I have a 4 stroke 250 Suzuki and my slowest troll is about 3.1mph. I have to throw out the drift socks which makes tending lines and steering the boat tough.
I have thought about putting one of those trolling plates on but everything that i have read or heard "the way to go is with drift socks".

Be careful what you read about salmon fishing on the internet. Most times they are talking great lakes with 28-35 foot boats and west coast ocean salmon in the same kinds of boats. They are usually far too big to benefit from something like a trolling plate but here in New England a trolling plate is probably just what you want. I don't know for certain how a 250 with a plate does, i have never used 1 on a 250 but a lot of guys put them on their I/O boats with V6's and V8's up to 300HP and do Quite well. i would avoid a drift sock at all costs personally. Another thing is that the common speed to troll for King Salmon is about 3 mph and they need those drift socks to get down from 5 mph or more on those big inboard boats. a plate would do nothing. Also you really need 2 socks 1 for each side so you have some steering at least. Hope this helps. good luck

Have you tried it yet? Normally I would say you would go to fast. I have a 190 I/O and I use drift socks one on each side of the boat with no problems. I saw a guy trolling Saturday off Cow Island with what looked like a new Merc 225 and he was doing fine. I didn't see any bags off his boat.

My buddy has a great Striper 21ft w/a, w/ Evinrude 200. We run a drift sock off each side from the forward cleats. Get down to about 2mph, maybe a little under. Socks are never in the way. Good luck

Phil, I have an 18.5ft fourwinns with a 190 io volvo penta. I installed a Happy Troller plate four years ago and absolutely love it, never had a problem, gets me down to 1.7 mph. Good luck.

Hey Phil, is it the new happy troller that's spit in the middle? or is it the old solid one? Also is what size is you volvo motor? 4.3-5.7? Me and my buddy are thinking of putting one of the old ones i have on his boat which is a 4.3 mercruiser I/O curious if its the same plate that i have Thanks Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines Dave!!

Dave, mine is the solid trolling plate, one piece. My engine is a 4.3

Thanks, Looks like we're going to give it a try, my buddy Rob's cousing owns a machine shop so he's gonna add a 4 inch piece of aluminum to the bottom of it, it's not quite long enough to cover the entire exhaust, even though it's old it's built alot sturdier then the plastic one he tryed two years ago UGHHHHHH that thing was a pain in the A__ always broke pin's so sent it back and got our money back and did the old fashion frenchman trick of two 5 gallon buckets LOL Figured we don't have anything to lose trying it all we have to do is drill a couple new holes in it, if it doesn't work i just put it back on my "Real" old 20hp mercury LOL Take Care God Bless and Tight Lines Dave!!

I had one of those plastic pieces of s___ years ago and had the same problem.
If you use a bucket (as I do) cut a circle in the bottom of the bucket (it actually makes the drag greater) There's an extruded circle (about 2 " in diameter) molded in the bottom already. I just used it as a pattern & cut it out with a jig saw. Also, I got clever and put a nylon strap handle screwed to the outside of the bottom (I doubled the strap and sewed some closed cell foam inside) that way when the bucket gets pulled in (as in- when I get 'a good one' on) the metal handle pulls the open end of the bucket down and the foam handle tips the bottom up so it's easy to grab! & it comes right out of the water w/o a fight or having to wait for the bucket to drain!
Some folks have trouble steering w/ just one bucket, I put a couple of small hooks on the top of my old Evenrude's motor cover and run the rope to the bucket in between. It keeps the bucket centered to the boat and I found it actually helps in a wind keep the bow to the wind. I have an lot of Alum boat out of the H20 and in the wind.

All the BEst

Gary