Take manual control or aircraft reconfiguration?
I don't know what Captain Sullenberger did but in the East Midlands B737 accident some years ago I seem to recall that the captain immediately taking manual control dramatically increased his workload and certainly did not help his attempts to deal with the problem with tragic consequences.
In my own company it is a broad rule that using the AP and handing control to the co-pilot is the preferred initial actions which then allows the (usually) more experienced captain to concentrate on managing the problem with as few distractions as possible.
Non-pilots will possibly not appreciate how much mental capacity manual flying involves especially with a non-normal condition.