Great discussion...I've been such a knucklehead that I've (stubbornly) been keeping my lures / presentations pretty tight to the ball becauase I'm using the vertical flashers on the ball. I'd read that fish could "miss" your lure if its too far back from the flashers... But I've been wondering the same thing about the fish getting spooked near the boat, so I too will start experimenting with dropping my lures back a good bit further...If this is what Travis does...we could do worse.