Maiden Voyage: Old Town Sportsman 120 Autopilot

Koz · December 3, 2023

Between work, cold weather, and rain I had not had a chance to try out my new kayak. There was a break in the weather for a few hours yesterday and I did get the electronics mounted.

Today was rainy and cloudy for a while, but as soon as the rain stopped I decided to take a spin. After dragging it my dock and seawall, my first thought was that while I can get this heavy beast over the seawall and into the water, how the heck am I going to get it up the 2 1/2 feet over the seawall and out of the water? I thought about trailering over to a nearby ramp, but I had not taken the time do take any measurements to properly adjust the bunkie boards. Even unloaded, this thing is heavy and hard to trailer from dry land. I need to make some adjustments and I may end up buying a winch.

Anyway, the safest way to do this was to have both the motor and the battery on the dock, get it in the water, then put it all together. Since the battery box is under the seat, it would also be a good test for how easy it is to stand in the kayak.

Moving to the bow to seat the motor I quickly realized that I'm going to need some scupper plugs. I never needed them in my Seastream pedal drive.

Anyway, I got things mounted and setup, then paired the trolling motor to the handheld iPilot, set up the steering pedals, dropped the rudder, and I was on my way.

The rudder on this thing is solid, and I love the way that it deploys and stows. I had set the seat to the raised position, and that's a lot different than sitting at water level in my old kayak. But for me it's a much better fishing position.

I set off across the cove to a secondary point that is 1/4 away. I didn't run wide open, setting a max speed of 6 (out of 10) and steered with both the iPilot unit and the foot pedals. I have to say, I love the foot pedals. The beefy rudder makes even the smallest inputs responsive. The rudder pedals will be my main method of steering, but if I ever need to make a tighter turn I can use the iPilot remote.

What was weird to me was sitting there doing almost nothing. Obviously, in my pedal drive I was pedaling away and constantly bumping the rudder control to maintain course. In the Old Town I feel like a passenger on a Sunday ride.

Once I got to my spot I engaged the spot lock and even though it was breezy and I was in open water it did a good job of keeping me in place. Afterwards, I did see the unit has different spot lock options I I will experiment with those.

Next, I navigated to a narrower creek channel where the water is shallow and there are a lot of submerged, fallen trees. This was good practice for navigating while fishing and everything handled as expected.

The kayak has 4 rod holder, two rear facing behind the seat and two forward facing up front. The forward facing are great when you have to change baits or unbutton a fish (not that I had to do that today).

One thing that I noticed is that my side imaging was clearer and provided more detail than my pedal drive. In my old kayak, the transducer was on the side of the boat using a YakAttack Switchblade, but now it's mounted firmly under the bow of my Old Town. I think that with the side mount there may have been some vibration of the mounting arm and possibly cavitation from the prop that interfered with imaging.

That being said, I don't like that the head unit on my new kayak is so far forward, even at the closest rail point to the seat. On my old kayak it was right against the seat and much easier for me to read. My 7" unit seems much smaller sitting so far away from me.

Weather was moving in, so I was only out there for just over an hour. I didn't catch anything and I didn't see much on electronics except what was probably a school of crappie as I was heading in for the day.

When I got to my dock I put the motor, battery, and rods on my dock and after that it wasn't too bad hoisting it over the seawall. One thing of note - I did not bring my crate today. One of the may things I like about this kayak is there is a spot right next to the seat where I can fit 4 Plano boxes, so I didn't bother with the added weight of the crate.

My first impressions of this kayak are great. I loved every minute of my Seastream Angler PD, but the quality and the features of the Old Town are far superior to my old kayak. My only real worries are the weight when trying to move it around and get it on the trailer. I suppose that when the weather gets warmer I can just back the trailer into the water at a ramp, but that doesn't make it easier trying to fish from home. I may come up with some sort of DIY hoist and sling system next spring.

casts_by_fly · December 3, 2023

Good first run. I’m sure with some more time you will get it sorted just right.

for the helix unit, you can adjust the yak attack arm where you have it now and that will bring it back towards you 8” or so. If you want more, you can add another arm for another 4”. I ran two arms on my helix 7 and I could just about touch the unit. Barely leaning forward in the seat.

Koz · December 4, 2023

14 hours ago, casts_by_fly said:

Good first run. I’m sure with some more time you will get it sorted just right.

for the helix unit, you can adjust the yak attack arm where you have it now and that will bring it back towards you 8” or so. If you want more, you can add another arm for another 4”. I ran two arms on my helix 7 and I could just about touch the unit. Barely leaning forward in the seat.

Good idea. It will take me a few trips to get a comfort level with my setup.

Along with the tackle storage next the seat I also like the dry storage on the other side of the seat. I used to keep my phone in a dry bag but now I don’t have to do that. Cup holders on a kayak are also new for me.

The deck storage on the stern is also HUGE so it will be easy to stow both a cooler and a crate back there and have room to spare.

The trade off to all of this is the weight. I definitely need to start working out again to make it easier to move around.

casts_by_fly · December 4, 2023

1 hour ago, Koz said:

Good idea. It will take me a few trips to get a comfort level with my setup.

Along with the tackle storage next the seat I also like the dry storage on the other side of the seat. I used to keep my phone in a dry bag but now I don’t have to do that. Cup holders on a kayak are also new for me.

The deck storage on the stern is also HUGE so it will be easy to stow both a cooler and a crate back there and have room to spare.

The trade off to all of this is the weight. I definitely need to start working out again to make it easier to move around.

If you want options or answers, just tag the couple of us on here that have them. I've been through a couple iterations of setup on mine and I think I'm in a pretty good place for me.

Cupholders are nice. They are going to fill up with a lot of water the first time it rains. Its a known thing. If it really bothers you, there is a drain hole modification where you drill a couple holes and connect them with tubing. It then drains the cupholder into the front well. I got the parts a year ago and never did it. Maybe this winter. My solution is a bottle sponge which works for the rod holders also. I get annoyed when the bottoms of my grips come out of them soaked.

The dry hatch next to the seat is great. In mine at various points through the year:

10mm wrench for battery connections (always)

two single packs of Off bug wipes (always)

microfiber cloth for wiping electronics if needed (always)

sunscreen (time of year dependent)

sunglasses (when I'm fishing at night but start/finish in the day)

truck keys (always)

superglue

4-5" LED flashlight with adjustable beam

I also did a couple little things for the under seat area. I had this small waterproof box that I velcroed to the lid of the hatch. Inside is my boat registration, extra fuses, a small philips screwdriver, a small elastic cord (was a shoe quick lace), my boating license, and maybe a few other things to keep dry but that I shouldn't need.

The other is the lure 'tray'. I keep my seat in the lower position so I can't really get a 3600 sized box in the left tray. I used to just drop lures in there to dry when I cut them off, but some would slide into the battery box area. I had an old plastic silverware tray that I trimed down to fit. Now that the end of the day, I just lift out the tray and all of the lures I've used that day. They get packed into the tackle boxes at home, usually the next day, usually while I'm sitting on a phone call. The sections are nice for keeping trebles and elaztech separated.

Zcoker · December 9, 2023

I almost got an Auto Pilot but opted for the smaller 10.6 Minn Kota model, same motor along with everything else except spot lock. Glad I did because I can launch it anywhere with no issues. Not to mention it’s easy to paddle, even against a strong wind. I’ve broken down twice a long ways from launch area and paddling back wasn’t bad at all. I couldn’t imagine paddling an Auto Pilot for miles! lol First time I broke down my prop spun off, so carry a spare! Second time was when the motor plug prong broke off. Folks warned me about that one and I blew them off. I installed a very robust plug that locks.