MY 2023 old town autopilot upgrades

[casts_by_fly]

Much like Frydog, I’m making a couple upgrades this year. For the past two years I’ve kept my setup basically the same:
 

 

 

 

It’s a 2021 autopilot 120 with a helix 7 g3 gps msi (currently in the classifieds for sale).  I’ve added switched nav lights front and back, a battery monitor for the trolling motor, and the minn kota puck for spot lock jog. It’s a great fishing setup and I’ve said that many times here. It doesn’t need anything but I’ve always wanted live and/or 360 imaging. Unfortunately the helix 7 couldn’t do that so it wasn’t a simple add on. This year our bonuses came back pretty darn good so I decided to splurge on myself for once. Everything came in much faster than I planned, so I get to share most of the upgrades before I get out on the water with them.

 

First up is the boring part. Since everything was add on one at a time, I never did things properly. I started with the helix and direct wired it to the battery (via fuse) and would use alligator clamps for the charger. That got old quickly so I wired in a charger plug end.  I couldn’t just ring terminal it to the battery though because the battery is spade end. I used wire nuts to connect the fish finder, charger cord, and a third wire together and took the third wire to the battery. A little janky but it worked fine.  When I added the lights I had to up the size of the wire nut to add another wire to them. At this point, it’s clearly not the right way to do it, but it worked so I left it. Now, the mega live transducer also needs power and there is no way I can leave it that way. I picked up a 6 point fuse block and have now redone things properly. 
 

from this:

 

to this:

 

 Next was the head unit. The yak attack I had for the helix 7 also fits the helix 9. It is pushing the weight limits but since I have it I am going to start with it and see how it goes. A ram mount upgrade is $100 and not easily detachable. I’m going to try this and maybe upgrade to the HD base for $20.  This bit was easy.

 

 

 

Lastly, the transducer.  The helix 7 has a tiny transducer since it’s not mega si+. It fit really well up under the nose of the boat so I wasn’t sure I could do the same. However even with the metal transducer mount you can still do the flip the mount trick to tuck it up about 3” tighter than as standard. It’s a pretty slick setup and another reason I stuck with the helix and mega live vs another brand. I ended up here:

 

 

 

Last will be the mega live transducer. I have a fishing specialties pole on the way on recco from frydog. The adapter cord arrived today.  I need to figure out my cord routing as I’m out of predrilled holes to run cords through!  When the mount gets here and I pick where it’s going I’ll get the balance wired up (hopefully this week) and get it out next weekend for a first run. Will keep you posted!

 

thanks

rick

 

 

[immortl]

Looks great Rick.  I really like the fuse block, neatens things up nicely. 

[casts_by_fly]

Part three complete now. I got the shaft mount in today and rigged it all up this evening. @FryDog62 suggested the fisherman specialities mount and I think it’s going to be great. I need to adjust it on the water but I think it will be close. I also need to play with the position of the helix vs the arm and if one is in front or back.  I use the bottom pivot on the mount to swing the unit up and down whether I am standing fishing or running spot to spot. It might not work that way with the new big helix but I’m going to try it and see where it goes. The wiring was a monster for a kayak. The live transducer has solix plug ends so it needs an adapter. Then the adapter and the plug coming from the transducer have the same male ends so you have to use the long cable that comes with the transducer unit which is 15’ long or something stupid. I can bury that inside the boat but it means the same cable going in and back out of the boat.  combined with the power cord, that means three holes through a through hull fitting that was made for two. I made it work but it’s not a clean as I wanted. I also need to tidy up the cables but not until I’ve got the locations set for everything. 

[FryDog62]

Looking great Rick! Will be interesting when you get on the water and start doing adjustments to FFS but can't imagine you won't really like it.  Also have always admired your rod set up - something I only think about whenever I hook a rod behind me on my backhand (frequently)!  

[immortl]

Hey Rick, really interested to hear how you like the fishing specialties mount.  Hurry up and get out on the water and test it ;).  Mine arrived the other day but I've also remembered the sniper pole one and have one of those on order too.  That's the one where you rotate the handle and it rotates the FFS transducer.  I can't decide theoretically which I'd like better.  I really need to carve out some time and get my kayak out on the water so I can test all this stuff and these ideas I have.

[casts_by_fly]

I went out yesterday to start getting things set up.  It was a crappy day to be fishing- 15 mph wind, low 40's water temps.  If it hadn't been for the new electronics setup I would have stayed home.  As it was, I went to a little 20 acre lake that I learned of and fished twice last year.  Based on the wind direction there is a steep mountain it would be in the lee of.  Great plan.  Two other kayaks had the same plan.  I didn't even get out of the truck when I saw that they were both fishing.  The lake is 20 acres, but its like a figure 8 with a pinched middle.  One lobe is shallow and muddy, so doesn't hold fish much at all, so that would have put 3 of us sharing 10-12 acres.  Not my cup of tea.  Went past another new to me lake that I thought would be protected and it wasn't.  I will leave it on the list to explore another day, but not this day.  So I ended up at one of my locals that even if the wind was blowing whitecaps I know the lake well enough that I'm not exploring the lake too, just the conditions and the electronics.

 

It was 1-2' whitecaps and 15 mph steady with gusts to 25.

