Poke Poling 101

Poke Poling

-What is it?
Poke poling is a style of fishing where you target various species of fish, usually rock fish or monkey faced eels inside and under rocks during the low tide. This sport can be a lot of fun and is usually very easy so it can be a fun sport for beginners or kids and even the experienced fisherman. Before we get too into this please be cautious while doing this. Depending on where your fishing this is something that is very easy to get your head and vision looking down and not paying attention to what's around you. My dad always told m as a kid, never turn your back on the ocean. All it takes is one good wave to catch you off guard to knock off the rocks and then next thing you know you swimming and at the mercy of the currents there are areas where you don't have to worry about these hazards where you can fish, but it is always something to keep in mind.

-What do you need?
Gear for this is very basic, depending on where you are fishing a different rod may be preferable. For small rocks, and even some small tidal pool areas you can use a medium/light to a medium fishing rod length is whichever you prefer, but I would suggest something between 6'6" and 7'6" for easier manageability. If you're in an area with bigger rocks with deeper hiding hole such as jetty you may want to get into more traditional poke poles. A lot of them are and can be home made. A piece of live bamboo or something as simple as a broom stick can work. The purpose of using this over a fishing rod is you're shoving this rod into holes that can be more than 10ft deep and doing this with your conventional gear can cause broken eyes, snapped rod tips, or even damage to your reel being banged against the rocks. It just saves your other gear, since they're aren't any eyes on

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of bamboo to break and if it breaks they are cheap materials to obtain and easy to come by. A coat hanger wrapped around the end with your steel leader attached to that is the most common way of making your stick into a fishing rod. Extendable rods are sold in many stores as well for this purpose if you don't want to go the home made route.

With your line don't be afraid to go too big. The fish might not be huge and be able to snap your line on their own, but eels especially have a really good grip on the rocks and they will rub your line raw against the rocks. 20+ lb mono would be preferable or a steel leader would probably be best.

Hook size can vary depending on the type of and average size of the fish in your area, this is where you're going to have to do a little homework in the area your planning on fishing on. I personally fish an area where its full of mostly monkey faced eels averaging on the smaller size so I like to use size 6 octopus or bait hooks. Some areas hold bigger eels and even nice sized rockfish so you can upgrade to a size 2 or even up to a 1/0 or a 2/0 hook. Going into a new area though I would try to stay with something on the smaller size like a size 2 or 4 hook.

As for bait, I have seen people try with plastic grubs before, but I have never heard of artificial baits doing well. The most common and probably the best bait to get is squid. Cut off small chunks just big enough to cover the hook and your good to go. Shrimp would also be a good bait to try if you are looking to expand on your bait selections.

-Low Tide is Key
You need to check your charts and know when the low tide in your area is. Look for a day with a minus tide which would be the best, but some areas can still be productive with tides that are at least close to zero. If you look at your tides and the low tide is only going to be 1.68 ft that day, your probably gonna be better off staying at home or fishing somewhere else. You can still catch fish on higher tides but your holes you want to get to are going to be harder to access and fish will be a lot more spread out making them harder to find and getting bites will be much more of a challenge. Obviously this means your only going to have a particular window of time to do this, watch the tide and again watch your back. Mother nature is unforgiving if you don't respect her.

-How To
Now you got everything together and your at the right place at the right time the rest is just simple fun. Look in and around the rocks either at or just above or below the water line and try to find small openings in the rocks. Don't underestimate how small of an opening you might find something in. I have found 18 inch eels hiding in hole that have an opening no bigger then a nickle. If you can get your bait in there give it a shot you never know.

Find your opening, drop your bait in, and if something is there you should get bit immediately, so give it about 30 seconds in a spot or so then move on. Try to make sure your bait gets as far back into the hole as possible though before moving on. Watch your line as much as you can, you can usually see it get tight and move frantically when you get a bite. If your not sure if you have a bite or not just apply some very light tension to the line so you can feel your bait and if he is there you'll feel him munching on the other end. You can give the fish a couple seconds to really swallow the bait to allow a good hook set and then pull back hard they are pretty tough fish and you want to hook them good.

Eels especially are incredibly strong. Never assume after a hookset that your snagged, those eels will use their tail to latch on to the rocks and I've even seen them lifting the rocks up with them as I'm pulling them out. If you've set the hook and you can't pull anymore and you think you have a snag, let off pressure just a little bit and if its a fish you'll feel him pull you back further into the rocks and if that's the case just keep pulling and try to win that game of tug o war. Sometimes if the rocks are small enough to move with your hands you can get a friend to come over and move some rocks around which will free the eels grip and he'll come out. Yes I have seen it take that much before to pull an eel out of the rocks before.

Be persistent and never give up. Everything above is pretty much all you need to know about poke poling. Besides good fun why do we do this? Rockfish most people obviously know are great table fair, but the monkey faced eels are too. Bigger eels can be filleted out and skinned just like any other fish and I personally love cutting the fillets into bite sized chunks and dipping them in beer batter and fried up. I usually do the same with my rock fish and enjoy it all together.

I don't consider myself a poke pole expert so if anyone out there reads this and sees something I'm missing please feel free to let me know and add to. There are many different video's on Youtube of people doing this if you want to see someone doing all of this rather then just reading about it. I hope this helps anyone who didn't exactly know to or what poke poling even was and/or taught something new to someone who has already done this before. One other tip or trick to consider, if the current and ways are causing too much movement in the water for you to control you bait well enough to get it into the particular spot you want you can use a small 1/32 or 1/16th ounce jig head instead of a regular J hook. This is something my girlfriend usually does when the current gets ripping. I'm sure a steel leader will help with that or a split shot right above the hook will do the same as well.

Hope This Helps
Mark