Thread: trolling plates

Hey guys, I'm hoping a few of you trolling experts can help me out. I'm looking at getting a trolling plate for the 50hp I got. Do you guys have any recommendations on what trolling plates to get? I looked at the Hydro troll from Cabelas but it has some terrible reviews. thanks guys.

i wouldnt try to idle a big motor down to use for crappie trolling. i think the trolling plates you see advertised are for faster trollin and wont slow the boat enough to pull jigs. i have two gas trolling motors. a 2 &1/2 johnson and a 5hp honda. to get both of em slowed down enough to pull jigs at a little above idle required some serious changes to the motor. i dont think you can get the bigger motors slowed down enough to pull jigs at an acceptable speed for crappie and get it to perform pulling the boat to.. at least we never could do it. back yonder almost everyone used little gas kickers modified to pull jigs instead of electrics. (at least the people i fished around). wed troll all day long most times and the electrics back then wasnt as easy on batteries as the power savers are today. plus the gas motors would buck the wind much better than the electrics do. i am seriously considering gettin back to trolling shortly and ill go to the small gas engines like we used to use. the johnson i have ran at idle speed for years without ever a problem other than replacing a plug occasionaly. if it would fit my sea ark id use it still but its too short for the transom. the honda, well its never been reliable for long before somekind of adjustments had to be made to it.

I HAVE USED THE HAPPY TROLLER BRAND. IT IS DIFFICULT TO GET SPEEDS LESS THAN 1 MPH WITHOUT A DRIFT SOCK.

MONK http://MONKSCRAPPIE.COM

i would not invest the money and time, they work great for faster trolling like for walleye but a crappie likes .3-.7 at the high end , you cant beat a good electric motor i have a 18' offshore and a 24 pontoon and i use a 54lb thrust auto-pilot on both and i can troll for about 12hrs at medium speed with no problem, and the auto pilot makes it almost too easy, my 54lb trolling motor will pull my 18' offshore 2.5 mph at full speed and that is pulling 10 long line crappie rods with jigs, i used to use a small outboard but it would have to have the carbon flushed out after every season to keep running right and if it is a big motor you have to worry about carbon buildup and keeping the motor cool, and last but not least i have actually seen the crappie come up and hit a jig i had hanging off the side of my boat because the electric motors are so quiet

I'm glad I saw this post. I had been thinking about getting one myself.

I agree with the previous posts, you need the capability to troll at very slow speeds, only on rare occasions will you need to troll faster. I have a minnkota terrova 55# with auto pilot and copilot, mounted on rubber isomounts and it is extremely quiet and real easy on the battery.

if you modify the motor to where it will run just above idle, the carbon buildup wont be a problem. (the smaller motors are designed to run at much lower and slower speeds than the big ones are.) at least it never was on my johnson, which i run 10 years and it is still a great motor, just too short for the sea ark.. the honda, its never run consistantly good, its also noisy, expensive. no matter what adjustments we made to ive never been happy with it. weve had other motors that run for years without a problem. the honda is a four stroke and that might be the problem.. on my sea ark i have a 55 lb thrust auto pilot ive used more for striper fishing than anything and it does a great job. i havent done much crappie trolling with it but the few times i have trolled, i like it as long as i am in calm water. it does a great job even into the wind in open water of freein you up in the boat, especially if you dont have a rod man. hugging the ledges and keeping the boat at a precise depth is hard to do, especially with an electric going into the wind. back when i trolled, in the 80's and early 90's we had one or two rod men, and a pilot. the pilot kept control of the boat and the rod men worked the rods, which was necessary since the pilot had to keep control of the boat as there was no such things as autopilots. im pretty sure that soon we are gonna be settin up another trolling boat and dont know yet how we are gonna power it. since its gonna be anothers boat, i suspect hes gonna go with gas as thats all hes ever used. its all a matter of personal choice. each kind has its pros and cons. and both work.

I used the Happy Troller for years trolling for salmon. Carbon build up was a problem. Use a kicker motor or an electric. Gonna get into trollin for crappies myself.

yeah, I guess I better stick with the electric. The problem is, I have a 54lb thrust on a 24ft pontoon and its max speed is 1.4 with no wind. This kills my battery really quick. I believe there may be something wrong with the trolling motor.