05-03-2014, 02:48 PM
Your 40 is perfect for a plate but depending on prop pitch and boat you may not need one to catch fish. I run a Yamaha 25 with a trolling plate. Had the Happy Troller Lil' Fella on it but after 10+ years it finally broke. It did me a good job but at times I couldn't run as slow as I wanted. So when I went to buy another one this spring I decided to step up to the small aluminum Happy Troller. Got online to find one and about soiled myself when I seen how much they were asking for them. So I started watching CL for a used one. Didn't take long and I found one for $45 and had the wife swing by and pick it up as I was working. Well I get home to check it out and I realized it was the large model instead of the small as advertised. Dang it! So the redneck in me came out and I started customizing it. I trimmed the plated down to just larger than the factory small and went fishing. Well it was too big still and I had to run higher rpms than I wanted. So after 3 trim jobs I now have a custom plate that is perfect for my setup. It's a little wider than a small but shorter so I have better steering ability. I can run from 0.5 to 1.9 mph with the plate down and 1.7 to 24 with it up. Moral of the story: buy big and customize it to your boat and motor. It's worth the hassle in the end IMHO.
Rod
Rod