Rigging a pole

[EricW]

I've just been lucky enough to buy a cane pole in pretty good order. It came with two tips made of split cane. I'd like to use it, but I'm not sure how these used to be rigged. This one has a ring tied flat to the blank on the tip section about 18" down and another on the next section down. I presume these were the attachment points for the line which would then pass through tip eye and down to the float. it seems to me that this would put a rather unnatural stress on the tip when rigged like this. Surely any decent fish on the end would force the tip to bend between the tip eye and the lower attachment point rather than allowing the cane to flex naturally. Or have a misunderstood something here? Any suggestions would be gratefully received.

[Catfish.017]

It could possibly be that elastic could be threaded through and attached to the lower ring?

[EricW]

Hello catfish, thanks for the input. That solution crossed my mind, but I still worry that it forces the tip to bend between the two rings. Do you know anybody that has tried this?

[Olly]

You may find that the other/lower sections do not bend! Certainly not like 'modern' poles when playing carp! A very light line and elastic would reduce the pressure on the tip.

I have an old cane pole with just the last 16 inches split cane - not used!

[Aitch]

https://traditionalfisherman.com/viewto ... 38&t=29447
I had a couple of spare tops made with fly guides whipped along the length and rigged the tops as above... they work superbly well and I've had many fish on them

[EricW]

I like that idea very much Aitch, thank you. I think I'll give that a try.

[AshbyCut]

I too, Sir, am a novice in the world of cane pole fishing ... having recently acquired one too.

In his excellent book "Poles Apart," Michael Nadell says this ...

"The top joint always had a wire eye on the tip which is whipped half way in fine copper wire and completed in black silk, while lower down the joint, a look od wire is whipped in the same fashion. The wire was used to stop friction from the topping cutting into the whipping silk. In the 1880's most anglers simply tied their topping to the eye of the tip, made a loop in the other end of the topping, and slipped the loop over the wire which was whipped about twelve inches from the tip, making it easy to store when the pole was packed away and saved time tackling up on the next trip."

My 1950's Sowerbutts pole also has two tips, one a little finer than the other ... as I understand it a roach tip and a bream tip.

It has two pieces of wire shaped like 'hooks' and facing in opposite directions whipped to the section below the tip, about 11 inches apart. I understand this can be used as a 'reservoir' of the main line allowing you wind line between the 'hooks' and let out one 'loop' if extra line is needed. This would give an extra 22 inches per 'loop.'





With regard to your concerns about 'spreading the load,' I found this video on youtube explaining how to rig a modern American cane pole ... involving winding the main line around the tip and second sections ... which appears to answer this problem ... and I intend to experiment with it in the coming new season. Maybe not entirely 'traditional' but worth trying it out, I thought.



I hope this at least gives you something to think about.

[EricW]

Hello Ashby cut,
Thank you for the valuable input.
Now that you mention this technique of wrapping the line around the pole as per the video there is a memory stirring somewhere deep inside what passes for my brain. I vaguely remember this from my youth back around the time that Ray Mumford was re-introducing the pole (by now made of fibreglass) to English anglers, ironically from the French. I seem to recall that this wrapping method may have been replaced by some hideous kind of aluminium crook grafted onto the tip of the pole to which the elastic was attached.
If one ties the nylon to the end of the pole, wrapping it will most certainly cure the problem that I was thinking of. However, I'm not sure that a fixed line is particularly safe way to attach the line these days, given the tiny number of waters where carp aren't going to be an issue. Of all the waters I fish, the Ashby cut is probably the only one where I would risk it at this stage as although there are a fair few carp in there, they are not such a nuisance and I have only hooked one in the last two or three years on my local stretch. I am still inclined to go with the elastic method suggested by Aitch at the moment, probably on one tip, keeping the other in reserve. It would certainly reduce strain on the tip section of what is now inevitably a very old pole. I will probably whip the rings on over the existing finish and may not even varnish them initially at least until I have tried the technique out as I am reluctant to make permanent changes that take it too far from the original. Whichever method turns out to be the best, I shan't be using hooklengths of more than 2 lbs anyway, so hopefully a lost hook should be my biggest lost and being barbless any fish that steals it away should shed it pretty easily.
I must say that outdoorsman is a braver man than I lifting the butt of his pole of the ground by the tip! In my experience there is no more certain way of breaking a rod whatever it is made of.

[Martin James]

I started using a pole when I was 12 years old, it had been my great grandfathers pole from the early 1920’s, was passed on to my grandad, then to me, it was and still is I suppose my pride and joy if one can have such an item. I have 2 different strengths of whale bone top joints. Up until recently I used topping, then attached the line float shots hooks etc, which are on wooden holders (see 1st pic). Recently Tony Booker has made me up several sets of elastic lengths, of various strengths. (see 2nd pic), these are similar as used on the modern pole, except mine don’t of course slide inside the pole. I then clip the loop of line on my float rig to the bottom of the elastic. I hope this is of some help.

[EricW]

Hello Martin. Another neat suggestion. Presumably this has worked well for you so far. Do you have any tangling issues at all? It occurs to me that I could attach the elastic to the lower loop, wrap it in a spiral around tip (as per the video) and fit a dacron connector beyond the tip ring. With the tension right, the connector would sit comfortably against the tip leaving nothing to tangle beyond it. I think some experimentation is in order using these valued suggestions. Thank you all.