Shallow Water Poles on the cheap

[NorthernBoy]

Hi Gang,

I was having a look at Power Poles and Shallow Water poles on the net.  Power Poles at this time in my fishing career are a bit expensive and until I start catching bass out my yin-yang so to speak I don't think I really need something that wild.

The shallow water poles system looks interesting to me but walking through Lowes I noticed Fiberglass Extension Poles of various lengths that extend and some of them to over 20 feet.

I purchased two of these poles:

8 Feet- 16-ft Adjustable Fiberglass Pole, 1 inch Dia.

Universal zinc die cast threaded tip
Hexagonal aluminum inner pole prevents twisting
Rugged fiberglass outer pole
Easily adjusts in 6-in increments with a touch of the thumb, then locks securely in place

They were 29.99 a piece and I am going to use a stainless still ring tied on a loop on my tie-offs on the boat and place one in front right, and read left of the boat.  This will give me depending on the depth of the mud or material I am going into around 8 - 12 feet or so I can anchor on.

I am thinking on getting some umbrella screw things for sand and trying to thread them onto the end and secure them with a screw as I think that should help a lot in mud and sand.

Thats my idea anyhow,

Cheers

Terry "NorthernBoy"

[steve76]

 Let us know how those poles workout for you. I would love to find a cheap alternative to what's available right now.

[Rocketship]

Not sure how big a boat your running and I don't want to discourage you but I tried something very, very similar to this on my 18 and half footer and when the wind blew fairly stout, the boat would either pull them out or break them...

[Creel Limit Zero]

I've seen a similar system set up on the Upper Bay, they had a Tee of some kind at the top of the pole.  They would ram it in the ground, throw a rope around the tee a couple of times and then around the cleat of the boat.  It held them in place while they fished a grass flat in 20 MPH winds, while I was barely holding my place on 70% on my 80 lb thrust Minnkota.  It really made me either want power poles or that anchor system he made.    

[NorthernBoy]

Well won't be able to try them till the new year but i have them in case.  And heck if they don't work at least my wife will be happy.  I can put a brush on them and wash the house

[Ron Fogelson]

I've done testing for two different companies now on this type of design 

1st was an aluminum shaft and aluminum mounting brackets,,, the + on these were no fiberglass splinters in you hands and they made wing brackets to mount on the transom so you could use the shallow water anchor off the front, back or both ends of your boat.  The poles floated and doubled as a great push pole.  The - no way to adjust the size of the poles you use,,, you could buy 6ft, 8ft, 10ft and that was it,,,, with the mounting bracket on the front it was 1 to 2ft off the water surface so a 10ft pole was now only 8 or 9ft, you jammed the pole in the ground to hold you on place and you lost another 8 to 12 inches so now you are down to 7-7.5ft of water, if there are any waves the bow of the boat is going to bounce so if you have a foot of bow travel or more you now can only hold in the 6ft water depth with a 10ft pole.

The 2nd review is still on going,,, using Fiberglass poles with aluminum end caps allow you to not only customize the pole length needed to hold at depth but you are able to fit all of them in your rod locker, and are able to add different ends to the shaft, a sand point, mud point, push pole tip, a gaff the options are only limited by your imagination and needs. You only need one pole in the front to hold you in position if your facing the wind/current,,, no need to spend the big bucks on a power pole or talon and then have to go buy a 2nd to keep from spinning around with only on anchor point mounted off center in the rear of the boat. 

Down side with these are they don't hold well in deep chunk rock, an aluminum bracket will scar the fiberglass and when it gets deep enough you will end up with splinters in you hand, however there are two things being worked now, 1st is a coating being added to the pole that make them stronger and slick preventing the fiberglass from being splintered and I found by JB welding PVC couplers inside the aluminum brackets it not only protects the fiberglass poles from being scarred by the bracket as the bow lifts in waves but also holds the pole more securely reducing slippage and pole bend.  You can use the rubber T style holder sold by another brand of shallow water poles or a loop of rope but they only work in dead calm shallow water,,,,,, water deeper then 4/6ft and your poles will bend, wind of current and they will bend and with the rope or rubber T grip the bend means your boat will just pull the pole out of the ground, a rigid mounting bracket is needed for the best results.

I'm working with C&E to build a plate that mounts under your TM, with pre-drilled holes that will line up with both MG & MK TM's,,, an angler would then just unbolt the TM, set the plate bracket on the boat, ailgn the holes and set the TM back on and re-bolt everything in place.  This will eliminate the need to drill new/more hole in your boat    My goal is to design test a mounting device you can attach to the TM shaft but if I can get that figured out the end result will be to mount a talon or talon type anchor to it eliminating the need for two of them 

Good luck in your hunt and testing,,,,, innovative thinkers and creative ideas like this give all of us anglers more options to fit our style of fishing and pocketbooks 

[jprism]

A Minn Kota Terrnova solves the problem using the stay put mode

[Dark3]

Maybe we should go back to the trusty anchor???

[Dark3]

A Minn Kota Terrnova solves the problem using the stay put mode

Ive been using my spot-lock quite a bit. Its awesome. Only downside is it can be extremely taxing on batteries in a descent current

[Ron Fogelson]

The spot-lock type TM's are great for open water but they do not hold up in shallow water banging off rocks and stumps or getting hung on mud/sand points

[Dark3]

Very true Fogy

[Took]

Any pics? This sounds perfect for me as I fish from a kayak and wind can be an issue almost daily