Difference between a Pole and a Whip

[tommos16]

Good evening all. I was wondering, what are the fundamental differences between a Pole and a Whip and what would you recommend?

I fish my local cut and I only need to find the center track or nearside slope, so a 6m whip would be ideal (in my mind).

Can you attach elastic and a pole rig and hence save the cost for the same fishing? You could add a feeder pot and fish the same as the matchmen as well surely?

Thanks in advance, Tom

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[nottskev]

Whips are fished with a line just a couple of feet shorter than than the whip, so you lift it up and swing your bait or a small fish to hand, and you have, generally, more line in play. Poles are fished with a shorter line. With your 6m whip, if the cut is 3'6" deep, you will have around 4m of line between your whip tip and float. This can give you problems trying to control light rigs in wind or tow. With a 6m pole, you can have any amount you want, typically a couple of feet, and the tip of your pole is closer to the float you are trying to position and control.

The amount of line between tip and float makes a big difference. If there are lots of small fish, and they're not too hard to get bites from, a whip is fine. But in many canals, fish are shy and you need good presentation - control of your float and bait - to tempt a bite, and the pole with a short line lets you manipulate or hold the float still much more efficiently.

I don't know what the fishing is like where you fish, but I find whips useful when the fishing is easy and the fish smallish, and poles far better for harder fishing where the fish demand more careful presentation, and I'd say catching the better fish on canals and similar waters suits the pole.

 

[tommos16]

Thaankyou! It's appreciated. The fishing on my canal is hard, rock hard. You expect to blank, mentally, and anything else is a bonus haha

I am wondering though, why couldn't you just simply rig a whip like a pole? I may be mistaken but isn't it basically just a short pole?

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[nottskev]

Kind of. But poles are broken down - to get a fish in or bait your hook, you push whatever length of pole behind you - or along the canal path - and detach the top 6' or so which has your rig on, consisting of 2' above the float and 3' 6" below. If you attach that to your 6m whip, what happens when you lift the whip? Your bait or your small fish is dangling far above your head.....

Plus, you need to think about the role of elastic in letting you fish with poles with light tackle and not get broken.

I'm not being funny, but I'd suggest you have a walk down the canal where anglers fish, have a look at how their poles are set up ( I suspect you won't find many whips in use) and ask them how everything works.

 

[peter crabtree]

Whips are usually telescopic on the top 4 sections so not possible to break down like a pole.

 

[Golden Eagle]

Not much more to add than the guys above have said.

I think you would be better with a pole rather than a whip!

 

[john step]

I have always thought whips without elastic but relying on a very light bendy tip are for catching quickly lots of small fish when bites are easy and speed is the requirement. The supple tip provided the cushion effect. Many a river match would be won on huge bags of bleak swung to hand. Tommy Pickering was the king.

You should use a conventional pole with elastic where bigger fish are likely.

As an aside, you say your canal is rock hard. I expect and hope this improves for you when temperatures increase and the water regains some colour.

 

[103841]

When I was a lad I watched another ace........Ray Mumford.

 

[tommos16]

All, thanks for your responses... that clears it up in my mind! I appreciate the input/advice. As ever, this forum is a big help.

John Step - I only very recently took up fishing and in October it was a hot bed, now not so much... but it is reassuring that I can reasonably expect things to get a little easier! I don’t expect a fish a cast, commercial style, I’m a firm believer that any one fish of any size is good enough for me!


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[Golden Eagle]

Which canal do you fish?

 

[john step]

When I was a lad I watched another ace........Ray Mumford.

Ray Mumford hammered me off the next peg a couple of timesmg:

 

[103841]

Watching Ray fishing Thames evening matches at a stretch in Kingston was quite mesmeric as he caught bleak like a metronome.

 

[rayner]

It's simple, the difference between pole and whip.
A pole uses elastic where a whip uses a flick tip. Of course, whips can have elastic in place, then the whip becomes a pole. Nothing wrong with that, I've said it before, you buy the tackle and you use it however you like.

