When JL Marine came out with the Power-Pole Blades, it certainly changed the way anglers attack shallow-water fishing situations. In a nutshell, they started out by allowing the saltwater flats anglers to easily position their boats so they could cast to visible targets… which, in most cases, were fish.

This quickly transitioned to freshwater Bass anglers who as well, needed an advantage when hitting the extreme shallows.

Not to sit on their laurels, Power-Pole thought long and hard about the remaining group of anglers, those who fish deeper than let’s say 10 feet. Well, they certainly cannot anchor a boat in 30 feet of water, however, they can slow a drifting or trolling boat down to a crawl, which is often needed in order to get fish to strike.

Along came Power-Pole Drift Paddles.

For those anglers who have Power-Poles already installed, these are a great add-on feature that gives the ultimate in boat-speed control while trolling or drifting.

Gone are the days of firing out a bucket or two that are tied onto a piece of prickly hand-ripping rope. As well, gone are the days of having to unravel one, two, or more drift socks, attach them to your cleats, and have them dragging on the surface in the same area as you land fish. With the Drift Paddles, it’s just a simple push of a button on a fob, a fixed position switch or even a foot switch, and your speed instantly drops into your desired zone.

How far you drop your Drift Paddles into the water ultimately dictates your speed. Let’s say you are trolling with your “big” motor and it can only attain 3 mph (watch your GPS for speeds) at its lowest throttle setting. By dipping the ends of the Drift Paddles into the water, it immediately slows your speed down. The further you drop them, the slower your boat will go. It’s like magic!

A pair of Power-Pole Drift Paddles set about 4-5 feet apart will give trollers and drifters the ultimate in speed control

Installing Power-Pole Drift Paddles is quite simple as well. You simply follow the instructions to add the stirrup mount at the upper knuckle (top of pole when stowed), and two rubber slip-on attachments (different-sized holes so be careful) that slide up the actual “poles”. When it comes time to tow the boat along an express highway, no problem, you simply turn the paddles to the outside using the quick-release bracket, velcro the paddles to the pole housing, and away you go. Easy peasy!

A highly adjustable stirrup mount attached on the upper knuckle of the Power-Pole, as well as two rubber slip-on attachments, is all it takes to be drifting at super slow speeds.

WHO NEEDS ‘EM?

If you own or are going to purchase Power-Poles, and if you troll for Trout, Walleye, Pike, and so on; if you drift flats for post-spawn finicky Walleye; if you drift weed flats for windy weather Largemouth, not to mention a whole whack of saltwater situations, then please take a look at Power-Pole Drift Paddles. In any and/or all of the above situations, they could become a day-saver… trust us!

This was the view we had a while back when trolling for November Walleye between Lake Ontario and the Bay of Quinte. With the Drift Paddles only partially down, it brought our speed into that perfect crankbait-Walleye zone. Game on!

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