Home › Forums › Bass Cat Boats › 250 HP 2010 Puma FTD – Hole Shot Issue
Hello,
I am a first time bass boat owner and I appreciate the knowledge and information from those more experienced. I have a 2010 Puma FTD with dual 8′ power poles, 36V trolling motor, 250 HP Merc Pro XS, (4) lead acid batteries, and manual jack plate that will not get onto plane with full tanks, full load, full live wells, and a pork chop driver with my wife. It stays at 9 MPH and 3K RPM with the trim all of the way down. I have scoured the forums and haven’t found enough info the figure this out. I would greatly appreciate any guidance you might have. My scenarios are ass follows,
The photos below show the manual jack plate being flush at the transom side of the plate and the prop shaft is 2″ below the lowest point of the boat. I know 3.5″ states the standard to work off of but I might be confused off which point to measure off of. It sounds like our heavy butts, 4 batteries, dual poles, and full live wells is too much weight so I am ok giving up top end to be able to fish a tournament and get on plane. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Wes
If the live wells hold 50 gallons, that’s 350 lbs. of added weight so that makes sense. What prop are you running now and is this boat new to you?
Guess that would help! It is a 3 Blade 26P Fury and the boat is new to me.
Drop a pitch to a 25 Fury, or go to a 25 Fury 4 blade. You can also get Ronnie Gilbert to add some more venting to the prop to improve the holeshot.
I have an 08 Cougar FTD 27 pitch fury 3 blade ( blue print and balance with extra vent holes by Ronnie Gilbert) and with full load and wife mine gets out of the hole In 3 seconds and will run 79 mph. My suggestion would be to use your 26 fury and have Ronnie Gilbert work it. He is a genius at making props work for you
I greatly appreciate all of the replies, thank you! I am local to Mark Croxton so I reached out to them to get his thoughts on working my Fury or possibly buying one of the Razor 4 blades.
iceman:
I have an 08 Cougar FTD 27 pitch fury 3 blade ( blue print and balance with extra vent holes by Ronnie Gilbert) and with full load and wife mine gets out of the hole In 3 seconds and will run 79 mph. My suggestion would be to use your 26 fury and have Ronnie Gilbert work it. He is a genius at making props work for you
iceman:
I have an 08 Cougar FTD 27 pitch fury 3 blade ( blue print and balance with extra vent holes by Ronnie Gilbert) and with full load and wife mine gets out of the hole In 3 seconds and will run 79 mph. My suggestion would be to use your 26 fury and have Ronnie Gilbert work it. He is a genius at making props work for you
Can you post a pic of where your Jack Plate is set at?
It will be August before I’m back from Puerto Rico and can get you pics. My prop below pad is 3 1/4”. I will PM you when I can.
I have a 2017 Cougar AE with poles, 4 batteries, etc. 250 optimax and a 25p fury 3 on it. If you are local to Mark Croxton I would definitely be going by him and either letting him do some work on that prop or buying a smaller wheel. Mine was worked on by Ronnie Gilbert because I had holeshot issues when everything was full. It still is slow out of the hole with a load, sooner or later I will send it back to him to have a hole drilled into it for more cavitation. If you don’t get enough slippage your motor can not get the rpms to get up to speed to get it on plane fast enough. Phil Allison also knows quite a bit about these issues and he probably has run a 2010 Puma with a Merc on it. He is also a wealth of knowledge about these boats.
I appreciate the info! I dropped the prop off to Mark on Monday for holes and blueprinting. Great guy with a wealth of knowledge! I will probably pick up one of his 4 blades as well to have for a backup.
I can’t speak highly enough about Mark and his quality of work! He and his wife are truely genuine great people. I am excited to try this out and I placed an order for one of his Razor 25P 4 Blade XL’s for a spare.
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