TROLLING MOTOR "SWOOSHES AROUND"

[Tackleholic]

I have one of the new trolling motors introduced this year, 36 volt.  When operating in the "lock" mode, it constantly moves the bow back and forth, even in calm water.  It is impossible to effectively drop shot with this much movement and water disturbance.  I watch the Pros who are sponsored by this same Brand, and they have little or no apparent movement.  Any of you experiencing this?  

[GaryH]

Mine once in awhile seems to search to long but normally no issue when using spot lock.

[Scott F]

When hitting spot lock, you must be sure the boat is not still moving forward. If it is, you’ll coast by the spot you locked and the motor will try to put you back to the spot. Also, always point the boat into the wind before locking in your spot. 

[Tackleholic]

I wasn't going to mention the Brand, but my trolling motor has what is called Anchor Lock.

[Way2slow]

The location you fish can affect that.  If it is only getting a couple of satellites or weak signals, it does not have enough reference points to hold on a locked position

Might check your GPS see what kind of satellite signals it's getting.  How many and how strong.

More satellites, the tighter the holding pattern.  That's why sometimes the can be accurate to within a few feet and other times maybe 30 feet.  The greater the error, the greater the movement.

[Big Rick]

The size and type of your boat has a ton to do with it as well. A glass boat weighs much more than a comparable aluminum rig and also sits much deeper in the water. So, a glass boat is less affected by the wind and doesn't drift as much. I have an Ultrex on my aluminum G3. If it's calm or very light wind my boat will move around up to 10ft or so. Spot Lock has it's work cut out for it trying to hold me in that 5 ft diameter. Those heavier glass rigs won't drift as much and are much more stable in the same scenario. 

[TnRiver46]

A lot of the pros I was watching drop shot today were using their foot, maybe just to scan the live scope around though 

[Tackleholic]

My boat is a 21'11" fiberglass, that's pretty heavy.  I've given up on the Livesight Imaging, so has a friend with the same set up.  I really appreciate the advice you guys are offering.

[Russ E]

not sure how motor guide works, but minn kota has a boat scale offset setting. each motor is deisgned for a certain boat weight. the boat scale setting allows you to fine tune the motor for your particular boat. this helps calm down the search in spotlock. generally, if the motor is moving the boat too much you turn down the offset. if it is having trouble holding position you turn up the offset

[TnRiver46]

i think @Jermination had a similar issue and he solved it by recalibrating. Or at least I thought that’s what he said, my computer triangulation days are long gone haha

[Tackleholic]

On 8/21/2020 at 7:29 PM, Scott F said:

When hitting spot lock, you must be sure the boat is not still moving forward. If it is, you’ll coast by the spot you locked and the motor will try to put you back to the spot. Also, always point the boat into the wind before locking in your spot. 

Great advice, the manual doesn't cover that.  Thankyou.

[Born 2 fish]

Make sure you come to a complete stop before hitting the anchor button. That helped with my terrova.

[GreenPig]

I've got a Terrova 80 on my 1448 and if it's calm(less than 2 mph winds) it gets squirrelly at times and will spin around. It keeps me within 3' normally. It took me a while to quit worrying about it spinning around, but it always corrects itself. It may be your pucks location. But as others have said play with the boat scale first.

[Jermination]

On 8/21/2020 at 2:27 PM, Tackleholic said:

I have one of the new trolling motors introduced this year, 36 volt.  When operating in the "lock" mode, it constantly moves the bow back and forth, even in calm water.  It is impossible to effectively drop shot with this much movement and water disturbance.  I watch the Pros who are sponsored by this same Brand, and they have little or no apparent movement.  Any of you experiencing this?  

i have a ghost, you need to make sure your puck location is in a spot with zero interference. Bow of the boat seems to be the best place for it. If your bowmount offset & TMC calibration havent been done it will bounce around. Also you should recalibrate if you recently installed a software update. I tried several different puck locations and this was the one one that held me in place. Keep in mind that the spot lock will always rotate the boat to face into the wind or against the current