Kicker prop changes for troll speed

[dpcarson]

OK Guys. I know there are a lot of kicker posts on here and I have been reading for a while but have not seen anybody posting experience with kicker prop changes to increase speed.

I have a 9.9 johnson kicker on my a 242. About the max troll speed I can get is around 5.1-5.3 I really would like to get speed built up to about 6.5 to 7 to keep the blues of the line and get the mackerel hitting. I read on THT from one buy about an upgrade to a 4 blade 5 pitch solas pushing his 24 grady up to 7. Anybody else got any other experience with this. I thought about tilting the outboard to reduce drag but my main is what I use for steering. No steering connection for the kicker.

Any experience building speed on the kickers??

 

[Willy-C]

I'm all ears too on this.....I saw the same post regarding changing props on THT :hmm

 

[dpcarson]

Willy, I am surprised nobody has chimed in on this yet.

 

[SmokyMtnGrady]

DPc Carson, just curious as to why you use a kicker to troll? Perhaps you have an older boat with a 2 stroke that is I am curious more than else? I suspect increasing the prop to 4 blades could improve performance assuming one gets more thrust out of it. I am tropical water troller and I honestly can not recall seeing anybody in a long while using a kicker to troll. Perhaps this is why folks are not responding to this question? I have seen folks on the big lakes around here troll with a kicker for stripers though.

 

[Pay2Play]

I run a yamaha 9.9 hi thrust kicker on my 208. One of my props is 11.5 X 9.25, I can get 7 knots easy.
I don't run this one much as I troll for walleye and need the slower troll so I have one smaller diameter and pitch. I would suggest larger diameter and more pitch in a 3 blade.

 

[dpcarson]

DPc Carson, just curious as to why you use a kicker to troll? Perhaps you have an older boat with a 2 stroke that is I am curious more than else? I suspect increasing the prop to 4 blades could improve performance assuming one gets more thrust out of it. I am tropical water troller and I honestly can not recall seeing anybody in a long while using a kicker to troll. Perhaps this is why folks are not responding to this question? I have seen folks on the big lakes around here troll with a kicker for stripers though.

I run a 225 2 stroke on my boat. I use the kicker because of the fuel consumption difference. If I troll on my main at low rpms my fuel consumption 3 to 4 times what the kicker is with the throttle opened pretty good. Second, Best way to kill a motor is to not use it in my opinion. I like that my kicker gets a good workout on a regular basis. Keeps hours off the main also. I have several reasons I guess.

 

[dpcarson]

I run a yamaha 9.9 hi thrust kicker on my 208. One of my props is 11.5 X 9.25, I can get 7 knots easy.
I don't run this one much as I troll for walleye and need the slower troll so I have one smaller diameter and pitch. I would suggest larger diameter and more pitch in a 3 blade.

Thanks for that info. about 7 is what I am looking for to keep the blue off the lines and keep the spanish on.