Fishing out of a 23 or 27 out board

[starcrafttom]

For those of you that fish out of a 27ob how do you handle driving while trolling?. On my currently boat I drive from a second station on the back deck. I have not seen any photos of second stations. Wireless auto pilot? If so just how responsive is that? The 23 seems to have a shorter sun top without the back poles in the way. Can you get a 27 that way?

 

[kkassahn]

I have a R-23 and a 9.9 Yamaha kicker. The kicker has the Panther T-5 remote steering that has worked great for me. You can open up the rear window, reverse the dinette seat and watch your poles. You can also watch your fish finder screen and monitor depth. The controller hangs around your neck so you can walk about and still steer.

Hope this helps,
Kurt

 

[Mike and Sarah]

We have a 2020 r27 with the 9.9 Yamaha kicker. It has the throttle control, tilt, shift control and key at the rear of the cockpit. I added a troll master remote throttle control. So with that I can increase or decrease the boat speed to fine tune the trolling speed with its remote. This is the best thing we have done to refine our trolling speed and put more salmon in the boat. For steering the 9.9 is linked to the main engine so you can troll and use the autopilot. The auto pilot hand held remote is awesome. You have complete control on your steering and it reacts quickly.
Yes the pole for the canopy on the r27 does get in the way a little. We just hand the fishing pole around the canopy pole. Some owners have modified the canopy pole to be removable when fishing and then put it back in when not fishing.. seems like a good solution. I may do the mod this winter.

 

[Daveruegger]

I have the same setup as mike and Sarah and use the autopilots to steer as for the pole to the rear canopy I have been using the fishing rod holders installed by the factory out in the ends of the cockpit putting the fishing rod outside to rod to the canopy and running the down rigger angle back with the boom extended. This has worked well.

 

[starcrafttom]

Thank you all for your reply. Sounds doable. I noticed that the 23 does not have the poles but a shorter cover. I think that would be the way to go. Looking to buy used next summer.

 

[starcrafttom]

I will be looking for a test ride before then. Willing to trade a ling cod trip \training in the San Juan's on my current boat in may.

 

[Salish Seaker]

Hey Tom, it's nice to see you on the site. I can't speak to the R27 but the R23 is a comfortable fishing platform. I like the half bimini, no poles in the way. I can steer either with the Garmin hand held remote using the autopilot on the main or the Panther T-5 remote on the kicker. On the R23, the kicker is not tied to the main with a tie bar. I like opening the port rear window and sitting facing the stern to watch the rods (bouncing)!

The only complaint I've had is that the downrigger pads are too far forward, causing the downrigger balls to go under the stern near the motors when trolling against the current. I think I fixed that problem by mounting Scotty stanchion mounts closer to the stern (check out my album). We'll see how well that works this weekend. I also extended the booms on the DRs and that helps.

Good luck on your research and heres hoping you join the club next spring. Although, have you seen the nice R27's for sale on this site?

Take care,
Peter