sherman brown

you need to adjust the ez steer connecting arm to shorten the travel to the right an adjust to get more travel to the left.

I cranked those manual riggers for over 35 yrs. but I was watching ebay when these 2 suppliers got in a price war per say. I picked up one new pro tournament riggers for 525.00 then I contacted the other one and he let me have one for the same price. but I ended up with getting four of them for that price. but 4 with 6 lite bite slide divers was just to much work. so I sold 2 of them. the only regret was that I hadn't bought electric riggers much sooner. I fish the central basin for eyes. the electric riggers saves my old broken down body.

I used a 10' diver rod to run my lite bite divers. but it was a little cumbersome. now I use a 7' in the back, then an 8' in the middle, and a 9' in front. this way it keeps my lines apart.

I use the whooping stick for riggers and they work great for downriggersl. I was using the 9' med action for saltwater fishing. but they don't have it anymore. so I went with the 8' and couldn't be happier. when hooked to a nice redfish or black drum i've had them bend the rods down to the water. its rated for 4# to 20# line. but I was using 30# braid on them. I've not had one break even with what I put them through. I had a couple of black beauty rods I got off ebay that were good rigger rods.

I take it you have a kicker motor for trolling. it might cost a little more money. why not get auto pilot for your kicker motor. then that would solve your problem. the reason I went without a kicker is my brother bought the auto pilot for my mercruiser. it didnt cost me anything. at the time I didnt have the money to buy a kicker motor.

no I don't think any steering wheel auto pilot unit will turn without hydraulic steering. I just use my big engine to troll with use trolling bags to get my speed down.

to do it right you need hydraulic steering. but if you don't want to pay for it you can get one like I have. mine fits below the steering wheel. it isn't as good as one using the hydraulic steering system. it makes it harder to turn when your not trolling. also it is noisy and doesn't keep a straight line when trolling. but it does work good enough. mine is from raymarine. I have about 3000,00 invested in mine. but that was for the unit plus I added the positioning sensor to mine foe better control. then I had calumet marine do the installation for me. the thing is I kinda like not going in a straight line while trolling. good luck with a new autopilot. you'll like having it for trolling.

I would get daiwa wilderness trolling rods from fishusa.com. get them in med/light weight. they do seem a little light. but they are awesome rods. a lot of people don't think med/light are to light for trolling. but I can tell more about when something is on with them instead of a broom stick..

you can get the cannon ratcheting rod holder at hodgesmarine.com for them for 74.00 each plus the tracks. you will want to get tracks a little longer than you think you need. I got a 24" but it wasnt long enough for me. so I just added another 24".now when im trolling its easy to set them up with lite bite slid divers. but other rod holders will do the job. but the cannon can be set with one hand. then when you bring a rod in just grab the rod and lift and they will ratchet to the upright position. no more leaning over the s the side of the boat to get a rod. you just lift the rod out of the holder.

you need a mono backing so the braid doesn't slip on the spool. I didnt use any backing when I first started using braid. went out trolling and had 3 reels that kept giving me trouble. sent them to tuna tom to get then repaired. he drilled a hole in the reel spool to put a pin in and sent them back to me and let me know that the braid was slipping. now I use 150' of 17# mono as a backer for my braid. braid is to costly to use as backing.

I use the lite bite slide diver. I run 65# power pro braid on top of the mono. I went out to 50' of water and let out line until I started hitting bottom. with this set up and running at 2.0 it took 185' to get down to 50'. then I did the math and got 2.7 dive for every 10' of line out with my diver set up.

I don't even use the slide part of the diver but use lure tension by being able to use just about a 6' to 7' fluro for my leads then I use about 65# line then tie a 0-RING on a piece and lace it up in the back going through the lite bite arm. I just tie to the front arm.with my main line. using the slide divers for longer leads is your choice. I will never use the slide part as I get plenty long enough leaders using it like a dipsy. but I can catch plenty of fish with the short 6' or 7' leader.