First real fishing trip on the new boat

[bobbygib]

Yesterday was the first "real" fishing trip (i.e. took my buddy...not the wife...;-) on my newly aquired boat. Had a great afternoon/evening on the Potomac. Didn't tear anything up and we caught a few bass.
However, my buddy, an experienced bass boater, made some observations about potential performance issues with my boat.

#1. He thinks it should get up on plane a little quicker. If I hammer it right out of the no wake zone the prop just spins/won't bite and she won't plane. However if i bring the boat to a stop and let the water settle around me, then hammer it, she planes pretty quicky.

#2. We both noticed that while on plane at speed, the prop didn't seem to "bite" as well as it should. At approximately 55-65 mph, (the only speed reference I have now is my fishfinder and it's telling me 65-75mph) the motor is running 4100-4300 rpm. Have a lot more throttle left though. But if i try to go faster, the prop loses grip. Even at regular speed the prop seems to break loose ocassionally, particulary with the motor trimmed up a little. If I leave it down all the way it bites pretty good but i know that's a gas mileage killer right?

#3. The gas usage ...seems crazy! I'm only guessing, but we probably only went 40 couple miles yesterday and used almost 20 gallons of fuel. I've heard these motors are notorious gas guzzlers but 2 MPG?

I have a 1988 Stratos 179v with an Evinrude XP 150 mounted on a manual jack plate, a 14 1/2 X 22 Raker three blade prop.

Don't get me wrong, all in all, the boat is great. Rides, drives, fishes great. However i think...some things may need some tweaking.
Not looking for more speed, just...efficiency.

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance for your help guys.

Bobby G