Mercury trophy plus 4 blade

[orchard frank]

Loaded heavy, kicker, Terrova, 5 big batts, salmon gear, etc. etc. 200 Opti., the 21 High Five is far and away the best for me. I had access to several props to try. Each situation is different. I fish N. Lake Mi. and Lake Superior, rough and nasty almost all the time. Speed at top end is a non-issue, besides being rough, I'm an old poop, very rarely see 5000 rpms, but can hit wot range if I ever wanted to. My best top-end was maybe 2 mph (or less) better than with the High Five. For me, in my situation, the High Five did a few things just great. Lower planing speed, bow lift, take-off, and especially holding a speed steady, no messing around with the throttle all the time at lower speeds. I feel it was like putting a 4.11 gear in a truck. When it is really crappy out, I spend a lot of time at that sweet spot of just under planing speed, 12-14 mph. the High Five will do a great job of just holding me right there. I only back up at the dock, so that is also unimportant to me. Prop is a key to boat performance, has to be honed in for your boat, situation, waters, and fishing style.

[Derwood]

It's pretty common to make gains when switching to stainless (they're more efficient propellors). I'm sure the dealers are great and do know what they're doing... a prop guy will know a bit more and can take "good prop buying decisions", and make them considerably better. No worries if that's not an avenue you'd like to explore...just providing information. My prop guy is 20 minutes from home so it's very convenient to borrow and test props. I know he mails a lot of props out and that can be sort of a pain, but at least it's an option. Good luck, guy!!

[PAL]

I have all the plugs in on my high 5

[icebound]

i had a yam f150 on a 1850 sportfish. Tried several props with that combination and by far the best was the trophy. It was the fastest prop and the best handling of the props i tried.

[pressure_welder]

hey guys, wife and i made it out onto the lake early this morning to do some fishing and testing of this new high 5. I must say i am impressed, the hole shot is unreal, and the bite in hard turns is great! some of the test turns i took the stock prop wouldve blown out for sure. Top speed on the stock speedometer ( which i know isnt entirely correct) ranged from 42 to 45MPH. Now the only issue i had was RPM, no weather my guage is being 100% accurate i am not too sure but i would think shes close. The most i was able to get was 4900-5000rpm i tried a different aray of trim levels, and it flucuated between 4700-4900. The highest trim level i tried got me abotu 46MPH, and about 5050RPM but i could barely turn the steering wheel i dont know if any of you guys have experienced this? i know compared to other boats ive owned ( with lower HP motors) the steering wheel was much smoother and didnt take as much to turn. Nonetheless not a big deal. The boat in my opinion ran great with this prop, great cruising, the torque was very evident of the prop, able to get on plane at only 15 MPH The only issue i believe i have is not getting an ideal RPM provided my stock tach is accurate which iam sure its close. Would going down to a 19 pitch be more beneficial? or would i have an issue just sticking with this prop? 45MPH is sufficient for what we do but am i over working the motor by running this larger pitch any having the lower rpm ?

[PAL]

When I had the 19 pitch 5 five on, I had no problem getting to max RPM, that is why I bumped up to 21 myself.

I got some advice from a good friend also that the 21 would probably be better, and he was right ( thanks tweak )

[pressure_welder]

Thanks for the reply PAL, yes id imagine droping from 21 to 19 would get me closer to the max rpm range which is 5750RPM. Like i say my only concern is, (weather its even a concern) is turning that slower RPM at 4900 to 5000rpm and over working the motor? Or should i just continue to run this 21? Overall i am impressed, as compared to the stock prop and going to this 5 blade stainless i didnt see any MPH loss at all, it essentially stayed the same but cornered way better, came up on step way faster and maintained at slower speeds. And seriously backed up completely fine, i had no issues at all navigating in reverse. Like i say just wondering if iam working the motor too hard running it at 4900-5000rpm, correct me if i am wrong but the higher the pitch pushes more water, and that equates to the lower rpm because the motor cant spin fast enough as the prop is pushing that much more water than a 17-19 would? I also know that weather plays somewhat of a factor in RPM range, she was pretty humid this morning, and the water temp is fairly warm.

i apologize for my questions, quite new to the prop testing world!

[PAL]

I am not a mechanic, so you might want to perhaps reach out to Mercury on your Opti 150, but I tend to think if the Max RPM is 5750, and your your work load spot is 4900 - 5000, you should be OK in my mind. I am not sure you have to hit max RPM, just if you want to.

Anyone else has any thoughts ?

I do think Weather does play same factor, though yes.

[wiredog]

If you can try the 19. Your rpms are to low Optis need to be run close to their max rpms. If you load the boat down or want to pull a tube or skis you will have trouble with the 21. Wiredog

[pressure_welder]

being its sunday noones open, but i think the dealer may have a tempest in stock, should i give a 19p tempest a try? were heading up to the lake for our annual 3 week holiday on the 18th of august so i do have a couple weekends left to test props, but definatly would like to get one dialed in asap weather it be a 19p high five or the tempest. Iam definatly not stuck as i still have the stock black max 21, just would be nice to have a good stainless setup. id imagine going down to the tempest plus would be much cheaper than the high five also.