 

[tommos16]

Which canal do you fish?

Sorry for my (extremely late) reply. I’m on the Leeds Liverpool, Central. A good water for big Pike and Average Perch. Sadly saw a little skimmer in a drain gate today, sad for the fish but good for the fishing I suppose! I’ve been prebaiting a few spots with almost immediate response (swirls, bubbles, fish topping etc) so I feel like it’ll be a bit easier come post lockdown times


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[silvers]

good luck on the Leeds-Liverpool.

Firstly - the advice above to use a pole is certainly correct.

To provide a fuller response, and probably confuse a little - the term whip is ambiguous, but is usually used as shorthand for fishing with a length of line just shorter than the length of the pole (for a whip is really a specialist type of pole).
Whereas pole is the shorthand for using a shorter length of line and breaking down (removing sections) to land fish.

Either can be fished with or without elastic shock absorber.
Specialist whips tend to be more flexible to help with casting and playing fish without elastic - but there is a wide spectrum.
Some whips are totally telescopic so can't be used as a short lining pole - others, often called "system whip" are a combination of top 3 or 4 telescopic and the rest take apart - so can be used like a pole.
More modern "short lining" poles are generally too stiff and thin walled to use as a whip (unlike those of 35 years ago).

 

[tommos16]

Thankyou! For the great response. It would seem that a pole is the way forward, and I guess eventually most of us submit to modernity. No doubt its effective, but for some reason in my mind it just feels a bit soulless? Not a slight against anyone, just how it feels to me. I have a similar feeling towards commercials even though there's no doubt there's joy in knowing the water in front of you actually contains fish haha

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[Keith M]

Another thing with a Whip is that you can cast a whip just like a rod something that you can’t do with the average Pole otherwise the pole will most likely break.

When I use a whip (which isn’t very often these days) I use a 7mtr whip which has two put in base sections, and fish it at 5 or 6mtrs, which means that I can add or remove sections as and when required, eg. if I hook a large fish which I can’t swing in I can add a section which helps when playing a larger fish and also allows me to use a landing net.

I (like many others) also much prefer to use small wagglers with my Whips which can be cast to full distance and allow me to sink my line when it’s a windy or gusty day.

On most days it is a lot better to use a Pole or a light float rod but there are situations when a whip comes into its own and is fairly hard to beat; especially when you you have a large shoal of fish feeding in front of you and can swing in fish every 10 seconds or so and get into a pattern.

Keith

 

[tommos16]

Another thing with a Whip is that you can cast a whip just like a rod something that you can’t do with the average Pole otherwise the pole will most likely break.

When I use a whip (which isn’t very often these days) I use a 7mtr whip with two put in base sections which I can add or remove as required and fish it at 5mtrs or 6mtr and if I hook a large fish which I can’t just swing in I can add a section too which helps when playing a larger fish and also so that I can use a landing net.

I (like many others) also much prefer to use small wagglers with my Whips which can be cast to full distance and allow me to sink my line when it’s a windy or gusty day.

On most days it is a lot better to use a Pole or a light float rod but there are situations when a whip comes into its own and is fairly hard to beat; especially when you you have a large shoal of fish feeding in front of you and can swing in fish every 10 seconds or so and get into a pattern.

Keith

Thanks Keith. My angling is a bit limited by where I can fish, namely the canal two minutes walk from my house. Looks to have a good head of skimmers and decent enough roach and one or two pike which never seem to travel between the locks. For post lockdown, I'm considering a very light feeder and bread punch tactics on my 8ft quiver tip or bread punch on the waggler. It's relatively deep for a canal, 8ft down the centre, so I think traditional methods might serve me best

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[Richox12]

Basically...pole = very stiff & use with short line. Whip = flexible use with long line.

 

[tommos16]

Basically...pole = very stiff & use with short line. Whip = flexible use with long line.

Thanks Rich! Looking forward to fishing when we can mate?

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