bending my trolling plate

[buster107]

I have a 97 islander with a 3 liter in it. I keep bending my plate. I had a buddy beef it up and I still bent the heck out of it. I put it down to fish and when I throttle it up to go into the wind and waves it bends it!! Should I get a different prop for my boat?? Any suggestions will help!!! I have a happy trolling plate.

[NO MO BEGGEN]

forget the plate. and get a set of trolling bags. plumkrazy and bendden rods both use them and they work great

[Turfwrench]

I have always cut a new notch in the plate so that it only goes down half way, it still slows you down and allows for better steering control. So far have not bent one up.

[SeaCatMich]

Why don't you just pop the plate to the up position when you are going to need more throttle to get the speed you want? It is likely in that situation you could run without the plate down at a little lower RPM. Easy to put it back down by putting the boat in neutral when you need it again.

[1mainiac]

Get bags you will love them they slow you down and stabilize the boat. By letting you run a higher rpm you get much better boat control. I ran a plate for years and thought I liked it till I started running bags I was wrong trolling plates suck LOL. Throw a set of 20in bags of the midship cleat and you will think your on a bigger boat they will flatten out small waves as they keep the boat from rocking. The best setup is birds but they are not all that practical for our way of fishing. I also have a design for what I call mini birds. My design is like a huge Dipsey Diver and while they provide drag which will slow you a bit are really about boat stabilization and getting rid of roll.

[buster107]

Thanks guys I do have trolling bags. They are a little bit of a pain in my a__ to deploy!!! I will get I figured out this winter!!!

[FsnMachine]

I don't use my trolling bags on my current boat a s I shut off the main motor and run on the kicker. But on my last boat I had the bags all pretide with ropes and hanging on the inside oof the boat. When needed I just had to throw then over the side. absolutely no work to deploy. Rope lenghts where all the right length. I never have liked trolling plates.

[sherman51]

i guess im the odd ball on here, because i,ve always likeed the trolling plate better. i dont understand why your plate is bending. i used a happy troll plate untill i switched to the easy troller. the only time mine bent was when i took off with the plate still down. then i had a hard time getting it bent back in place. i had to lay it under my old motorhome and set a 10 ton bottle jack on it and jack the motorhome up. but that worked.

now if you really want to stay with a trolling plate, throw that happy troller away and get you an easy troller. they look and work alot like the happy troll. but the bottom half is hinged and spring loaded, if you give it alittle to much gas the bottom half will swing up and nothing bends. its the caddy of trolling plates. boatersoutlet.com has them for 99.00, or you can sometimes get them alittle cheaper used on ebay. but its hard to beat 99.00 for a brand new easy troller. give them a look and let me know what you think.

i have forgot about mine and took off with it down, i think it might have bent it just alittle but not enough that it hurts anything. im not even sure its bent. but the easy troller is so much better than the happy troller.

sherman

[Blackhawk]

I agree with Sherman. My 3 cyl. 2 stroke loves the plate. Even at 3.0 to 4.0 mph it would load up and foul plugs. I have been extremely happy with the Easy Troller. The hinged bottom is the key. Adding the notch as Turfwrench showed would be an easy fix for you and might solve the issue.

[kingfish123]

Trolling bags are the way to go Amish make some great bags, and really makes for a nice ride in rough weather. With my 22" bags I can get my 21ft slick down to 1.5 mph to even troll for walleye.

[Flat Rate]

I also recommend using the trolling bags both for speed control and stabilization, I had the plate and had the same issue you are having. I use the bags now along with a Beaver Troll to "fine tune" my speed if needed.

[BILLY JOE]

on my old boat when i used my plate most of the time i would not use it trolling into the waves

[misterwizard]

I bought this trolling plate from "Johnson Marine Products" last year for my Islander. Ordered it off their web site. shipped to my door for $129.00. You won't bend this one. made of 1/4 in. steel. Spring loaded plate, no release mechanism to worry about.

[misterwizard]

Heres a trolling plate you won't bend. I bought it online from "Johnson Marine Products" delivered to my door for $129.00. No release mechanism to deal with. 1/4 in. steel plate.

[Rascal Trophy Fishing]

Remember too when using trolling bags to have a rear rope attached so you can easily collapse it when you are done and pulling it back in. I have seen many guys not install that rear rope/line, and they complain that it's too heavy to lift out, so that's my tip.

[Rodm]

I've never had a plate, kicker motor on my first boat, bags on the next. Do think keeping the rpm's up a bit is a good thing. Just wanted to pass along a caution about using bags. Twice in the last few years a boat using bags has sunk in the IL / WI area. Both outboard powered with low transoms - deep cut motor wells. Weather - waves started getting rough. The occasional wave would slop a good amount of water into the motor well. Operator at some time saw a larger wave approaching and throttled up thinking this would keep the wave from dumping water in the boat. With the bags deployed the resistance and mid cleat tie caused the nose to pivot up, actually lower the transom to the water. First wave swampt them, next few finished the job.

[The Salmon Slayer]

I had the same issues with bending the plate. To solve the problem I bought some 1/8" X 1/2" X 1/2' aluminum angle iron and and pop riveted it to the plate backside, ie away from prop. Install two 6" lengths of the angle iron perpendicular to the bend after straightening the plate. Install the angle iron sections about 2" from each side of the plate.

[sherman51]

before i started using the easy troller i used the happy troller. i tried to take off with the plate down and bent mine pretty bad. i got it straught but it still had a tendency to want to bend. i went to a metal scrap yard and got a 4" strip of 1/4" aluminum plate about 6 or 8 inches long. i placed it over the weak spot on the plate and bolted it on with about 8 1/4" stainless screws. it didnt bend anymore. but i was afraid of what it might do to my cavitation plate if i forgot to raise it again. so when i seen the easy troll i bought one. they have them at boatersoutlet.com for 99.00 plus shipping. or you can get the ones with the hydro fins for alittle more. i bought the one with the hydro fins but i had went to a 5 blade prop and never needed the fins.

i have used the bags and they did do the job. i just didnt like getting up on the bow to put them out and bring them back in. i think they would work better if you did like somebody said and leave them tied off and just bring them in over the side of the boat and store then there. but i will probably just stick with my easy troll.

sherman