Spot Lock in river while catfishing

I just picked up a Terrova for my 14' boat planning on using it a ton on the lakes for drop shotting pannies/eyes while spot locked over 15-30 fow. I do fish for cats in the spring and occasionally throughout the summer. Has anyone tried to spot lock on a river for cats? I don't fish rivers with fast current.

Used it on the Mississippi off of Stoddard last week. We held nicely. There were moments where we moved a bit due to wind shift, but I get that anyway with anchoring up. So far I am very happy with what I have experienced.

Edit:  Tried it out on the Rock River in moderate current. It actually worked better in the spots with a little more steady current. The most I would move was a foot or so up or down river. Not quite as good as anchoring, but it would do in a pinch if I was especially tired or lazy.

Haven't had a chance to test it out yet. Found a bad fuel pump on my outboard. Waiting for the part. Once I test it in current I'll chime back in. The little I have used it on a local lake, I have really liked it alot.

Was with a guy who used it on the Wisconsin River.  I was using slip bobbers and 4-5’ of boat movement mad a huge difference.  Hated it.  Lost numerous rigs because of it. 

There is a little white hockey puck sized receiver to locate the GPS signal.  When properly set up it knows how far it is away from the trolling motor and compensates accordingly.   The back of the boat may fishtail many feet while the bow repositions.

Catitude

Remember that the farther you are from the puck the more you move.

 what is a puck?

The only river fishing I have done lately is on the Milwaukee river around Theinsville.

I use it for smallie fishing and that river at times has a pretty good current, It seems to do the job, and I only have a 12V systems on the terrova on a 16.5 lund. it keeps me withing in 3 to 5 feet, and I also have the newer model;, 2020. A regular anchor at times struggles to hold me, since most of that river is rock or hard bottom.

FF on the  previous post is spot on about the terrova. I did like the older model for jigging it covered more area but the new terrova works alot better for me flathead fishing the Mississippi river used it in strong current to very little current  works good either way for me. 

Depends on the model.  I had a 2013 Terrova with IPilot and the spot lock on that one sucked.  Best would be 15-20 feet.  It waits till you drift and then powers you back to the spot.  You would not be able to bottom fish.  I have a new Terrova and spotlock is 100 times better and you keeps you positioned.  It is constantly running and doesnt wait until you drift off the spot to turn on and power you back.  Keeps you within 3-5 feet.  I use it river fishing all the time.  

My experience with spot lock is, no, it won’t work great for still fishing on the bottom. It works off satellite/gps and mine has up to 15’ of variance. So if you’re trying to keep a bait still and be in constant contact with it, spot lock isn’t going to do it well. Newer models may be better at keeping you on a spot but even a few feet will be tough to keep constant contact with a bait. I wouldn’t expect a miracle. For me spot lock works great for bobber fishing or casting. 

Remember that the farther you are from the puck the more you move.  Last time I fished with my brother in law, I lost a handful of jigs, he was 14' from the puck and lost a comically large amounts of jigs.

Spot Lock with a 12 volt single battery system is going to need a high capacity battery to get the performance you want. You may even need to run 2 batteries to get the run time you want. I would expect to need to run the trolling motor at 30-50% of thrust to combat the current, from there you can calculate the amp draw per hour and compare that to your battery’s capacity to get a rough idea of run time. 

Just thinking I also have friend that has a light 16ft with a floor like a duck hunting boat.He has 12 volt on it think it puts out 50 pounds ? and I can not remember a time it did not work for what you are trying to do.

Thanks for the responses. It is just 12 volts, but it's on a 14' boat. I'm thinking it will work. Man, that would really save my back. Yanking up anchors from the debris on the river bottom is no fun.

I have for smallmouths, works great.

I see angler X videos using spot lock on the Mississippi river. I think he said it has 80lb thrust. Seemed to work fine. Will have to be my next investment.