Keith Poche is a successful professional tournament bass angler, and he regularly posts interesting videos to his “Off the Grid” YouTube channel. Poche is known for getting into difficult backwater bass spots. He’s able to reach these remote areas because of his specialized bass boat and “hold my beer” attitude.
Click here for a look behind the scenes at Keith’s tournament boat for 2025 (Gator Trax GT Series with a Mercury XS 150HP). Important note: He can’t run a jet-driven tiller outboard and a smaller johnboat in high-level bass tournaments because of rules stating that all boats must be propeller-driven, with other requirements for minimum length, steering wheel, minimum horsepower, etc.
In the 16-minute video below, Keith and a buddy attempt to find backwater bass, and along the way they get stuck (several times) and break down (hydraulic jack plate). If you don’t have time to watch the entire video, I’ll provide a few must-see moments:
- At the 4:35 mark you’ll see Keith fire up his outboard and then jump a levee. Dicey!
- At 5:18 the guys run through muck until they finally get stuck.
- At 5:28 they catch a small bass and then crank up the outboard again for some more sketchy driving.
- At 10:55 they break out the chainsaw to create holes for their future high-speed exit.
- At 12:04 the hydraulic jack plate stops working. Then they throw caution to the wind and race back to deeper water on their exit.
Poche’s “Off the Grid” videos are entertaining to watch. And one of my top takeaways from watching his content is I’d never — ever! — buy a used boat and motor from a professional bass angler, especially Poche.
