Autopilot in a fishing boat?

I have a Lund Tyee Magnum Gran Sport 1950 that I do a lot of salmon fishing in. Mostly on Lake Michigan, but a little on superior as well. Trolling around the lake is nice and relaxing, but someone has to steer those 12+ hours each day. (first world problem if there ever was one lol) It's also hard to fish with just two guys in the boat because the steering guy has to leave the helm to help clear lines and net fish which almost always results in us veering off course and often leads to a mess of tangled lines.

We used to take my brothers boat that didn't have hydraulic steering and it was nigh impossible to leave the helm. My boat has hydraulic steering from teleflex (seastar) and is much better,but I am wondering what it would take to get it to auto steer.

What I have :
1: I already have hydraulic steering.
2: I have a raymarine a68 multifunction display that can act as a control unit for some raymarine course computers.
3: Lowrance globalmap 3500c dedicated GPS with nmea output.

My question is, should I try to find a raymarine system to work with the a68 or just watch for a good used system to pop up on ebay? Do some systems work better for trolling than others? Also, I have seen a few systems that just connect directly to the steering wheel and actually turn it to keep the course. Are these good? Thanks

Hi Nathan,

There are a number of auto pilot options available to you, I'd suggest that you consider looking at Lowrance's option. By running a HDS unit with their Autopilot Pack (https://www.lowrance.com/en-au/Products/Auto-Steering/) you should get what you need, you'll still need to control the throttle but other than that they can be set to run a line on your gps and off you go!

You will need to upgrade your Globalmap, but this is definitely something to consider as an option, even selling your existing A68 and Globalmap and upgrading to a larger combo head unit could be an option. IMO (and I'll upset a few guys by saying this) Lowrance offer a superior sounder to the Raymarine units and are easier to use as well. This isn't just an uneducated guess either, I've worked in the Marine industry for almost 5 years and I do currently have a Raymarine installed on my boat (just waiting to upgrade to a Lowrance).

Hope this helps!

Sam

Trolling around the lake is nice and relaxing,

Click to expand...

BUT - the way you put it, you put WAY too much WORK into it !!!!!

Thanks for the replies guys. You may very well be right about lowrance having a superior performing sounder, but they also have a superior price tag. I just bought the a68 because they have a ridiculously low price on them right now. Haven't even got er' in the boat yet. My current electronics will probably stay the way they are for a long time.

As far as the autopilot goes, I am not likely to buy new. I should have mentioned that in the original post. Everything (new) that I have looked at so far has just been cost prohibitive. I have seen complete used systems sell on ebay for less than half the price of new (+/-600).

I just don't know enough about them to know which systems are OK and which ones are not.

I talked to one guy who had a raymarine autohelm and he said it worked great, but only if you were traveling faster than 5 mph. That won't work for me. Will a hydraulic system hooked up to the GPS do a better job?

There may be too many variables involved with asking a question like this, but, can I buy a course computer, and a compatible pump and put something together? Or should I try to find a whole system? Or should I just keep on steering the boat?

Hey Barefoot, when you catch as many fish as we do it is a lot of work!