With an 8 ft PP, what’s the typical depth you can effectively stick into? Pluff mud vs hard sand.? Current in our local creeks- do you need to be shallower to drive pole in much deeper? I spend much of my time in 4-8 ft of water.
The PP lengths are a bit misleading, especially when dealing with the soft mud we have down here. First, PP’s are usually not mounted at the bottom of the transom (so they don’t interfere with the flow of water of the bottom of the hull, I reckon), so you lose a few (4-8") of anchoring capability there depending on your hull type. In pluff mud, my 6 ft. PP will anchor me every time in 4.5-5.0ft of water. In sand, it seems you only need about 3" of the spike to be anchored completely, so I can anchor every time in a sand bottom in 5.5 ft.
By the way, don’t hesitate to call me when you’re down here, I could pole us around the flats and we could get after some reds on topwaters anytime. I’ll be giving Ben a call this next weekend, I’ll be in Charlotte before I head to Costa Rica to get after some rooster fish!
I mounted mine and it works great.I anchored in 7 feet of water with the 8 foot pole I have.It held me perfect in a fast current.It was just great not to have to pull anchor every time I moved.Should have bought one years ago.
Stonoman
Thanks Dave. I missed the entire month of April due to work and travel.
I’ll be down for half of May though. Thinking of getting a 16-18 ft skiff and would put a PP on it.
I saw on Flats Class show where PP offers an optional mode for the PP. It’s for better holding in rough water where you are close to the limit in depth. It sort of maintains a certain pressure on the pole while boat is rocking in the waves. It looked pretty neat. They were in a bay about 7’ in rough water fishing for reds.
J Ford
powerpoles are the best…one recommendation though regardless of what anybody tells you, get the 8’ model, unless you are putting it on a 15-16’ jonboat, a shorter model may be fine there. But for all 18+ fiberglass models, don’t cheap out with the shorter ones. They are expensive either way, but cheaping out on a 6’ versus the 8’ is just stupid. If you want to save money, buy the sportsman series in the 8’. It has a slower pump, but the extra depth is much more important.
You will not generally get 8’ of holding power or depth though. If I am backing up to secure boat sometimes 7’ will work if bottom is hard, but 6’ is generally the limit.
BOTTOMLINE, THE POWERPOLE IS INCREDIBLY AWESOME AND I WOULD RECOMMEND THE 8’ MODEL TO ANYBODY!