Jeff and Nick Poe recommend using electric trolling motors as sparingly as possible. In fact, neither of them use one much because they believe it spooks the fish.
Nick gave an example.
“You can drift into a shallow marsh. When you hit the (trolling motor) switch, the effect is immediate.
“Everything comes to the surface. Everything gets nervous — sheepshead, drum, mullet and redfish. And the redfish start pushing out.
“And redfish are stupid compared to trout.”
Of course, that doesn’t mean they don’t have a trolling motor on their boat. They do, and it’s usually down in operative position while they are fishing. But they use it more to put them in position to drift where they want to be than to move the boat into the target area.
In a typical approach to a spot, they motor to 300 yards from the target location, troll to 200 yards upwind of the spot, and then allow the boat to drift in.
Their approach takes more planning and demands a little more patience, but they believe that the stealthy effort pays off with more fish.
