Just wanting some opinions on weather my boat would better benefit from a jackplate or a 4-blade prop. It is a 1990 Stratos 201 Pro with a 1987 Johnson 140(13.5 X 18P Raker prop); obviously the boat is very underpowered compared to the way bass boats are rigged now days. I'm not interested in trying to gain speed, the boat will do 46mph at 6000rpm and i feel like that is about all i can expect this boat to run and that is fine with me. But what i am interested in is trying to help this little motor get the boat up out of the water at cruising speeds, or in other words be able to stay on plane at lower RPMs. Also, it's pretty easy for the prop to blowout when turning unless i have it trimmed all the way down. The holeshot is really good, it will spin up to 4500rpm and the boat shoots right out, but when you pull the throttle back a little to cruise that lazy Stratos likes to sit back down in the water. This may just be something that i have to deal with given the small motor, but thought i'd ask. Thanks in advance for any suggestions you guys have on this.

WHen you are jumping out of the hole...I am assuming you keep it trimmed down? Do you know what your prop to pad measurement is currently? Or when running on plane...where you cavitation plate is?

What is the length and weight of your hull? It seems to me, a healthy 140hp would benefit from a little more pitch.

There are some smart guys that will respond behind me hopefully...but those are the things that pop out to me.

I measured the cavitation plate and it is roughly 3 inches above the bottom of the hull.

to much "tank" not enough "horse power", torque........... you may be askin' to much outta tha little motor....

6 inch plate and stick with the 3 blades. that motor doesn't have enough torque to take advantage of
a 4 blade prop.

the plate will help with some bow lift and over all handling and some performance.

usually not.. but sometimes you won't know till you yank the motor off the transom.