreciated.

[HaleDamage]

They both have the good points.
Electric steering will never be as fast as cables.
The i-Pilot's spot lock is nice. It will try to keep you within 5' of your spot.
And it's nice to be able to control your TM any where in the boat.
They both work great, Just depends on what you want your TM to do.
Good luck.
Rick

[gabowman]

The I-pilot is the cream-of-the-crop for trollers but I'd stick with cable steer (or hand control) for anything else.

[jimp]

snoop around you neighborhood (home lake) and see if anyone will give you a test drive.

[jayhawkcrappie]

I switched to the I-Pilot this spring. There are a ton of "opnions" on this site both ways. Mine is that I love it for 90% of my fishing situations. I should note I have the Powerdrive and don't have a foot control.

I don't like it for fishing shallow, such as during the spawn when you are running the banks, steering around trees and stumps and casting. I'm not a huge fan of fishing the spawn anyway and rarely fish shallow any other time of the year....so I can deal with it.

I did fish Lake of the Ozarks last week for three days. It was not good for navigating and fishing docks.

For more open water fishing, trolling, fishing over structure/brushpiles etc....I love mine and wouldn't go back.

I take my kids and wife fishing a lot as well....it allows them to fish from the front and I can control the boat from anywhere in the boat.

[Fish Taxi]

I can remember singing the praises of the Ipilot Terrova in a previous post. Everything I said a year ago I still believe is true... BUT, I will say that I agree that a cable steer model would probably be more convenient for navigating around docks and timber. Not that you can't do it with the electric steer model, but your cable steer is just going to be a little more responsive.

Still, I will say that the spot lock is probably the best innovation to TMs I have seen in my lifetime. The autopilot feature they rolled out on the previous model is a close second place. And the recordable track, and the track-back feature is pretty freaking slick too.

I'm a big fan of the ipilot for most of the fishing I do, especially when I take the family. But I think if I did more bass fishing I would probably be frustrated by the electric steer and wish I had a cable steer instead.

[KAG]

I had cable steers on my bassboats for years. I had a hand TM auto pilot on my 2man basshound that I liked. When I bought my Lund the dealer tried to talk me into the I-Pilot. I said No, to be honest I really just did not understand the inovations built into it over other TM's. I opted for a Power Drive MK but within a month I upgraded my Power Drive2 to an I-Pilot. The I-Pilot next to DSI / SI technology is probably the single best thing to come along in fishing out of a boat in the last 10years. I am still learning to use all of the features of I-Pilot, my advice is to write the check and don't look back. The only thing is you will find yourself messing with the remote control a lot but you can do it from anywhere in the boat and the remote issue is a small one. Mine is a 24V and it will move the boat pretty quickly on level 10 and my Lund is a heavy rig.