Push Pole Recommendations

There is no such thing as a good cheap push pole. The shittiest of the shitty are still $300.

What are you trying to do with the pole? Is it just extra insurance in case you stuff it on a mud flat?

That's tough man. Push poles are one of those things that you will hate if you're trying to use cheap gear. Superstick makes a fiberglass pole that is collapsible, I think it's 9ft and 17ft fully extended. Probably the cheapest option available at around $200

Keep in mind that we have a soft bottom so you need a bridged foot to pole in the mud. So assuming you're average height and standing on the deck 1 ft off the water, and the water is 2ft deep, the pole will sink a foot or so into the mud, you have already eaten up 6ft of pole before moving the boat. You lose another 4 feet or so because you can't use the full length of the pole all the way to the water.

If you are going to do any stalking on the pole it's going to cost you some money. Those short duck foot poles are pretty much only good for moving a few feet at a time to free yourself from being stuck.

You can make one out of lightweight aluminum for really cheap. I have $40 in mine and it's only maybe 3lbs heavier than a Stiffy.

If you're trying to buy one, you're not gonna find anything good for cheap.

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I have $40 in mine and it's only maybe 3lbs heavier than a Stiffy

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You must have a trolling motor. 3 pounds heavier than a stiffy is twice as heavy. Interesting idea though, I've always wondered how stiff an aluminum pole would be before it go prohibitively heavy.

Why change the foot on the stiffy? Also you might want to cap the end and seal the screw hole. Water intrusion will eat into the carbon fabric of the pole from the inside out.

I know a few guys who have cut the bridge out of the foot, they claim it helps in pulling the pole out of the mud but doesn't effect sinking. I think moonlighter makes a foot without a bridge. I've used both and if my fork was a little wider I would probably cut the bridge out.

My brother lost it when he borrowed it on a bow fishing adventure and got epicly stuck. but it would sink to much in the mud for me anyway. it may work for you, but my boat is proably 2x as heavy. the extra surface area helps out alot. I do need to cap the end, and pivot point, didnt know about the carbon fiber thing breaking down, good to know..

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Heading to Delacroix next month, thinking I might need a push pole.

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we fish reggio and delacroix almost exclusively for reds in the ponds (we duck hunt out there). we fish out of a 16ft prodrive boat with a 40 yamaha 4 stroke tiller. have a trolling motor on the front and we rarely use the push pole. have one of those cheap aluminum ones that collapses that has the "duck bill" on the end. tons of grass out there right now so make sure you have weedless lures.

I have one of those and it works fine for what I use it for...if I were going to use it for extensive fishing I'd get a good one but since I'm pretty much using it to get into backwater woods for duck hunting and some marsh ponds for redfishing it works fine...the trolling motor does most of the work anywayz...
I only use it in shallow water...it stays on the boat in the rod locker and has saved my arse a couple of times...

put it this way...it works better than a ext paint pole or a pool pole...

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Did you just buy all the parts and assemble yourself?

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Yep. Lightweight aluminum pipe and a foot. Got a friend to weld them together for me and weld a cap on the end.

Mine is 20ft. Boat is 18 and platform is 4.5ft from water level. Truthfully I could use another foot.

I'm not hating on stiffys by any means. They're badass. Super light and you can pole all day without getting tired. I just don't like the feet. I don't have much experience poling elsewhere in the state, bu the in our area stiffy feet cut through mud too easily. So you really need a pole that's like 3ft longer than otherwise because it takes pushing the pole 3ft down in the mud sometimes to get any sort of leverage. This is a much bigger problem on windy, harder to pole days.

The only reason I can think of that you don't see them on poling skiffs too often is just because the modern technical poling skiff itself is largely a Florida concept, and bridged feet aren't needed in Florida. Most of the guides (conventional and fly) I know that run around our area use bridged feet.

ETA: My boat is also a flat bottom aluminum boat, so admittedly it doesn't pole very well - specially compared to a poling skiff - so I need a foot that I can really lean into sometimes. If I remember tomorrow I'll take a photo of mine.