Minn Kota i-Pilot Settings You Don't Know About But May Need

There are several new companies entering the electric troller game—Lowrance, Garmin and some new lesser known companies too…But even amidst this cacophony of crowing companies trying to get your attention to spend a couple G’s for their newest widget, I’m talking to you about the trolling motor you already have on your boat.

Most of us are now using Minn Kota i-Pilot remote controlled bow trolling motors. And there are lots of features that assist with boat control of various types…. Everybody loves Spot Lock GPS anchoring (it’s more precise on 2017 and newer Bluetooth equipped models). Most everybody likes Cruise Control for consistent trolling speeds regardless of wind or current.  Anglers like the ability to store and repeat trolling routes in the remote control…one button access to max speed…

Most anglers also like having Autopilot to keep the boat heading in one direction even when we are busy in the boat and not steering—netting fish, having a sandwich, rigging rods…But there are times that Autopilot doesn’t work like we expect. If you have an i-Pilot but don’t know about or use the Autopilot function, let’s start at the beginning. On your hand-held remote controller for the Minn Kota, there is a button on the lower right labeled “N”. That refers to North and reminds you that’s the button for compass/GPS direction control.

Currently, Minn Kota i-Pilot equipped trollers have two Autopilot settings and you need to select the one that works best for your fishing. The two settings are “Legacy Autopilot” which is the same Autopilot we’ve all come to know and love for the past 20+ years. The second setting is “Advanced Autopilot” which is a new GPS enhanced Autopilot that is set as the factory default. But just because it’s the advanced mode and has GPS helping with accuracy doesn’t mean it’s the best setting for you. Note that on pre-2017 Minn Kota i-Pilot motors the settings were simply called Autopilot and Advanced Autopilot. Autopilot being the equivalent of Legacy Autopilot on current Minn Kota motors.

The Legacy version of Autopilot is what Minn Kota users have been familiar with for decades. When turned on, the Legacy Autopilot does what it’s always done…hold a compass bearing at whatever setting you last steered. So basically every time you steer the motor, whatever direction you point it towards it continues in that compass direction until you touch the steering which resets it to the new compass heading. No matter if the boat drifts with wind or current, the bow troller keeps pointing in the compass direction you last steered to. It’s actually much simpler than this description and it works predictably.

The new Advanced Autopilot adds a little feature that may be messing up your boat control…the new Advanced Autopilot uses GPS to draw an imaginary line in the direction you point the motor. Then it automatically follows that imaginary line. So each time you steer the motor it records a new imaginary line to follow, thus keeping the same course. It’s similar to the Legacy Autopilot in that it keeps you heading a particular direction based on your last steered course. And again, it steers the boat for you freeing you up to net fish, bait hooks, engulf a sandwich or whatever else you need to do other than steer the boat.

But here’s where the Advanced mode can give you fits.…When maneuvering or precision trolling at extremely slow speeds, wind or current typically cause your boat to drift, the Advanced Autopilot no longer tries to follow the direction you last set it towards. Instead it tries to get back to the imaginary GPS line first, then it resumes following your chosen direction. You may have experienced this…you’re trolling along or slowly maneuvering along a depth contour with a cross-wind or cross-current knocking you off course and all of a sudden your bow troller turns 90 degrees to the side and accelerates hard for a couple boat lengths. When you are already “crab walking” a bit sideways due to the drift you have lines on one side of the boat that are not trailing straight behind the boat. So, when the motor automatically turns 90 degrees and accelerates it might drive over your lines. At the least, it messes with your trolling or maneuvering speed, changing the running depth of your presentation. Your inside lines drop into the rocks or bottom crud and you end up having to re-set lines…

Needless to say, following a GPS line is theoretically more accurate than following a compass heading, yet the issue of boat-drift complicates this equation. If you exclusively cast to shorelines or are trolling with plenty of speed and power then following the imaginary GPS line in Advanced Autopilot mode is only rarely an issue. Essentially, while you are powering around, the boat doesn’t drift much. But if you do any dragging (super slow trolling as practiced by walleye anglers fishing with bait) or if you creep around fairly sharp contours requiring tight turns at minimal speeds, the motor automatically adjusting back to the imaginary line is a real pain and a boat control nightmare…weights snag in the rocks or pick up “moss” on the stalled side, and you have to stay alert to avoid driving over your own lines…especially when the breeze is strong and you are already turning sharply to follow specific depth contours, underwater points or other structures.

The easy solution to this modern Minn Kota issue is to avoid Advanced Autopilot when slow dragging lines behind the boat in wind or current. If you have a pre-2017 Minn Kota i-Pilot with the remote that came with the motor, you can jump out of Advanced Autopilot and into Legacy Autopilot (called Autopilot in the pre-2017 manual) simply by holding down the N button on your remote for 2 seconds until the circle  around the N on the screen of the remote disappears. You can toggle back and forth between Advanced and Legacy by holding the N button down for 2 seconds and the circle around the N will indicate when you are in Advanced mode. Over the years that I used this system, I eventually just stopped toggling and always set it to the Legacy mode with no circle around the N.

If you have one of the 2017 or newer i-Pilot models, you’ll need to use your remote to access a menu to make the change. I did this day-one with my 2017 Terrova and just followed the directions on page 24 of the online brochure. Because I spend about one third of my fishing time slowly following contours, I just set my remote to Legacy Autopilot and leave it at that. On the display screen of the newer remote the Legacy Autopilot setting shows up as an N with an arrow underneath. The Advanced Autopilot setting displays the N and arrow bordered by two vertical lines…the imaginary lines I call them…

You may have already experienced some of the challenges of Advanced Autopilot or it may be something you’ll encounter in the future. If you do much slow draggin’ or much precision contour fishing this little discussion about Autopilot will save you some stress. If you’ve been using an i-Pilot and haven’t run into any issues, then the Advanced Autopilot setting is the setting for you! Forget you read this article…you probably won’t need Legacy Autopilot!

If you need clarification, simply search for Minn Kota i-Pilot Manuals online and the appropriate manual for your Minn Kota will have the answers for your specific motor in the section on Autopilot.