"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote ...

A trolling plate can cause you control problems - in particular in
strong currents or rips - oddly, that's where the big fish lurk. All
my big stripers and bluefish have been caught within 50/60 feet of
shore in and around rocks and rips. I'd rather have the ability to
maneuver than have it restricted with a trolling plate.

It's one problem that I have with the Ranger - I can't slow it down
enough at slack tide for the really big stripers. Normally, I can
work with the tides and rips to keep the speed down, but at other
times, it's impossible.

And, I know it sounds stupid, but 1/1.5 mph can make a difference.

I expected to notice less control after installing a trolling plate on my 15hp
kicker but it didn't happen. I troll for salmon and like the big slow roll of
plug-cut herring at 1 to 1.5 mph. Even with the lowest pitch prop it was still
too fast so I tried a spring loaded trolling plate. It did the trick without
any control issues. The spring allows it to flip up with sufficient thrust from
the prop when faster maneuvering is required. It handles fine manually and on
the auto-pilot.

-rick-