Pole or Whip???

I have just recently been given an pole, but i can't decide whether it is a pole or a whip. As I have never fished using a pole/whip, I havent got a clue.
It is 6m in length, telescopic, made by DAM.
It has an elastic - it's strength I do not know, No 6 or 8 probably.
Now, I know whips are telescopic and poles don't. I also know that you do not use elastic with a whip.
However, my friend says it looks like a proper pole, but the sections do not fit together if you try to set it up that way.
I want to use it to fish my local pond(Whessoe pond, Darlington), and if any of you know the answer to this puzzler, it would be appreciated. Also any tips - no matter how minor would be appreciated, as this is a totally new experience for me, as I am a coarse man, used to the river.

I forgot to mention that it is a fair few years old & hardly used. I cant remember what model it is & cant go and see 'cos I'm at work.
Can it be used as it is currently set up, if so, is there anything that I need to know before fishing with it rigged this way?
One final thing,(sorry if this seems long winded) I will be fishing on bread for Tench, Crucian, Roach, Goldfish and there is even a few Sturgeon in Whessoe pond (only babies of 5lbs or so.
Which pole type float would be a good all rounder for these types of fish, and how much does it cost?

Sounds just like what I had before I got into pole fishing proper.

Jason, you have a whip (non-conflagratory). These are normally fished at various lengths with the rigs set up as the same length as the whip length you are fishing. For example, if you are only fishing with the top 4 sections of the whip, your rig length need to be slightly under 4 metres long. The reason for this is that a whip is used for small fish, most of them being swung into your hand and the odd few being landed in a net. You say that your whip is elasticated and this will make some difference to the size of fish you can tackle, however I managed to land a 3lb carp on one, but it took an arm aching 10 minutes to get into the net.

As for setting it up, the whip is telescopic and, as you've seen from trying, can't be set up as a take apart pole, hence the reason for fishing to hand.

Pole floats are something else too. As you won't be able to fish very deep swims, anything up to half a gram should be fine for you. I presume you'll be using this on a still water or canal in which case you need to choose body down type floats i.e. one's that look like a tear drop. Pole floats vary in cost from 5 for a quid at some tackle shows to ?3 each in a tackle shop. I'd say that you would probably be best going for a simple made up rig that you can attach and start using straight away, rather than go down the route of making your own rigs up to start with.

Hope some of this make s a bit of sense but I'm sure more questions will be forth coming if it doesn't.

Cheers Adrian, At least I know that I can use the whip with the elastic attached. I did the dumbest thing yesterday - I went fishing with the whip on whessoe pond last night, but before I went I bought myself a pole float, and forgot to buy the rubbers to stick it on with!
As I only have rubbers for rod floats, I was reduced to using a tiny little antennae float that takes 2 No8. It did the job though, caught a couple of roach and a decent crucian. Was just a pain keeping the float from being dragged by the undertow!
I don't need to worry about buying ready made rigs, as I would rather save money and make them up myself. I'm sure the rigs wont be that much different to the ones I used whilst float fishing with rod & reel, however if I'm wrong please tell me the best rigs to use with a concise description of how to make them up.

Jason, the thing you've got to remember is that most pole rigs are made up for finesse using low diameter lines and light weight floats, sometimes taking only 4 x no.12 dust shot.

The other thing I forgot to mention is to get some pole elastic lubricant. If you hook into something large, over the 2lb mark, it will probably bottom out your elastic and, if it ain't slippery enough, won't then slip back inside the tip.

Adrian, you are a star. Cheers mate!
Will washing up liquid be adequate for lubricating the elastic? This is all I have until I get to the tackle shop next week. Dont want to use 3in1 oil cos I know it rots rubber.
I am going to Carlton Minniot shortly(Woodlands Fishery), I would like to take the whip with me, but I'm not sure whether to take it. The reason being that there are some big fish there (as many of you will already know). The thing is, The whip is only 6m, what happens when I hook into a big fish that wants to run further than the whip extends? I wouldnt want to run around the lakeside spoiling other people's swims, kicking over their tackle etc! Maybe It's because I have no experience of fishing with a whip, but I cannot see a way of holding onto a big fish that is "on the run" without getting smashed.
Anyone got any ideas?

That's what the elastic is for. It will stretch until it can't stretch anymore, then you'll either get lucky and the fish will swim back, or you'll get smashed up. If I were you and you knew there were big fish in there, I wouldn't use it. If you could get a margin pole that would take up to a 20 elastic and wanted to use that then fair do's but I wouldn't use a standard whip. You'd be best off finding a good head of roach and rudd, say in the canal or a lake that you know is stocked with them, and trying your whip out there. That way you can get a good idea of how the whip handles, how to feed, how to land fish etc. It might pay you to go to a lake where you know people fish with either poles or whips and see how thye operate as you'll get a better idea than anything I could try and explain in words.

Saying that, you'll actually find that you have a lot more control over big fish using a running line than you do using either a whip or a pole.

As for washing up liquid, I don't know as I've not used it before. If I were you, I'd wait to get some lubricant from the tackle shop.

Hope this hasn't confused you anymore

A

the fairy liquid is only a stopgap measure until I go to tackle shop next week. I have already used the whip on my local pond,and already caught plenty roach, but nothing to test the elastic yet. There is a good head of roach there - there are thousands of small roach and a fair few big roach.
Although in this pond there are also tench, some good crucian, koi, goldfish, golden orfe, a couple of decent carp, and a few sturgeon.
However, the head of roach is so big that roach is all you can catch most of the time.
I know there are thousands of small roach, because I climbed a tree to try & spot the bigger fish yesterday, and you couldnt see under the water because there was so many roach fry sitting just under the surface! I've never seen such a big shoal of roach! thousands upon thousands!

That brings me to another question.
Whether you are fishing with rod & reel or pole - How can you get past the roach when there are so many??
I prefer to catch the bigger fish (who doesnt?) as it is more my style, but it is frustrating when the roach are taking the bait all the time!

Jason, you need to feed off the small fish and use a hook bait that they won't be as inclined to take. Feed them off by feeding groundbait, a few large jaffa sized balls at the start should do it, then try using sweetcorn, pellets or luncheon meat on the hook.

Jason,
diluted hair conditioner is a better stop gap for the lube, and a perminent fixture in my pole kit is a bottle of 'Armor All' from Halfords Look Here I've been using this for years and it does the job very well, so much so that I wouldn't pay for the small bottles from tackle shops now.

nice tip rodney - thanks, I know the stuff you are on about. its silicone based isnt it?
It's so obvious now - why didnt i think of that? Ah well thats what these forums are for
How much does it cost? would a cheaper make of dash restorer do the same job, or have you experimented with different products and found Armor All to be the best?

Yes that's right it is silicone based, it was the first one I tried and I've stuck with it, I actually went to try another one in a yellow plastic bottle thick black writing (G.U.N I think it's called, I'd know it if I saw it)but couldn't find any. The bottle I'm using is almost 3 years old and cost a couple of ?, I can't remember exactly but it's about the same price for 300ml as it would be for 10ml - 15ml of pole lube in the tackle shops. Don't know about a cheaper version but I don't see it would be a problem unless it contained a coagulant or wax which might damage the elastic or block up the stonfo on the pole.