trolling

[FREEMAN77]

I have a 305 I/O in he boat I just bought can I troll with a motor that bog or do I have to get a kicker? or is there something Ican do to use my big motor?

[Fat Tommy]

Buy a trolling plate, or otherwise you'll need a kicker for sure. My 85hp outboard is too fast for trolling for anything other than pike, muskie, and maybe walleye speed trolling.

[Billy V]

I have twin 350's in my boat and troll with one of them all the time. My last boat, which was a 24 footer had a single 350 in it and we trolled it all the time too. You'll definitely get better fuel economy out of a kicker motor though. I'd take it out and see how it trolls down.

[Fat Tommy]

Thats odd. My motor, just in gear, is a little too fast. Just in gear its no less than 3mph

[Ray]

I have 24 footer with a 305 and I troll with it. Like Billy V said, give it a try.

[FREEMAN77]

ray did you need a trolling plate?

[Billy V]

It could just be the pitch of the prop that's making it hard to troll it down. When I bought my 24 footer a few years ago, I had a hard time getting it to troll down. I had it in to my mechanic for some work and told him that I wanted to troll down slower with it. He took it our for a ride and told me that if I put a different prop with less pitch on it that I would a) find it a lot easier to troll down, and b)gain top-end. We put a new prop on it and I was able to troll down a lot slower, while running the boat at higher RPM's (which is much better for the engine than super slow RPM's), plus I gained another 400 RPM and 5 or 6 mph on the top end.

[jimski2]

You could try dragging a drift sock on the side of your boat.

[W.W.IV.]

If you slow the idle down you can use 40wt. oil to keep the oil pressure up. If you hear rattling noises (the bearings) up the idle and use a plate or pull a bag Or try the different prop like B.V. or Jimski said.

[Fat Tommy]

how much are props? I've looked a ta few sites online without much in the way of figures. Not cheap I imagine.

[J.D.]

Tommy, stop by Bryce marine in Greece... he usually has a bunch of used props for sale. I use a "comp prop", composite plastic prop for a spare... brand new from Cabelas for $80. If you don't like it you can send it back no questions asked.

[Fat Tommy]

I wanted to get a stainless one, cause I've heard better things about them. how much would a stainless low pitch prop be?

[Ray]

FM,

No I do not have a trolling plate.

[Screamer]

Stainless Steel props can go from $300 on up. Take a look at Overton's web site, they sell them.

In my opinion, I would consider Stainless more for high performance use. Needless to say what areas will u be using the boat? If u are running in areas notorious for shallow waters, then an aluminum prop is more forgiving on the lower unit if u hit bottom. Aluminum is also less on your wallet to fix

[jimski2]

Mike hit bottom under the Grand Island Bridge with his stainless prop this weekend. The bill has reached $3100 now for a skeg, prop and shaft with bearings.

[Doug]

FM77.

I haven't noticed you post the size of your boat yet.

I run a 26 footer with a 350 mpi.

I troll with no difficulty by simply dropping my trim tabs when necessary.

A sea anchor will do the trick to.

I don't know of anyone that makes a trolling plate for an I/O.

Just noticed in another post that it is a 20' Searay.

Does it have trim tabs ?

Regards,

Doug

[fireplug]

A little late, but have you considered the cheap approach, the trolling bucket?? Made some for my boat, then the motor died before I could try them out. My boat trolls at 2.7+ on GPS just in gear, so I thought I'd try these babies. Hopefully I can report on them soon. The pics you see are from a guy in Maine from myfishfinder.com who uses them for just your reason. Can keep his RPM's up w/o having to use a kicker.

Good luck.

[FREEMAN77]

no it does not have trim tabs I was also thinking about maybe getting some put on but they seem a little to much cash for this year maybe next. and I also had another guy tell me about the buckets I think I will give that a try thanx for your input I am having some problems getting her registerd :roll: so it might not even be in the water until next year :evil: :x

[ray koziatek]

go to ebay type kayak sea anchors get a 18" and tie to side of boat like the big boys bout 12.00 bucks roll it up when your done

[FREEMAN77]

thanx ray