Minn Kota Ultrex - 2017's MVP

Managed to finally get on the water over the long weekend and test out my new Minn Kota Ultrex, this new motor smashed it out of the park and is my 2017 MVP boat addition. Here are a few of my observations and comments. * The motor was easy to install, using the same installation pattern as my previous Fortex, there were a few extra cables to run for the network installation but that opened up another realm of features so all was good. * Installing the Bluetooth heading sensor and pairing it with my motor/remote was quick and painless. * Once on the water I immediately noticed the power steering portion of the motor's function. At first, I of course noticed the sound of the turning motor to steer it as that was a new sound for me. However, that quickly became commonplace and not an issue. * The speed at which the motor turns is very impressive, as fast as I would have turned my Fortrex manually. * The pedal takes less force to turn than the Fortex (power steering vs manual steering) so that took a couple hours to adjust to, feathering the pedal somewhat moves the motor nice and smoothly. * Calibration was simple and very quick as well using the I-Link remote. * Since it is power steering, you can turn on the prop and let go of the pedal, it will keep that motor direction and not take a sudden turn on you once the motor changes direction due to prop torque etc. * Now the big gun, spot-lock! I found a noticeable object on the bottom in 5 feet of water. I was in an obvious if not strong current, I positioned my motor over that object and tapped the spot-lock feature button on the pedal. The motor took over and worked to keep me in that area, I noticed it was drifting a few feet more than I expected and kind of over-steering. Turns out that my 21 foot Triton needed a little more control from the motor, by changing the Boat Scale setting to +1 on the remote, the motor worked less and kept me very tight to that object in the current. * I tried the bump feature and it worked exactly as advertised, moving a few feet each time I bumped the button on the remote * Speaking of the remote, there are huge benefits to being able to sit down on the deck or in the drivers seat and have full control of the Ultrex trolling motor. Was cool to steer it and control prop speed and all of those features while still being nowhere near the trolling motor foot pedal at all. * Next I tried the auto-pilot setting, I set the prop speed, turned the prop on by stepping on that button, pointed the trolling motor towards a rock point 200 yards away and engaged the feature. The trolling motor took me straight to the point, never missing a beat. For the remainder of the day while I fished, I used the spot-lock feature at least a dozen times. Whenever I hooked a decent fish, I engaged it to land the fish. I used it to hold us near the spot on the spot. Used spot-lock to tie new lures on and eat lunch etc. I used the auto-pilot a few times to fish a straight bank and on future trips, will use the follow a contour and circle a waypoint feature I am sure. The buttons on the pedal are large and easy to operate, so easy that I accidentally turned on spot-lock a couple times and activated auto-pilot a few times as well. Just took a little training to keep and maintain better control of my big feet when moving around the pedal. I also added a quick occasional look to the pedal LED display to make sure I didn't have one or the other on. Whenever a feature is active, any switch press, movement of the power selector knob, press of the momentary switch or change in pedal position turns the feature off, all indicated by three quick beeps from the Ultrex foot pedal. In my opinion, the Ultrex made a big difference that day and will impact how I fish certain areas and patterns moving forward! Although it is quick to engage and easy to understand, spot-lock though will not replace my Talons. There are times where I am shallow enough that I do not want my trolling motor whirring away, I'll drop the Talons at that point. Also, when you just don't want much boat movement at all in shallow, the Talons are superior as well as when the boat is beached or you'll be in the same spot for a really long time, Talons win. I was never a personal fan or user of the electric steer motors as I wanted that quick response time to pedal movements plus the feel of the pedal to know where and how much to steer the motor by touch, versus having to watch the pedal or similar. I was though envious of some of those electric steer motor features. By combining the best features of the electric steer motors with my preferred foot pedal functions, I am just plain impressed and pleased with my newest toy, the Minn Kota Ultrex. Take a look at one or wave me down to look at mine, you will be happy your did. *not my photo above but shows an Ultrex with logo's