As with all things there are always Pros & Cons involved so keep that in mind about trolling plates and trolling bags, with some things being great for part of the people and the same things being a pain in the butt for others.

l would like to add that I tried the trolling bag thing with my present boat and they didn't get my speed down to where I need it so I sold them to a member on this site. I truly hope they work out for him. I bought a used 9.8 hp kicker motor for a good price to help me with gas consumption as trolling with a V-8 is not all that economical and it will also save on main engines hours.

http://community.walleye.com/showthread.php?t=1760


I would also like to state that for most people the bags would probably do the trick. But for about the same money you can buy one of these plates and give it a try and if it works you would not have to deal with the bags. I also want to add that you have to remove the trolling plate if you need to drop the lower unit to service it such as for a water pump replacement on the alpha one generation 1 or 2 lower unit, and probably most outboards also, but you can change the prop with very little interference.