Trolling with a 40hp Mercury 2-stroke

What concerns or pre-cautions should I have.

Don't bother dragging buckets, nets ect behind the boat while trolling to slow your speed. Invest $125 for a happy troller that mounts on your motor. I have been doing this for over 15 yrs on lake Erie. I welded strips of aluminum for strength, just incase you forget to pull the release.

as long as you burn the carbon out with a burst of speed shouldnt have a problem trolled hours with my 25 2 stroke and never fouled plugs..

We troll with a 115hp mercury and absolutely pound walleyes all spring, summer, and fall. We just run 2 5gal. buckets off the back of the boat, and run stick baits only. Everyone swears you have to run crawler harnesses, but 9 out of 10 times we end up with more fish at the end of the day.

You may not be able to go slow enough with that motor. Every motor is a little different, but even at low idle, I have trouble slowing mine down to less than 1.5mph. Fine for trolling cranks, but a little quick for crawlers. There are ways of getting around that though. You could get a troll master or make some polish buckets if you cant get down to the right speed. My buddy had a 40 horse tiller that he couldnt get to go less than 3mph. You'll just have to see once you get her on the water.