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Wondering what speeds folks are catching fish at. I had my boat (16’ R160, 70HP Yamaha) out on our local reservoir yesterday for the first time this season for a check out. Everything looks fine except I had new throttle cables installed and I’m finding my lowest speed with 3 people in the boat on dead calm water is between 5.5-5.8 mph by GPS. I’m a little worried this may be too fast for trolling the big Lake on some days? I understand a lot of factors will affect this and I should match my baits/rigs to my speed but am wonder if I should consider getting a drift sock? Not crazy about the idea and I suppose I can zig zag or even start-stop periodically but maybe I’m over thinking it? I saw some older posts in a search that suggested that this speed may not be a problem but am looking for some affirmation. FYI a trolling motor or kicker is not in the budget just yet!

Yes, that is a bit too speedy for great lakes trolling. For the early spring trolling, we usually run 1.8-2.2. Maybe a little faster. Then summer time 2.5-3.5. Just got a fish hawk speed and temp probe that will help adjust speeds in currents. Trolling with a strong current there's a chance that 5.5 wouldn't be out of line, but it's not the norm. I would be looking for a way to slow it down a bit.

Typical is 2.2 to 3.2. With some variations based on weather or current.

Amish outfitter makes some great trolling bags, I used 25 inch ones on each side and can get down to 1.5mph when my lowest would be 3.5 without them. (27' boat though) If budget is an issue you can also use 5 gallon buckets the same way, drill holes in the bottom to let water through, take the handle off and tie the rope directly to the bucket.

Was the boat that fast before the cable replacement? Sounds like way too many rpms. I would have a boat mechanic recheck the work. Your setup should easily get down into the 3 mph range with a full loaded boat.

If its a 2 stroke might have something to do with it. Had a 17' with a 90hp 4 stroke and had no problem getting down to less than 2mph. Had a 115hp 2 stroke no way unless a sock was put in. Might try trimming or could be a prop pitch issue.

Sounds like throttle cables are not adjusted properly. 5.5 seems way too fast.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. It actually ran faster than I'd liked with the original cables as well but now it appears a little worse. It's a new boat and motor and my dealer is 2 hours away so I was hoping this was something I could tweak on my own. I could probably figure out how to adjust the cable but I don't know if that will do the trick or whether I need to mess with the idle speed some other way. From what I'm reading about 4 stroke Yamaha engines, adjusting the idle speed may not be so easy to do. At the end of the day I may just get a couple of buckets or socks to throw out.

It could also be a prop issue, but that is way to much for just a prop pitch issue but it could be a contributing factor. . IMO there is something off with the idle. When I first fished the lake I was in a Triton 18' bass boat with a 150. Thats a light boat with next to no drag. My idle was 2.8 to 3.2 and on the high end the boat was 60mph. I have never heard of a boat your size idling at 5+. What is the idle RPM? you should be sitting in the 600-700 RPM range.

Thanks Dirty! I did put a small ding in the prop 2nd time out but it doesn't appear to have affected performance. I'm still within specs at the high end (6000 RPM). Unfortunately, I didn't start fretting about all this until after I came in last time so I didn't think to check the idle speed in neutral. Dah! The Yamaha manual specs say it should be 700-800 r/min so if that's where I am I'll probably have to live with it since I wouldn't want to mess with it and start stalling out. It actually doesn't "feel" like it's idling too high and it goes into gear without a noticeable bang so maybe it is what it is. I'll pay closer attention to the idle speed next time out. My tachometer only has one marking below 1000 RPM, I'm guessing that's where the idle speed should be.

That sounds fast for a 4 stroke. Unlike a inboard, you can trim the motor, but I dont think that it will take off two or three miles an hour. I would get maybe a 1 or 1 1/2 mph off. If you have the motor to high might cause it to overheat. And since you don't want to get a kicker, drift socks are not that expensive and should do the job. Probably by the longer one I think they're 28 to 36. Oh my Thompson I still can't get under 3 in calm water and use a drift sock to slow it down. It slow the boat down to where I have to use higher rpms but in return helps the motor run cooler.