How Do I Prepare My Squid Pole?

[sodden]

I was gifted a 21ft squid pole, my first. I've been successful with a rod&reel but with a pole I have no clue about:

• how much line to attach to the top of the pole?
  • same as pole length so squid land on peir?
    
    
  • shorter than pole length so the catch doesn't smack into the pier or rails on the way up?
    
    
  • or should it depend on the depth of the water?
    
    
  
  

• swivels/snap swivels placement
  • at tip and jig? (interchange line and/or jig)
    
    
  • just at jig? (quick change of jig, standard heavy-ish line for all catch sizes)
    
    
  • snap at tip and tie off line to jig? (matching line to catch size)
    
    
  • or just tie and cut when i change jig or line?
    
    
  
  

Thanks for your help.

[Jazman]

Hi sodden, welcome to the forum. Love your sig <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/thumbsup2.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thumbsup2:' />



I am by no means a pole expert (I found one washed up on the beach which I use occasionally), but what I did was make about 3/4 of the total line length quite heavy (10-15kg), and the remaining 1/4 length suitable for the jig or catch size (ie/ 2-3kg for small jigs or small squid, 6-8kg for large jigs/large squid). That way I was only ever changing a couple of metres of line if I went from fishing heavy to fishing light or vice-versa.



As for the amount of line to attach, I always tried to set it up so that I was fishing 'to hand'. That means when I elevated the pole to grab the jig (to remove weed for example), when the pole was vertical the jig would be at the level of my hand. You might actually want to measure out enough line so that you're fishing 'to hand', then make it a little bit shorter (to account for the bend in the pole when you're lifting a squid <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' /> ).



Hopefully someone who uses a pole regularly will be able to comment some more in this thread.

[Nautilusly]

Interesting, never knew squid pole existed! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/zorro.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thumbsup2:' /> being so long it must be harder to handle, whats the advantage of this compare to the conventional reel and rod? Would anyone care to post a photo or a link? <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />



Cheers

Richard

[sodden]

[quote name='Nautilusly' post='8228' date='Mar 6 2007, 07:57 PM']Interesting, never knew squid pole existed! <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/zorro.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':thumbsup2:' /> being so long it must be harder to handle, whats the advantage of this compare to the conventional reel and rod?[/quote]



As I understand it, a lot of it's to do with presenting the bait 'naturally'. Many of the species squid prey on don't swim in straight lines, so the usual 'cast and retrieve' with a 'normal' rod pulls the bait in a fairly straight line (rather than their real tendancy to mill around) and moves the bait/lure/jig away from the squid sitting in reeds or pier pylon.



A pole lets you drop the jig into the right spot and move it back and forth, bring it toward the top and then let it sink a little; shorter casting rods don't let you do this.



[quote name='Nautilusly' post='8228' date='Mar 6 2007, 07:57 PM']Would anyone care to post a photo or a link? <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wink.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt=':unsure:' />[/quote]



Usually I'm pretty good at "Googleing", but I had no luck in finding more than a handful of interesting links about "squid poles"... but I've since found they're also called "crappie-", "jig-" and "panfish-poles" elsewhere in the world (aka USA). Also seen them called 'trawling/trolling poles' and 'jigging poles', but the other terms seem much more popular.



Almost all the ones I've seen used in Victoria (Australia) are telescopic tubular fiberglass rods with only one eyelet (on the tip) and nowhere to attach a reel. Crappie poles seem to be like most other rods (~2meters, with many eyelets and a reel) but the name seems to have been carried over to the other types. 'Crappie' appears to be a type of fish, and a company name.





best pics i could find:

A HAM radio operator using a pole to hoist up the centre of a wire antenna

[url="http://www.amqrp.org/projects/crappie/crappie.htm"]http://www.amqrp.org/projects/crappie/crappie.htm[/url]



[url="http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/product/standard-item.jsp?_DARGS=/cabelas/en/common/catalog/item-link.jsp_A&_DAV=null-cat20238&id=0031278115800a&navCount=2&podId=0031278&parentId=cat20238&masterpathid=&navAction=push&catalogCode=IH&rid=&parentType=index&indexId=cat20238&hasJS=true"]http://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/template...&hasJS=true[/url]



BEST PIC: [url="http://www.thefisherman.com.au/assets/images/outer_pole_bg.jpg"]http://www.thefisherman.com.au/assets/imag...ter_pole_bg.jpg[/url]

[sodden]

so anyway... anyone else have their own preferences for squid pole configurations?