I'm just curious if anyone who has an I Pilot likes it. Are they worth the money? I might be looking into getting one but would like to hear some reviews from people on the TFF. Thanks

This depends completely on your fishing style and where you fish. I have a terrova w/ ipilot link in a boat I use up in Northern Minnesota and Ontario, I do a lot of fishing in very open water and I troll a lot for lake trout and walleye.

bass fishing, I've used it to hold on deep water structure, but ive never had it in a muddy stump field, and I wouldn't want to either....id want my cable steer fortrex.

Have had one for a year. Wouldn't trade it for anything while fishing offshore. It's priceless.

In water less than 6-8' I'm not sure if it can't be heard underwater vs a cable motor.

Mine doesn't have the auto deploy and pickup and the design absolutely sucks. Dumbest think Minn Kota has ever designed. If you're buying new, get the auto model.

the terrovas are a slightly worse deployment design then the power drive, but have nicer foot pedals IMO. I like the heck out of my remote control steering, and the link to my Humminbirds. I can put my boat on Cruise Control!

Love/hate relationship with mine, if I just fished trees & stumps I would sell it.

I am on my second one. Sold my first boat with one on it and bought a bigger one for my bigger Skeeter.
I love it. The deployment system is not great for a 62 ye old but I dealvwith it. I don't move the collar every time I raise it so that helps. I just use a strap to be sure it doesn't deploy while driving with the big motor.
I love the remote, the foot control and the anchor lock system. I use it all the time.
Best investment I have made.

Wouldn't trade mine for anything except a new ulterra. The new auto lift stow and deploy makes it the perfect trolling motor. Best tool on my boat.

I'm on my second year with my Terrova iPilot and its the best piece of equipment on my boat. I use the remote exclusively and it has totally changed the way I fish. I used to fish from the bow but have moved to the stern since I can control the motor from anywhere in the boat. The stern position allows me to stand over the transducers and see my Humminbird 999 screen clearly on my center console. I admit that the new Auto-deploy feature would be handy but I'll just have to live with what I've got until I get older and decide to upgrade. I did install a ram-mount support that I engage when every time I am running just to ensure the motor does not auto-deploy while under way. It is solid and means I don't have to change the depth stop at all.

I don't understand the previously mentioned issue with stump fields. I fish lots of stump fields and occasionally encounter a stump. My buddy who is usually on the bow just lifts up on the head unit and the TM steps over the stump without any issues. When we fish out of his boat I am on the bow and must operate his Fortrex with the footpedal and lift the Fortrex with the cable to clear obstacles. He swears that his next TM will be one equipped with iPilot.

it is the perfect trolling motor for my aluminum boat. it just keep you on the spot in open water with texas winds.

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt..._t#Post10471047

i have never try a cable steering so i cant compare it.

all the features that it has with the hummingbird sonar to follow the contour and record your own tracks are hard to beat.

the new ulterra model that came out that self deploys looks really sweet...

I really love my I pilot link for the terrova but I want the new one bad. I have had no issues with stumps. I will AP on and then set speed at 1 to 2 and go down a bank and fish. Both feet on the deck. NO more captain Morgan. I was fishing fork and the wind was 15 to 20 mph and I put spot lock on. There was a guide about 50 yards away but he had to fight to stay on his spot. On of the guys got caught on something and the guide had to get it unhung and he had to get off the trolling motor. He blew off that spot fast. With spot lock you can stay there.
Again I really want self deploy. I love mine.

I'm looking at new trolling motors I am having problems with mine for the 3rd time this year and will most likely just replace it. I need to review these, because I don't know anything about them, but can you switch back and forth from foot control to computer controlled? I think it would be awesome for fishing off shore, which I have been doing more and more, but I do fish fork alot and at times I'm up in the shallow water with stumps everywhere.

There are some pros and cons, but I would say mostly pros. As stated before, the deploy design sucks. It sticks out in front of the boat and is easy to hit a dock with when approaching. I think there are some slide mounts that would be nice but I haven't gotten one yet, probably need to look into that.

I don't think the spot lock meets the advertised 5' radius that it claims to hold to, more like 10 - 15. Plus it goes back and forth a lot to keep that spot. The crappie fishermen hate it cause you cant maintain a spot dead on a brush pile. That said there are a lot of times when that's OK when you are on an off shore structure. Best thing is when you need to stop and tie on a new lure or untangle a backlash or something, you can hit the spot lock and you won't go drifting across the lake while you mess with what ever you are doing. The best feature that I couldn't live without now is the auto pilot. When set on AP, you point in a direction and you don't have to constantly keep adjusting you heading, set the speed you want and mostly forget about it. That's also the best way to maintain a spot in high winds, set it into the wind and adjust the speed to keep up and you can maintain a position much better than either a conventional TM or the spot lock (then you don't keep going back and forth).

If you have the link model with a HB, you can mark a spot on your sonar as you pass over it and then tell the TM to go to it and it will go to it and then spot lock on it. Also the follow the contour is very nice when you just want to follow a shore line.

Over all, I am very happy, sounds like the newer models with the auto deploy would be nice. Always something better out there.

Stan

i have notice that the spot lock is more accurate when you have heavy wind hitting the boat. i have learned to use the spot lock so it wont go crazy on calm water.

basically you need to let the boat be almost stationary or steady. if you active spot lock while you are going forward the motor will go crazy because the spot is now like 5 feet behind him so it will try to go back there.

what i do is to turn off the motor and let the boat by it self move forward, after the boat is not longer moving i hit the spot lock.

The motor guide xi5 looks pretty impressive, Since I have a motor guide now, and I have lowrance units, that may be the better option for me. Very intriguing for sure, having the ability to anchor would make it worth it to me I think, anything else is just a bonus

The Terrova iPilot allows you to have both the foot pedal and remote active at the same time. I removed the foot pedal from my boat completely because the remote is so good that I just don't ever need the pedal. The two features I use the most are AutoPilot and Spot lock. Spot Lock comes in real handy when either changing lures or when fighting a fish. I just tap the remote sending the TM immediately into Spot Lock mode and can then fight the fish without every having to worry about what my boat is doing. Shallow water and stumps are no more a concern with an iPilot than they are with a cable steer TM.

Since you have Lowrance electronics the MotorGuide may be a better fit for you as I suspect their version of iPilot operates the same as the MinnKota. You won't regret the upgrade.