Hello,

I am vacationing near the coast soon and I am renting a boat to fish and wanted to go flats fishing. The only issue is that boat does not come with a trolling motor.

I was wondering if anyone had any tips for drifting flats without having to turn the motor each time were getting too far from shore and deep or too shallow into shore.

An example would be, a place where the flats are more in the E-W direction, if there are N or S winds how can we drift it so that we are not having to turn on the motor each time we get either too close to shore or too far where its too deep?

Thanks for the help in advance!

Just got to work the wind the best you can..
Use a push pole.

Our last boat had one and while it can be helpful they can also be a pain in the butt, batteries, in the way, etc..
Our "new" boat doesn't have one and we don't plan on putting it on there.. the previous owner had one but pulled it.

We also like to do a lot of wade fishing..

Troll motor is a waste of time on the bay. You can use drift socks to control your drift, but most people slide right past the big schools of fish. When you catch some action, STOP, stake off and wade the area, your catch ratio will go up 10X.

If you do not want to pay for drift sock a 5 gallon bucket with holes drilled in bottom and 3 at top tied off like drift sock is cheap solution. That bucket in anther bucket also hold live bait caught by cast net pulling one bucket out of other makes it easy to get bait. Cheap option for stake out pole is piece of 8 to 10 foot rebar bend loop in one end, tie rope to loop and that to boat.
Good Luck.

Grounding rod works better than rebar. We take a torch and bend it to tie off on. I've got one stuck in a rod holder. Works WAY better than an anchor.

most boats do not drift straight... they drift at an angle to the wind.. usually drifting forward while moving downwind. You can help the boat do this by turning the outboard into the direction its wanting to angle. if the boat is drifting toward the right, put the outboard into a right turn and it will make it drift even further to the right.. Some boats will drift 30-40degrees off of center and that can be a big help somedays. Drift socks will reduce the amount of the angle causing you to drift slower but mostly straight downwind. Play around with both.