My wife's poles in the back of the boat all of her pole's are out on the sides(and she sometimes catches more and bigger fish than I do in the front) and the one's up front of the boat I have 1 on out front on each side and the other 2 on the sides with the one's on the very front a little to the side to keep them out of trolling motor. I try to troll at a very slow speed and sometimes just hit the motor and then let it drift and then hit it and let it drift again. But sometimes the crappie want the bait moving at a faster pace so I will adjust to what they want but I still can't move very fast with this setup. The fish I think they are seeing this as a school of minnows and just go on attack because when we do find the crappie we catch several at one time, so I keep a buoy close at hand and when we catch them biting good I will throw it out and after going past we then turn around and go thru the same place again. I don't know why but it works for me.