@@jakejacobson2999 we use our autopilot for 99.99 percent of fishing. We have used it to navigate back to the pier heads up and plane but trolling for walleye and salmon is our primary use of it. And it has worked well for us over the years

@@highpointeoutdoors6958nice, that’s exactly what I’ll be using it for on Erie and Lake Ontario. I’m pretty handy with working on my boats. So how difficult would you say this was? I wasn’t sure if these units were able to go on sterndrives or not but I guess this answers my question lol I have a MerCruiser 5.7.

@@jakejacobson2999 I would give the whole project a 7.5 out of 10 for difficultly. But that includes the research of finding out what parts I needed to work from our Garmin to the drive unit. Finally a marina on Lake Ontario confirmed that the octopus drive type R unit would work for stern drive vessels. When I asked Garmin, which where I bought the reactor 40 from, they had no idea what drive unit would work for our boat. The installation wasn’t bad, the instructions walked us through pretty easily

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 okay doesn’t sound bad. My boat is older however, it’s a 1990 so I may need a different part than you. I need to bring my boat home so I can figure out what steering system it has. What do you think the total cost roughly was?

@@ryankraft5174 I actually never have. Usually get occupied with deer hunting

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 right on, I vacation up in Pentwater / ludington every July. From Kansas here. I think I’m going to knock it off my Bucket list next fall!

@@bobhunter8992 oh for sure. I can confidently say we lost two mature kings and then the other 9 we lost were probably coho lol

Those mouths on the kings get harder and harder as the season wears on, I’m always touching up the hooks with a file, especially on new lures, and lures that have just taken a fish.

@@bobhunter8992 they were getting hit from 100-135 back. We had two bites on them at 50 and 75 while they were ticking out

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 thanks

You’re not wrong about any of that. They say practice makes perfect. However, I do enjoy having some extra luck every now and then lol

Regarding “some luck”. I concur. As I think back to the times I just got damn lucky I just smile and even chuckle a bit. Or maybe I just like to forget the bad days. But always the day after the pure fisherman is ready to go at it again. We’re hooked with the barb intact. Good luck buddy.

Yeah, I could not be happier with the chamberlain releases. I used to use the friction clips for a long time and got so frustrated when the rods would pop when trying to load them up. These are a much better alternative with much better results in my opinion

Oh happy to help! I searched high and low for a video to show me how to install it. I figured other people may be in the same situation as me, so why not film it to share

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 I'm installing it on the s drive that I already have at the helm so it should basically be the same installation process. The rudder control module is what I was wondering about and you explained it perfectly. Thanks!

@@ew1421 happy to help! Goodluck with your install

Thanks Steve!

Thank you!!!

Thank you!!

Haha Thanks Chris! With salmon fishing, we try to turn that chaos into moderately controlled chaos if we can lol

Thank you!

Can’t talk highly enough of the tangled tackle guys. I’ve had people tell me wire isn’t worth the hassle but I will put up with it because there are days that they outperform braid divers. But, same goes for braid outperforming wire sometimes

I've only recently switched to Wire, so I don't really have enough time with it to agree or disagree, but they sure are fun to fight on wire!

@@TeamJesusOutdoors yeah wire definitely allows you to feel every head shake and tug. Makes you real learn how to work with the fish and reeling it in

They sure are, and we really do enjoy them. Super easy to adjust up and down with one hand. And swiveling them with two hands is a breeze even with a rod in them loaded up. If there isn’t a rod in them, you can swivel them one handed no problem

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 I got a single dual on each side of my 14 foot there nice I haven't seen the set up like that until your video

Honestly, I couldn’t tell ya a good way to avoid coho. We’ve caught them on spoons, flies and plugs. They just seem to show up and when you get into them, there’s usually more to be caught. However, running meat rigs seems to catch us kings consistently. I can’t recall the last time we caught a coho on a meat rig. Sometimes we will get a laker on them when we have it on our low diver and it’s in that cooler water temp.

