Yea like bigger said, I don't think you have to worry about spooking the fish when using your trolling motor unless you are fishing clear water. We don't have to worry much about clear water on any of the COE lakes. I normally pull 6 poles off the back with 4 ft of line separation and I let out more line with my center pole. The reason is that my inside poles, next to the motor are angled up at 45 deg so they won't get pulled out of the holders. So my line isn't going into the water till about 20 ft back. Your true line measurement is from where the line hits the water to your bait.