Priority1

Mike, You are so right. I fished the Bay for walleye since the 80s and have never seen so many fish in the system.

Aaron, GJ on the eyes.

Tom, Quality time with your son is so important. You are giving him memories that will last his lifetime.

Russ, GJ on the eyes.

This young man caught his first walleye today along with this 26 inch fish.25-29 FOW 2oz and 3oz bouncers with home spun harnesses. Color didn't seem to matter. The fish moved just slightly on us today. We started slow but finished strong. Water temps were 72-73 degrees F. The fish seemed to like the larger Colorado blades today. 20 fish box 4 man limit. I was up at 4 AM the last three days. I'll get back on them Monday.

We pulled lines today at 9:30 with a 4 man limit. Same stuff as yesterday. 25-28 FOW everything was going. Bouncers and meat. 1.5 MPH. There are a lot of nice fish in the system as well as several year classes. It looks good for at least 6 or 7 years.

Tom, Fantastic.

The $4000 may be the stopper. I'm just a Po Boy.

Nothing fancy bouncers and meat the KISS method. 24-37 FOW. The Bay is HOT. There are still some nice fish to be had in the inner bay. Our largest fish was a tad over 6#. Larry S, and Chuck A, were given a warm welcome aboard as first timers on Priority1. Bob M was also welcome aboard again. By the end of the trip things were running like a well oiled machine.

With all due respect Frank, I'm trying to understand why you have such high expectations from an autopilot's performance. A 2'-3' sea traveling at 1mph upwind or downwind with your size boat is going to be almost impossible to keep a steady straight troll, with or without the ap, imho. Why are you proposing such a slow troll? Normal speeds for me usually range from 1.5-2.8 mph, depending on the waves, speed at the ball, and wind. You might want to propose this scenario to the mfrs. technical assistance people and see what they send back to start.

I can control the boat going into 3 footers @ 1 MPH but most people that I fish with can't. Meat fishing for eyes early means 1 MPH or less.

Frank I know why 1 mph is so important,and I think the gps to mechical slow reaction (update) would be the chagellen.up on a roller and back down the boat can be half sideways again.wonder if a older system that targets n or heading would be quick enought.just my .002 idea

tom

Tom, If anyone understands the need to go that slow it's you for sure. Trolling into 2 and three foot seas I'll have the wheel cranked all the way a lot of the time. The one thing lacking with any mechanical device is anticipation.

You need a very strong autopilot to do that. All a good autopilot does is maximize the potential of what your working with a lot of the time driving better then you or i could. IF you dont have enough hp or your rudder is not big enough its not the autopilots fault that it wont keep coarse because if you were driving you wouldnt be able to either. So basically if its possible for your boat with the way you have it set up in those conditions one of these top of the line autopilots will do just fine.

Do you run a kicker? If you run a kicker the TR-1 Gold will probably do the trick for you. I dont run 1mph but i had a TR-1 Gold on a 24ft hewescraft on an 8hp power thrust kicker and ran it in about 4 footers at about 2.5 mph.

If you dont run a kicker then converting to hydraulic is a must, then adding a GHP-10. I ran my dads 27ft hardtop boat with a GHP-10 trolling in 8fters during a fishing tournament and it did not miss a beat. (I dont normally run in 8fters but if the money is on the line you have to fish an luckily enough we had the right equipment and people to get the job done and win that tournament)

Thanks Ryan, I run the just one engine for boat control reasons. I can control my boat going into 3 foot seas @ 1 MPH but others can not. I need to get the slow speeds for walleye fishing in the early Spring. It's not unusual for us to troll at 0.7 to 1.0 MPH until the water temps start getting out of the 50s. I'd like to see a GHP-10 perform.

Most of you know I run a 22 Starcraft Islander Hardtop. I was wondering if anybody has a similar boat with Auto Pilot that will work well in two foot seas doing 1 MPH? I was also wondering if I would need to upgrade the steering from rack and pinion to hydraulic. Before seriously considering the Auto Pilot I would like to see one work at 1.0 MPH in 2 ft seas. I have my doubts if any exist but I have been wrong before. Even at Salmon speeds I see some auto pilots steering wheel getting a real workout.

Nice work Jason with a payday to boot.

Hold on Frank, if the Dog comes East, he owes me a trip aboard the Eyefull first:lol:. That goes for fishsniffer and tangled mess to.

LMAO!!!!!!!!!!! What puts Eyefull ahead of Priority1??? It's all in the name. Priority1 is just that.

Brom, What a hog. Congrats

Tony, Fantastic fishing.

I just moved this to the Saginaw Bay Forum.

The Inner Bay is still HOT.

Luke, Nice work.

Scott, Thanks for the report. I live near the Singing Bridge. We are so blessed to have this great fishery in our back yards. Keep up the good work.

Awsome work guys!

"Every Dog Has it's Day", aboard Priority1. I just need to get a Dirty Dog onboard.

Thanks so much for the trip Frank' date=' you and Tom are the best! We all had a great time and made more wonderfull memories aboard Priority 1![/quote']

You and your grandsons are always welcome. The kids are so well behaved and always are eager to take a rod and catch a fish. I hope we didn't wear their grandpa out.

Eric, Way to get back on em.

Capt. Chris, I love reading your reports and viewing the pics.

Nick, Nice work.