Trolling Speed.

[Salmonslayer2]

I have a 2006 Jetcraft boat with a 40 horse Mercury outbord motor on it. When I put it in forward geer I can troll about .9 mph on my gps. I want to troll at 1.2 mph but if I try to go faster it will jump up to 1.6mph. Its hard to fine tune it to get 1.2 mph. Is there a way to solve this problem?
Thank You Larry

[Sea Dobie]

I have a 2006 Jetcraft boat with a 40 horse Mercury outbord motor on it. When I put it in forward geer I can troll about .9 mph on my gps. I want to troll at 1.2 mph but if I try to go faster it will jump up to 1.6mph. Its hard to fine tune it to get 1.2 mph. Is there a way to solve this problem?
Thank You Larry

You will probably need a kicker motor or a trolling plate. I had the same problem with my Harbercraft and a 60hp motor. I skipped the trolling plate idea and went with an 8hp kicker motor. Adding the kicker was probably the best thing I have done to my boat. Now I can troll at pretty much any speed I want. Additionally, I can charge my battery, run all my electronics, and have a back up motor if things go wrong on the main motor. The best part about the kicker is that it sips fuel and takes the wear and tear off your main motor.

[Jedcraft]

A cheap fix is throw a small drift sock out the bow and give it 3 or 4ft of rope. Did that alot on my 20ft Jetcraft. It's a real light boat and the bow blew around real easy. But don't forget it's there.

[Salmonslayer2]

I do have a trolling plate on. I had to cut half of it off because I had to run the moyor up a lot to troll
Larry

[sfo1969]

Check out the troll-master at troll-masterpro.com:meme:

[SouthCoastStu]

A kicker is really the best solution for the reasons already mentioned. You didn't mention the length of your boat. Maybe an electric :shrug:

However, here are a couple of other ideas:

1.) Lower pitch prop. It will cost you some top end, but your hole shot will improve. Might get you to that "magic" speed.

2.) I had a trolling plate (aluminum) on the drift boat (got tired of the drift sock route). It wouldn't go fast enough with the plate all the way down, so I cut a notch halfway between the "up" notch and "down" notch (used a jigsaw and round file). The plate would then lock at about a 45 degree angle. It was the perfect speed for the boat/motor combo :thisbig:

[ICHTHYDEMON]

A cheap fix is throw a small drift sock out the bow and give it 3 or 4ft of rope. Did that alot on my 20ft Jetcraft. It's a real light boat and the bow blew around real easy. But don't forget it's there.

A cheaper fix is to toss a 5 gallon bucket over the side. You can drill holes in the bottom to adjust how much drag it makes.

[Road Rage]

Check out the troll-master at troll-masterpro.com:meme:

If they make a troll master for your model motor, this could be your best option. It's basically a small electric servo that connects to your throttle linkage at the carb of the motor. You can make very minor changes to RPM with this device. They're not too spendy either.