Opinions will differ on that. In my opinion the biggest problem with trolling plates is most require you to manually put it in the down position. This means in order to raise it up you have to pull a pin. You WILL forget to do this and your plate will either get screwed up or you'll crack your cavitation plate (or both). Its not IF its when. Some of the manufacturers have a shear pin so no damage is done. Still, manual intervention required and inevitibly you will forget.

The only negative I have to say about the Hussle plate is the springs were not stainless and would rust after a couple years. Not a problem cause Doug Johnson at Johnson Marine has the replacements but I never needed them! Check out the link:

http://www.johnsonmarinesupply.com/trolling_plates.htm