This trip was slated to prove out / set-up the TR-1 Gold autopilot I bought used and installed on my boat, with fishing being a bonus. Well, the Fish Gods were smiling on us because it worked flawlessly right from the get-go. Just point the boat at a distant feature and the TR-1 holds that vector. It constantly adjusts the kicker to account for wind, waves or current. Best thing to come along for trolling since the 4-stroke. Sorry for the sales pitch, but it’s just that awesome. Especially when you’re trolling into the wind with 2 people in the boat and you get a double.

We fished from 1:30 to 6:00 and picked up two FAT bows’, 18” & 19”. My old crappy scale said the big one was 5lbs. but I think it was closer to 4lbs. We trolled with 8 weight fly rods and full sinking line. The lure of the day was the black Woolly Bugger. These were great fighting fish! There was no horsing them in with the fly rods. We had to put the kicker in neutral to get the big one in and it still took 10 minutes.

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