Hi, Minn Kota pro Scott Bonnema here. Wanna talk to you today a little bit about
the brand new Minn Kota Ultrex trolling motor – recently released in the marketplace. A few of the Bassmaster Elites have had the
opportunity to use them lately. I’ve had the opportunity now to use it for
a few weeks, in tournaments as well. I found that, doing a lot of the on the water demonstrations
and discussions with anglers, there’s a lot of questions and I want to just try to point
out a few things real quick for you. First off, the Ultrex is an independent unit. It is operational regardless of which ultra
sonic SONAR unit you’re using. The GPS technology is built into the head
of the trolling motor and it has accuracy to within a 3-foot circle. So when we hit Spot-Lock, we have the ability
to stay in that exact position. The other thing that you’ll find is that you
operate it exactly the same was as you utilize your standard units today – the Fortrex for
example. The difference is it has a cable steer as
well as electronic control in the head of the unit which allows us to have power steering,
so it’s really easy to use. There’s no fighting the trolling motor and
it’s exceptionally fast. We’re gonna dump it in the water in a few
minutes and show you how that works. But having said that, the other function or
feature that we have, is a handheld remote. So all the operations of the trolling motor
from the foot can also be done now remotely from anywhere within the boat. So if you have your family with you, or if
it’s really rough and you just wanna stand in the back and fish, you can Spot-Lock it,
you can adjust the speed, move forward, reverse, etc. from the handheld remote. It also tells you the GPS signal strength
you have, it tells you how much power you have within your batteries, as well as the
speed and position. So that’s just a handheld remote that you’ll
start to see bass anglers start to use in the future. The unit’s available with a 45-inch shaft,
a 52-inch shaft, or a 60-inch shaft. As a bass angler, I’ve always liked to stay
with the shorter shaft, but as an example I’m planning to go with a 52-inch model now
with a 112-lb. system for next year, because when you are in the big waves, and you really
want to use that S pot-Lock technology if it’s real windy as an example, that allows you
to stay in the water. A thing I want to point out though that’s
a huge benefit of this – because we have an electric motor, and cable steering, when we’re
in real rough water now, we can hit Spot-Lock we don’t have to stand in the front we can
kind of step back a little bit if we want and have a little more comfort in our fishing
but because that cable motor is there, when we set its location, it stays locked in that
position. So if it comes up and down out of the water,
the trolling motor does not fight back and forth – it just stays in one locked position
and goes up and down. It automatically will move left or right to
keep us on that position. A huge feature when you’re actually in the
water fishing with it. So again – handheld technology, high speed
movements, precision locking, GPS technology, built into the unit, available in 80- or 112-lb
thrust technology – I think you’re gonna find it to be an awesome tool. One of the other quesitons I get is guys saying,
“hey – I’ve got a Fortrex. You know, what do I do? Do I keep that Fortrex, do I buy a new Ultrex?” My recommendation to guys – because this is
such a game changer, and truly will change the way we fish, I’d recommend, guys, keep
your Fortrex…keep it as a back up unit – just in case something were to happen on the water
and you break something. We have the ability to take the allen wrench
out, and with this new bracket design we can slide the Ultrex out and/or we can put the
Fortrex onto it, and lock it in place. So we can utilize the same bracket for the
Fortrex if we needed to have it. So again – keep it as a spare unit. Put it on only in the case of an emergency,
and you’re good to go. So let’s dump in the water and we’ll go show
you how simple it is to use. Ok so we’re on the water. I wanted to show you quickly some of the simple
features of this new Ultrex. It comes standard with stainless steel, plastic-coated
cables for control. It has the same heavy-duty bracket that Minn
Kota’s had for a long time with lift-assist, one-handed operation, locking feature, for
stowing, and deploying the trolling motor. The transducer is built into each and every
unit – it’s got a built-in Universal Sonar into the unit. The difference you’re gonna see right away
is that the whole head will move. Because it’s an electric, power-steering style
unit – we have a power switch here to turn the power on or off – simply turn the power
on, and now we have sensor controls in the head and so we can simply, with one finger,
operation, the harder you push, the quicker it responds. Very very fast. And very quiet. Operate it exactly the same way you would
operate your standard Fortrex units – you got the power control built into the foot
pedal, directional controls – very simple. In addition, we have the speed setting on
the side. So you operate it just as you always would
have. The difference is Spot-Lock technology. Now that I have found a spot – let’s say I’m
fishing – all I do, literally, is tap this button. You notice on the control that the Spot-Lock
function is now enabled. This trolling motor will now stay within a
3-foot circle as to its location, and will automatically make that adjustment. You see it operating on its own right now. So depending upon the wind – whether it’s
wind or current – if you find that location, it will automatically stay at that spot. It automatically ramps up or decreases the
speed for the trolling motor to stay at that location. One of the questions we’ve been getting is,
“well does that really chew up the battery?” The reality is no – it uses less battery because
it’s slowly ramping up and slowly backing off instead of high speed movements – so it’s
very, very smooth in its operation. It’ll use less battery in the long run. To get out of Spot-Lock – so now I’m fishing,
I can literally walk around in the boat, I can go retie, maybe, as an example, I just
fished a tournament, caught a fish, it was very windy, I hit Spot-Lock, literally walked
away, went back, did the fish management in the live wells, walked right back up, made
another cast, caught another fish – I did that three consecutive times. No other technology would allow me to do that. So it’s that simple. Now let’s say I wanna move over. All I do to get out of Spot-Lock is just touch
the pedal. Once I’ve done that, Spot-Lock is now disengaged,
and I’m moving. I can go anywhere I want to go. Once I get to another spot, all I do is tap
the button. Now those are the simple ways of operation
that we would do as a normal bass angler. The same functions can be done from this handheld
remote. So if I wanna stand in the back of the boat,
let my buddies up front, or my kids, or if I just want to operate the boat from the back,
I can do all of those same functions from the handheld remote. I’ve got high speed bypass, I’ve got jogging
capabilities – and that’s what the handheld will allow you to do. It shows you the speed, the trolling motor,
if it’s running, it’s location, it’ll show you within a foot-and-a-half of where you’re
at from the spot that you put into it. The other thing that the remote allows you
to do, is you can put in sixteen separate spots. So if you have sixteen different areas, you
can hit GoTo spot number 1, as long as you’re within a quarter mile of that spot, this trolling
motor will automatically go to that spot and stay within a three-foot circle of where you
had entered it. It also has the ability within the remote
to put in sixteen tracks – and you can put sixteen tracks, each up to two-miles long,
in here. So you would record it, and then end it, and
then you can recall those standard in the control. One of the additional features that we have
on these models is called i-Pilot Link. And that’s the function where you would need
the Humminbird electronics. The trolling motor will link directly to the
Humminbird units, and in that case, what’s cool about it is that if you have hundreds
of waypoints, you can simply say “I wanna go to waypoint 422,” and you can point it
out and it’ll just go to it. And so you’ll be able to operate the same
functions from your Humminbird unit and link all of your data points to the trolling motor. And that’s a separate feature of the i-Pilot
Link system that is available in these Ultrex units. So, again, they’re available in 80-pound thrust,
112-pound thrust technologies, various shaft lengths are available. They also have the ability to upgrade from
i-Pilot to i-Pilot Link, which will tie you into Humminbird units. Short of that, the trolling motor is completely
independent and can be operated accordingly. That’s really all there is to it. Simple operation, extremely fast and quiet. It is truly a game changer for the bass fisherman.