[Marque]

A power pole is a great accessory, I use mine often, but it is not a necessity. Unless you have 2 of them it is impossible to anchor with your bow facing into the current. The majority of fish I catch are caught retrieving my bait with the current so if I don't want to fish off the back of my boat, I also have to anchor the front of my boat as well, which sorta defeats the purpose of the power pole. Whereas with an ipilot, the anchor lock will always keep your bow pointed 180 deg to the current direction. What I do (before I let a friend take my boat and he managed to fry my ipilot, I was taking a nap at the camp and he kept bugging me) was set my anchor lock and let it lock in good. Depending on the speed of the current this may take a few minutes. Yes, it does kick in high to get you back into place but will settle down once it gets a good lock and when its good and locked I will set my power pole. Doing so greatly reduces the amount of thrust needed to keep the boat stationary. If I had to choose one or the other I would choose my ipilot any day of the week and twice on Sunday. The auto pilot feature on the ipilot is equally as useful as the anchor lock in my opinion. Just get boat pointed in the direction you want to go, hit the autopilot and forget about it. It adjust to keep you headed in the same direction no matter what way the current or the wind pushes your boat. Depending on the current draft of your boat, I would say a jackplate would be more useful than a power pole as well. On my boat with my jack plate down, my motor will drag in 2 1/2 to 3' of water. So if I am trolling in a shallow flat, I would have to trim my motor to keep it from dragging if I didn't have a jack plate. I don't know about you but I hate being on the trolling motor and not having the lower unit of my big motor to act as a rudder of shorts. It is also awesome when you put your boat on the trailer, especially if the ramp you launched from is not all that great. You are never going to plow your skeg into concrete if your jackplate is up. The water is high now but if you fish in the winter at all you will really appreciate a hydraulic jackplate. It is not just for getting on step in shallow water, it also prevents you from having to come off plane when driving through the shallow spots. It has saved me more than a few times. I can blow through 9 mile cut in the winter in low water and not have to worry about hitting bottom. I have two chart plotters, they came with my boat and they are nice but I know where I am going 95% of the time. So if you don't fish a whole lot of different places electronics are not going to provide a great amount of utility. However, my command link gauges are invaluable. They allow me to operate my motor in the most efficient manner possible. I can see my RPM, MPH, GPH, MPG, oil pressure, water pressure, engine temp, battery life, trim angle, hours, fuel consumption, odometer, give me a reminder when service is needed, will tell me if anything is up with my motor, you name it.

An ipilot would definitely be first on my list. If I were you I would go to superior trolling motor in lafayette and talk to those guys. I don't know if they take trade in's but they will sell your trolling motor for you, they did for me. I bought a new minn kota from them after the motor guide I had broke for the 100th time. They didn't didn't charge a consignment fee but did take the cost of the repairs out of what they sold it for. I bet they wouldn't take a percentage if you bought a new ipilot from them.