Need prop and jack plate setup help on "New to Me" Gambler 1994 209 w/ 225x promax

[Lucky#13]

Just bought a 1994 Gambler 209 with a 04 Mercury Promax 225x. The guy I bought it from hardly used it in 4 years and the previous owner before him did the "tweaking" to the jackplate and prop setup. The boat came with a 23p Tempest plus with the jackplate mounted all the way up. It is 5.5" from propshaft to pad. The boat currently runs 68mph @ WOT that's 6000 rmp, with one person, half a tank of gas, and a medium tackle load. Trimming all the way up barely gets the boat almost all the way out of the water. I borrowed a 26 Tempest and a 24 fury 4 blade yesterday and did not change the jackplate set up. Both of those props made the rmp's and mph decrease significantly. Is the motor mounted too high or low? I am looking at the other G's setups out there and no one seems to be running a 23. I am new to the faster boats side of fishing. Thanks for the help in advance!

[Merc Doc]

motor is too low, raise up to 2 1\2" below pad and work from there. 25p should be close prop wise and as i recall a trophy 4blade worked well back when i was rigging these boats. You should be able to turn 6000rpm with this combination.

[long shot]

Doesn't a pro max run at 7,000 rpm?

[creekchub]

6500 rev limiter on that possibly-try a 24 Fury !!

[Ben Harris]

26 Trophy

[yupitsme]

This^^^^

[GamblerSam]

With that 2.5 the smaller diameter props will get out of the hole faster and be more responsive. I would concur that a 25 or 26 Trophy would give all around best performance.