Snake Guides: Poling

If you've ever been in a flats skiff on the casting deck in front of a seasoned guide with a push pole, it's akin to hunting over a good dog. Let me clarify this a little because I am in no way suggesting that the guide is a dog...in fact since they are in back it would seem that perhaps the angler, out front on the casting deck, is the dog. Which is probably more accurate except that the angler has the rod which is like the dog carrying the gun. Hmmm. Never mind. My point, now that I have taken this paragraph so far afield, is that there is a symbiosis between guide and angler, hunter and dog, that when done right, is just damn magical.

This past spring as I stood on the casting deck of a skiff in the Bahamas under the watchful eye and ninja-like push pole skills of a seasoned flats guide, I was in awe at the ease by which three people in a boat could approach a bonefish in 10 inches of water and present a fly. I decided right then that I would learn to pole a boat.

I've mucked around with it a little in the past, standing on a cooler with an aluminum telescoping pole trying to figure out how to make a boat turn, go straight and stop. It was cool, but I wasn't handling the boat like my Bahamian guide did. Not. Even. Close.

When I got back to the bonefish lodge I started looking at platform designs on the boats there and snapped a few pictures. And then, upon my return home, I scoured the internet, took measurements on my boat, built a few wood/pvc models and drew up some designs. I continued to look online for designs that I liked and vacillated between transom mount and gunwale mount. Before long I realized that tiller arm swing and cowling removal had to be figured in to the plan. More changes.

I sent designs to metal shops, fabricators, the local technical college's welding department, anybody that might be able to help. The overwhelming response was, "you want what?", "we don't do anodized welding", "can you use square tube", "we can't get anodized aluminum", and my favorite, "No problem, for $2400...".

Even though it wasn't what I really wanted I even considered going with a powder coated version and spent some time trying to match the paint on my battleskiff.

I just about threw in the towel and ordered a prefab powder coated platform from Seamount.

I hit a wall and dug into the push pole part of the project. I settled on a TFO Mangrove 4 pc carbon fiber pole 19' 6" long and pulled the trigger. Progress.

When it arrived I followed the instructions to the T, using JB Weld to adhere the internal ferrules. I'd read somewhere that keeping the sections straight when epoxying was a little tricky so I borrowed from my rod building knowledge and built up a very tight tolerance shim system using...pink sewing thread. It worked like a charm.

Meanwhile, I found a really cool poling platform that I liked online. It seemed to have all of the things I was looking for...and a clean design. I tracked the guy that owned the boat back to an email address by googling his username on one of the forums. I sent him an email, but never heard back. Next I tracked down an email address for the boat company that the poling platform was mounted to and sent them an email with a picture of he boat, the platform and a request to order a platform from them.

Kevin from East Cape Skiffs sent me a reply email...here is a snapshot of the thread that ensued:

K: We do not sell loose parts anymore.

Me: Thanks for the quick reply. Feel free to send me the CAD drawings of that sweet platform if you are so inclined! Great Boats BTW!

K: I wish we had some we did that and all our stuff right off the boat as each is different.

Me: Well at least you guys know what a poling platform is...The fab guys up here have no idea what I am talking about.

K:    That sucks and I can only imagine how hard it must be to get it made.

Me:   Understatement...thanks for the info all the same.

K:      Let me see if i can find a buddy of mine to weld you one. Will that work?

Me: Yes sir!

And then I got an email from Jo at JC Welding and Fabrication who looked at my drawings and said sure thing.

Two days ago I got pictures on my phone and I think he nailed it.

The platform should be here by next week.

Quite a process...