I know several people that Push jigs/minnows out of the front of the boat and Pull jigs/minnows out of the back. Most that I know Push with shorter rods in the front than what I Pull with, so with that in mind, what are they gaining from that? They are still traveling about the same speed that I troll at. I run 18's, 14's and 10's out of the front and 6 - 8 footers in the back slightly fanned out. I try to have 3-4 feet "lanes" in between my lines to keep any lines from tangling up, or at least keep it to a minimum. Given the length of my longest rods and the width of the front of my boat, that is approximately a 40 foot swash that I am pulling jigs thru. To my way of thinking, if I was pushing out the front with shorter rods, that with narrow my path/swash and my front rods would possibly be "stealing" fish from the back rods.
The set ups I have seen looks something like this. The front rods are weighted down with 1/2-3/4 oz weights and the line is not let out very far. I can see where maintaining the depth you want might be easier. To me, I would still call that Pulling if I was still trolling at .8-1.2 mph. So, with the theory that the front rods may be stealing fish from the front rods (because the shorter rods are going thru the fish before the rear rods are), why not use the longer rods in the front Pulling, or Long Lining, and put the weighted rods in the back. It seems to me that a person could cover a wider swash and increase their chances in getting more bites.
Personally, I Long Line all my rods usually with single or double jigs and sometimes adding a split shot to help get me to the depth I want. Pushing, to me, would be only fishing out the front and fishing at a much slower speed putting the bait in their face for a little bit longer period of time. So, back to my original question....Why is it called the Push/Pull method when to me, it's really Pulling, and what are the advantages to fishing this way? Don't misunderstand me, I am not saying this method is wrong nor that there is anything wrong with it. If it catches fish, that's all that matters. I'm debating in my head why I would want to fish this way. The only answer that I can come up with is Preference. Looking forward to hearing some thoughts on this.