Trolling Plate for stern drive I/O

[tool]

I was gifted an older 18' run about last fall which I am hoping to take on some fishing adventures this year. It's an '89 18' Regal Bowrider with a 4.3 Mercruiser I/O

I don't see this being my "forever boat" so I'm not sure if I want to invest in an electric trolling setup or not but would like to do some trolling, the I/O's are typically too fast for this so I've been considering trying one of the "trolling plate" setups that seem to be readily available.

Anybody ever use one of these?

Is it worth it and how did it work?

[mlee]

I have a large happy troller plate on my boat.
It's a 175 fish and ski with a 115hp outboard. I did re-prop as well but with the plate down I'm at about 1.1mph at 750rpm vs about 2mph with the plate up at the same rpm. It did wat I wanted it to do so I'm happy with $200 I spent.

[-JR-]

I had an older inboard that had a carb. I wanted that 2 mph speed so i just adjusted the low idle throttle stop to that speed .

[tool]

Originally Posted by -JR-

I had an older inboard that had a carb. I wanted that 2 mph speed so i just adjusted the low idle throttle stop to that speed .

Interesting, this boat is carbed as well. Worth a try I guess. You didn't have issues with it wanting to stall when you are shifting from neutral into forward or reverse?

Maybe first I should get it out and idle around and see what speed it's actually doing with my phone gps or something.

[-JR-]

No it ran really good .

[TROLLER]

DRIFT SOCK

They come in a few different sizes, but are very effective. I use a small one on my new 14ft.

My fishn bud uses one on his 17 with a 115hp outboard and no issues trolling 1.6-1.8 MPH They sell em at Bass and most are around $50