The squidy pole

Keep an eye out on Decathlon offers. They have regular reductions.
I picked up my Caperlan 700 (7m) pole for £6.99.
Excellent quality for the price. It’s the pole I keep at my Mum’s house and has only been used for 10 activations so far. That’s 69p/activation so far! A disposable product but still looks like new :smile:

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Hi Brian,

In this part of the World, fishing for squid from jetties and piers was initially a pastime of immigrants from the Mediterranean region. It seems to me that squid poles made from various materials have been in use for centuries in Europe for catching - squid. I presume that the good folk of England, not having much weather you would stand on a pier in for hours, took the Mediterranean pole and used it in sheltered ponds and streams to catch the poor old roach. The term Squid Pole is therefore I submit the original and correct name.

Even the Chinese call these telescopic rods “squid poles”.

Finally squid (calamari) tastes better than roach IMO.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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Good thing about me 8m pole its all in one pole no additions at all.
Lose the pole. don’t laugh i did once, drove to Kitt hill got half way and kinda twigged left it in the shed.

Hence 10 mile detour back home as with out it, it is not going to happen.

Karl

I forget which of the SOTA VKs are native VKs and which have emigrated from the UK to VK.

Ron’s comment identifies him as a native VK. A native VK would not believe that people here could be capable of braving our magnificent weather for hours and hours stuck 1/4 of a mile out to sea with an assortment of rods try to catch some fish! No matter the weather, wind, rain or even both, you’ll find fishing stalwarts on the piers.

Maybe, and only during one of these hurricane remnants we catch now and then, will your hear people moan about the weather. We’re a tough bunch here! :smile:

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I have heard you can even sometimes enjoy good weather several times during one day :wink:
True ?

We certainly enjoy talking about it several times a day :blush:

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“Sheltered” is a relative term. I remember going for a walk along a local canal bank and finding it lined with dour motionless fishermen, having to step over the butts of their poles as I walked, with a force six wind blowing sleet showers in their faces. They are a hardy lot, perhaps hardier even than SOTA activators! Sea fishing requires even more hardiness. I remember going rock climbing on the three cliffs of, surprisingly, Three Cliffs Bay on the Gower in South Wales. These cliffs stick up like the triangular projections on the back of a stegosaurus and have an apron of low rocks on the seaward side. These rocks had several fishermen on them, dour and still as their fresh water compatriots, with waves breaking on the rocks at their feet and a fresh breeze blowing the spray all over them. Their waterproofs were caked in salt.

They can stand as dour and still as they like for as long as they like, but except on the south coast of England in mid summer they would be unlikely to catch any squid - though as the seas are warming that might well change.

Fishing in this country traditionally was with a rod made out of imported bamboo cane, it dates back to at least the Roman occupation. I am unsure of the difference between a rod and a pole, the web is confused and contradictory on the subject, but for practical purposes if you go into a fishing shop and ask for a rod it will be solid and a pole will be hollow. The technology to create strong, light thin-walled poles has only been available since WWII so the traditional impliment was the rod, the hollow pole in this country was introduced (I am told by a ham who is also a professional match fisherman) for use in fresh water fishing where the fish would be lurking in places difficult to get to so a long pole was necessary (he doesn’t regard ten metres as long!) and ground bait would be delivered by catapult.

As I see it a several metres long pole would be unnecessary for squid fishing, it would be difficult to handle in anything except calm conditions, so I suggest that calling our roach poles squid poles would be a misnomer.

That is a matter of opinion, roach is not all that tasty, but squid has no taste at all and a rubbery texture that I find unappealing. Perhaps you have to be born to it to appreciate it. Give me a brown trout any day!

Brian

Only when cooked incorrectly.

I so feel like doing the Tommy Cooper joke about “rubbery” at this point.

Another nostalgic thread - I was tempted to quote Tony Hancock “Its not rainin’ in Tokyo” :smile:

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Sounds just like North Shore in Llandudno! A group activity conducted in silence and isolation. Still as a solo activator, who am I to comment?

I wonder if anyone has ever walked up to a fisherman holding a rod with line out, and asked “Worked any good DX, then”? :smile:

Dammit, my drink just went down the wrong way! :grinning:

Brian

Hi Andy,

Yes the Great Britians are stoic and unflinching in the face of adversity, well usually. I suspect that has been bred out of me. I look at some of the TV footage of fisher people in the North and think “Why?”. For 35 years I fished and understand the attraction, but here the fish like poor weather less that I do. Gone soft I have.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

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Agreed. Most seafood needs the right preparation and careful cooking. I detest the thick sauces some cooks pour over the top of an otherwise good marine delicacy. A couple of drops of vinegar, a few grains of salt and pepper is the most one should put on your seafood.

We have learned better seafood cooking from out Italian and Greek immigrants. Also from the Japanese and our Vietnamese population.

Anyway getting back to the thread I suggest that outside of Great Britain the term Squid Pole is more common than Roach Pole. I was once approached while activating on a rocky ridge at 6,000 ft by a person who asked what was I doing with the Squid Pole. My dipole was made for the black dx type wire and hard to see but he could see a bloke on a rock next to a Squid Pole tapping his fingers on a box. You don’t have to be crazy but …

73
Ron
VK3AFW

I like the idea that you have fastened the cap to the pole. It’s far too easy to lose that thing!

Ed.

Me too,

Done mine now with bit of old kavalar string, taped to the pole and hole through the bung with washer other side and knotted off inside won.t be losing that again in a hurry. Put a washer inside because its thin rubber and wl pull through easy a washer spreads the load in side the rubber bung.

Karl

My two cents…

Mine is a Decathlon Press-fit rod: http://www.decathlon.co.uk/pole-600-id_8014342.html
It’s the finest for the job. No possible colapsing, fiber glass and cheap (bought for 7 Eur) !

The press-fit is an interesting feature because it doesn’t colapse as the telescopic poles.

I made a hole in the top cap where a rubber band was inserted. Inside a ring terminal holds the rubber band with a knot. A washer spread the load on the cap.

Also I have a cable tie around the rod that is covered with a strong tape (gorilla tape). this allows to have two point for securing the pole which avoid the rubbers or the strings to slip across the pole’s surface.

This give a lot of possible configurations to be used in the field.

I use the pole together with a walking pole.

73 de Pedro

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