Thank you! Q1: For me, I like to use the OR 12 boards up to a 8 color or a 200-250 weighted steel/copper. Once I get heavier than those, I will jump up a board size so they aren’t tracking too far back towards the middle of the boat. Q2: I think if I were to only run 4 lead core rods, I would likely make those lengths a 5, 7, 9, and 11. Those will get you as shallow as 25ft and deepest would be 55ft. This year we have had a lot of bites from 30ft-70ft down consistently. If you need extra depth, a snap on weight can get you an extra 5-15 feet pending on what size you use. I keep a box of snap on weights in the boat just incase I need to target an exact depth column. Hope this all helps

Haha they don’t really suck. But there will always be the Lions and Packers rivalry. And the fact Wisconsin will get an amazing salmon fishery more years than the Michigan side. Just the way Mother Nature does things to us I believe.

Thank you!

Nothing beats a good plug bite!

Thank you!

Hey thank you for reaching out and giving some valuable information! My dad took the boat out this weekend and fortunately no alarms went off and the boats built in voltage reader said it was holding 14-14.3 amps the whole time while they trolled. We plan to keep an eye on it and will likely add a battery parallel if problems do arise. And thank you for the support! Working on completing a video right now, it’s gonna be a doozy.

Happy to share the info, I’m sure you will not be disappointed

That's awesome, I sorta wish we had done that but we were eager to get something installed to hit the water right away. I can't complain too much with our currently auto pilot because it has been a life saver on the water for us and has worked great. How long would you say it took for you to fully install the hydraulic steering system and then the auto pilot?

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 it took two days. The hardest part was removing the old steering system. Everything else was easy

Those are called Cush-its. They are made by Luna-Sea Products. You can order them from their website or also, tangled tackles website is where I got them.

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 I'll be ordering some for sure! thanks!

Thanks Mike!! He sure is good at what he does

I would say to make it snug by hand. We haven’t run into any issues of the clutches not being tight enough. I do check them periodically to make sure nothing has come loose

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 after I installed them and terminated the cable I loosened up the clutch so I could spend the wheel freely and bring the cable about 10 ft into the boat so I could work on it. After that I didn't realize how tight the clutch needs to be after terminating the wire. I've watched many videos but no one ever talks about the clutch and how tight the knob should be. For instance take a look at your video you cover many different things but not the clutch or the knob or how tight it should be. Thank you for your reply

We actually didn’t get the cannon transducer with our down riggers. So I’m not sure if it would have caused interference or not.

It sure is, i for one need to take more time to fish it.

We used some drop shot rigs too but had no luck on them unfortunately.

Those are called leaders mates. They are made by Luna sea products. There are a couple other companies that make their own version of dipsy diver holders but these ones are working well for us. You can by them directly from Luna sea products or even tangled tackles website

You’re absolutely welcome, I want to help everyone be successful at fishing. It helps finding a pattern.

Thank you!

Thank you! That reel was the Magda pro 30DX

@@highpointeoutdoors6958 Awesome! Glad to know that because I picked up 2 of them for this spring 😃

@@CaptainLou94 good choice. I know they are considered on the cheaper side of reels but they definitely get the job done for us as downrigger reels for the last three years. Maybe this spring I’ll take them apart and re-grease everything

Doug Dooley should book a weekend with Mike Padula and lock it in his calendar lol

I've become a huge fan of the port of Ludington over the years. Holland is absolutely beautiful though. Growing up, we would go "up north" to our grandparents place in Oscoda on Lake Huron and catch salmon there. That place is holds a spot near and dear to my heart forever.

Haha same here. Steve likes to brag about his netting skills. I have a new video coming out soon that’s gonna be good. Been struggling to get it completed but it’s coming lol

Unfortunately no, our auto pilot doesn’t have the shadow drive feature that allows that. Shadow drive from my understanding is only applicable on hydraulic steering. Ours is a cable drive, with hydraulic assist. We would have had to convert our entire steering system to hydraulic. I hope this helps

Those are called Cush-its. Luna Sea products make them. You can order them online from tangled tackle or from Luna Sea themselves

For the Garmin components plus the octopus, it costed about 3,500 if I do remember correctly