Hyd plates

[Jetboy]

I'm sure this topic has been hashed a 100 times but here goes. As my search habits aren't great.

Is a hyd jack-plate needed on a bass cat?
Are some hulls designed to have them? And handicapped if they don't?
I understand how they generally help, shallow water, rough water, fine tuning max speed.
Do you use yours? Or is it just not that big a deal on a good boat?

I would assume that if it was needed. It would be standard on the premium boats?
and I see a few manual plates out there.

lastly what plate is the best...I see bobs and atlas.

[Bass Cat Boats]

Good assumption...

no no they are not needed, though do obviously help hole shot and set up, for loads and water conditions.

The factory prefers Bob's and SeaStar, and Atlas is the most popular. Atlas really pushes hard, very hard, at the professional level and has built a tremendous market advantage.

Bass Cat offers all 3 brands of plates. They also offer the new Smart Tap for SeaStar.

BCB

[MichPhoenix77]

BCB,

Are they comparable in price? Or is there a big gap in costs?

[bigbass225]

I run the ms river and other shallow bodies of water alot.... it has uncountable shallow sandbars so I use mine all the time! If a guy fished deep water lakes all the time I could see not having one, but I wouldn't be without my bobs action jack for my application!

[Bass Cat Boats]

Pretty much $50 apart no matter choice.

[castforcash]

Detwiler makes a great plate as well. If you don't fish shallow water a lot, I personally wouldn't buy one.

[Bass Cat Boats]

Detwiler is no longer in operation and was purchased by SeaStar which totally redesigned the plate s

[Bullet3119]

Check out hydrodynamics hydraulic plate. VERY NICE

[willwork4fish]

You don't need one but once you have one you'll always want one. They do come in handy in shallow water but also when its rough you can lower it all the way down. I've only owned Bob's (2 of them) so I can't comment on the others but it goes up and down pretty fast and has a good amount of travel.