Maximizing the Power of Your Power-Pole

There’s no shortage of equipment you can add to your boat to improve convenience, performance and utility, but there are only a few additions that are true game changers. For my fishing boat, the first is my GPS trolling motor, and the second is my Power-Pole shallow water anchor. I recently added a Garmin Livescope to my boat and, as I have begun to understand it, it has potential to be a third “game changer,” but the trolling motor and Power Pole are absolutely essential equipment.

To be honest, I held off on adding a Power-Pole to my boat for several years because my GPS trolling motor was so useful. I didn’t think I needed it and didn’t relish the idea of putting holes in my transom to mount it. It took a couple of specific situations to make me realize that the spot lock function on my trolling motor had some critical limitations.

Since adding the Power-Pole to my boat, I’ve discovered a few other areas where this particular piece of equipment really shines. Each of these is really just a different variation of “slowing down” and being more methodical. Looking back at the way I fished in my pre-Power-Pole days, I was simply working areas too quickly, even when using spot lock. The Power-Pole has allowed me to shoot more casts at an area, and those extra casts count.

Over the past few years, I’ve really noticed how much of an impact my trolling motor has on fish. It doesn’t always spook them, but it definitely makes them less willing to bite. I used to use my trolling motor to work down banks, but increasingly, I now position myself up-current and “Power-Pole down” the bank, stopping at half-cast increments. Not only is this quieter, it also forces me to slow down and work the water more thoroughly. Those extra few casts have meant a lot more fish across my gunnels.

In the winter, I fish deeper water, often much deeper than my eight-foot Power-Pole will reach. In these situations, trolling motor noise is less of an issue. In these deeper creeks, I will often deploy my Power-Pole into the grassy bank itself, then use the spot lock feature of my troller to adjust the boat’s orientation. Because I mounted my Power-Pole using a bracket (to avoid holes in my transom), my pole can extend pretty far behind the boat, reaching the bank. Eventually, there is probably another Power-Pole in my future, but even with one, I can orient my boat to maximize deck space.

There are certain points and holes that simply require patience. Prior to having a Power-Pole, I generally hit these areas quickly and continued on. The Power-Pole has taught me that fish move through these areas, and they may or may not be there when I happen to pass through. 

Rather than me chasing fish, the Power-Pole allows me to wait for them to come to me. A point that is unproductive for the first 10 casts has often proven productive in the next 10. Prior to using the Power-Pole, those “next 10 casts” never happened, and I missed fish I could have caught.

I still use my trolling motor to move from spot to spot, or to compensate for wind when working an area. However, by using my Power-Pole instead of spot lock, any impact of the trolling motor’s noise is eliminated, and the fish tend to settle down quickly. It’s amazing how many times I’ve made that “one more cast” at an area that resulted in an unexpected hook up, and I’m convinced it is because the fish had finally settled down again after my entrance.

While the Power-Pole has proven to be a real game-changer, there are a few limitations you should be aware of. 

The most obvious limitation of Power-Poles is water depth. These are called “shallow water anchors” for a reason. Depending on the type of bottom and strength of current I’m fishing, my eight-foot power pole really begins to struggle in depths of five feet or more. Larger, and multiple Power-Poles can help, but these can also create a “grasshopper” effect where the natural flex in the system creates a spring-like effect.

As of this article, the Power-Pole does not have an active anchoring feature, so you can’t leave your boat “Power-Poled down” at the sandbar and expect it to stay put. A rising — or falling — tide will significantly impact the boat’s configuration, but the Power-Pole will not adjust to it. That means that, on a rising tide, an unattended boat will eventually drift away. Similarly, wave or wake action can “unstick” a Power-Pole and send you drifting along. 

A combination of hard bottom and hard current exposes another limitation of the Power-Pole. While there are spikes and accessories that can be added, I’ve had my Power Pole slip and “grind” down current when the pin can’t penetrate deep enough into the bottom to hold the boat. These situations are rare, but shell beds and rocky bottoms with high wind or current can be a challenge.

JL Marine Systems, which manufactures the Power-Pole, has recently released the new Move brushless trolling motor. I don’t own one and I’m not compensated by the company to say nice things about their products, but I have recently had an opportunity to see the new Power-Pole trolling motor in action. They are expensive relative to what I paid for my trolling motor, but even with the cost difference in mind, I was unexpectedly impressed. You can find all of the features in other articles, but here are the things that really caught my attention:

My Minn Kota i-Pilot has treated me well, and I love it, but when the head wraps itself in the cord and it “unwinds” itself, those two revolutions are painfully slow. I fish significant current, and by the time it gets itself untangled, I can be 10 or 20 yards away from where I want to be. The head on the Power-Pole trolling motor is lightning fast, unwinding itself in mere seconds and maintaining position.

Because it operates at both 24 and 36 volts, the Power-Pole trolling motor is terrifyingly powerful. We fished a current that my 24 volt i-Pilot would have struggled in, but the Move was operating at half speed. Having said that, I did watch the Move almost throw my buddy off the boat. He had not adjusted the head speed via the app, and the motor zigged when he zagged, and he was millimeters from an unexpected saltwater bath.

This is what Power-Pole heavily promotes in their advertising, and I have to say that between the brushless motors and steering mechanisms the trolling motor was amazingly silent, at least compared to my five-year-old i-Pilot. How well the motor remains silent over time remains a reasonable question, but the Move is certainly starting out a lot quieter than my i-Pilot ever was.

I don’t know that I’ll ever have a budget that will accommodate the Move trolling motor, but if it holds up as well as it seems like it will, I will have a hard time resisting it if and when my current motor dies. I have had enough great experiences with Power-Pole’s customer experience to say that the company’s service level alone justifies at least some of the price difference.