Jack Plates

A jack plate moves the outboard back and lets you raise or lower it on the fly — and both halves of that matter to a walleye boat. Setback gets the prop into cleaner water behind the hull. Vertical adjustment is the shallow-water tool: raise the motor to idle across a flat or up to a ramp, drop it for bite in a chop, and fine-tune running height for speed and handling without touching the mounting bolts.

T-H Marine's ATLAS hydraulic plates are the standard here, in standard and heavy-duty versions for high-horsepower motors like Verado, black anodized or polished. Match the plate's rating to your motor's weight and horsepower first — that's the specification that can't be fudged — then choose setback by how much room your transom and rigging allow.

For the steering and control side of outboard performance, see Steering Systems and Engine Controls.