If you fish gnarly boulder fields and your main engine fails, you are in danger of grounding or worse unless you can stop your boat immediately, and that’s what those grapnels were for. Anyone who has ever fished from, been aboard my boats or has read my recommendations for safety afloat has noticed that the two heavy grapnel anchors-one in the bow and one in the stern-are always ready to deploy. On that cold day last fall, I wondered what the old-time watermen would think if they could see me fishing that spot alone and remaining right over the productive cleft in the ancient rock formation. The Minn-Kota eliminates the need for one or two other men to set and haul the anchors because it keeps you right over wherever you set it. There are plenty of ways to get tossed out of a boat, and setting an anchor (or two) to hold over structure is one of the most common. I fish solo quite often but seldom on trips when I am required to go forward to set an anchor. The remote is usually worn around the neck while the charger remains atop the rubber matt in the battery compartment. “Black Magic” is the term the author’s old-time mentors would have used to describe two of his favorite tools: the compact-yet-rugged remote that operates all facets of the motor and the digital charger that keeps both of the 12-volt batteries charged. I was all alone, set no anchors and didn’t even get my hands wet unless I was baiting a hook or releasing a fish. The house and chimney, along with most of the trees on the hill used as ranges were long gone, but the ledge is still there, and the tautog still frequent it as they have for thousands of years. This fall I was fishing over that same ledge where the old-timers used the sounding lead and three anchors to hold us close to the spot, but this time I was using my new Minn Kota I-Pilot motor with the magic of Spot-Lock and numerous other space-age functions. I left the dock that day knowing that somehow, and very soon, I had to get a Minn Kota Ulterra I-Pilot with Spot-Lock! The difference was difficult for this senior waterman to comprehend during what I considered an extraordinary experience. Fighting wind and tide I would estimate that we were actually over that productive habitat less than a third of the time.
The last time I had fished this piece of the wreck, which is about the size of a standard living room, was with a pair of bridled bow anchors and a stern grapnel buried into the debris field. My experience was quite simply put, “amazing.” That rugged-looking electric motor kept us over a section of the wreck for about three hours without moving more than a foot or two in any direction while we culled through numerous legal specimens of jumbo blackfish. The first time I fished on a boat equipped with a bow-mounted electric motor was two years ago, and despite my familiarity with most of the widespread advances in marine development, I was not prepared for the groundbreaking technology I was about to witness. No matter how many seasons you have under your hull, there is always something new to learn. From striped bass to blackfish, and everything in-between, the addition of a Minn-Kota Ulterra to his boat has greatly transformed the way the author fishes, and all for the better.
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