 

So with that context, there wasn't a lot of fishing going on.  After I launched I pulled into a quiet cove to set up the head unit settings as much as I could.  Got the new helix 9 dialed in and its great.  The side imaging really does make a difference with the bigger transducer over the helix 7 and the compact transducer.  The 7 gave great images, but the bigger transducer on the 9 makes them look just like the Humminbird sales brochure.  I was clearly picking out schools of fish as I was motoring by in 8' of water.  And, in places I wouldn't have expected them.  This lake is largely a mud bottomed bowl that is 3' at the shoreline and 12' in the middle.  Most of the lake is <8' and flat bottom.  Lots of grass (some of it is already 2' off the bottom).  There are 2 spots with significant rock cover that the smallies sit on.  These fish were a school and were roving.  Not sure what they were- could have been bass or crappie.  It was so windy that I couldn't get a good read as I was moving by.  I stopped and found them with live imaging briefly, but keeping them in the cone is a challenge.

 

Overall the live imaging is (I think) going to be really good.  I started in shallow water looking into deeper water and it was tough.  Spotlock was critical for me to just hold a position in that wind.  In 3' of water I was getting a lot of noise reflecting from the surface and back down.  I played with a lot of settings and angling the transducer down one notch seemed to be the best solution.  I also found that 'auto' tended to just have the best overall image quality.  So I'm going to leave it there for now and just play with the brightness and contrast auto offset a little.  Perspective/landscape mode is really cool.  I think I could really like that on a day when its not blowing a gale.  I can see that being super useful under docks and on big flats.  Kinda like a live 360 view.  I don't think down view is going to be quite as important to me, but I don't know yet.  I just need to use it.

 

The FS mount is good.  Its very sturdy on the rail.  I had to get longer bolts to get it into my rails, but once mounted its very solid there.  The ability to remove it easily is great since I truck bed my kayak and the electronics go in the cab.  On the water, I still haven't figured out if I will take it out of the water each time I'm moving between spots.  I'm within the speed tolerance of the mount, but at 4 mph its drag that I just don't need.  The problem is where to put it.  The pole is 36" long plus handle and transducer.  I'd ideally like a 40" pole even.  When I take it out, the transducer is at my feet laying longways in the front well.  The handle is past the motor head.  Not that big of a deal, but it means the front well is starting to get a little cramped.  Same when loading and unloading on the water.  With the rods on the left and the transducer sitting somewhere, and the helix on the right, it means its a lot harder to beach the nose of the boat and walk out the front onto shore.  Lots of my lakes have ramps and docks, so less of an issue, but for land launches its something to consider.  The other thing with it (and the sniper pole would fix this) is that I haven't decided which way I want the handle to face relative to the transducer.  Visually its best with the handle at 6 o'clock and the transducer at 12.  That way the transducer faces the bow and the handle points the opposite way.  If I want to fish the port side though, the handle is at 3 and as far away from me as it can get.  I can use my fingers to grab at the base of the handle to turn, but that means bending down and less fine adjustment.  A solution is having the handle at 9 and the transducer at 12 (how I started on the water) but then the handle is right over the face of the helix in normal forward orientation.  I could bring the FS mount further forward on the rail ahead of the helix, but then I'd have to either turn around to see the screen or be constantly reaching forward to adjust the FS handle.  Mid day I swapped from 9/12 to 6/12 and I think that's the better way for being spotlocked most of the time, but I normally fish out of the left side of the boat when power fishing so its the worst for that.  Long story short, I'm going to drill 4 screw holes at 90 degrees and play with it on the water.  I'll fish it one way and then another for a while. I think I can rule out the 3/12 position, but let's see.

 

TLDR: So far so good, need a lot more time on the water to dial in and assess.

[Dangerfield]

I really like the set up and will be following along to see how the 360 imaging works out on your rig. I just discovered this company and they have an arm like your, link below, some others looking at adding livescope to their rigs might appreciate it.

 

https://borika.ca/products/directional-mount-for-garmin-panoptix-livescope

 

I went with a Scotty Fish Finder mount for my 9" Garmin unit, I was worried the YakAttack would be too wobbly but perhaps removing an extension arm might eliminate some play. Those RAM mounts do come with a hefty price tag.

 

Love the rig!

[casts_by_fly]

1 hour ago, Dangerfield said:

I really like the set up and will be following along to see how the 360 imaging works out on your rig. I just discovered this company and they have an arm like your, link below, some others looking at adding livescope to their rigs might appreciate it.

 

https://borika.ca/products/directional-mount-for-garmin-panoptix-livescope

 

I went with a Scotty Fish Finder mount for my 9" Garmin unit, I was worried the YakAttack would be too wobbly but perhaps removing an extension arm might eliminate some play. Those RAM mounts do come with a hefty price tag.

 

Love the rig!

 

Thanks!  I hadn't come across that setup for live transducers.  That's a pretty good setup.  If you put a yak attack quick release track mount on the bottom of it you'd have a quick detach setup.  Looks pretty sharp.

 

The Yakattack helix mount with the 9" unit and an extra extension arm is probably too much.  It was a little wobbly on the Helix 7 and it was a bit more wobbly on the helix 9.  All of the play is in the quick release base.  I added some teflon tape to mating joints to snug it up a little but it needs more of it.  I don't think the connection to the rails is the problem.  I removed an extension arm on the water Sunday and that made a difference, but there is still the same amount of play in the quick release.  If I didn't already have it, I would have gone ram mount to start.  I may go there in the future, but I have the Yak attack so I'm going to play with it a bit and see if I can make it work.

 

thanks

rick