Long pole drag

I have a long pole with the reel in the handle. It has do drag in the reel and with 2lb vanish a big fish will break me off. Do any of those reels have a drag?

I have 3 varying reels of that nature, and none of them have a drag system. Best case scenario would be to let the handle stay in the “open” position and thumb the spool as best you can. I’ve not tried that, but have thought about it. Having a drag would be nice, but for now I just poke the rod down into the hole and hope for the best…

I just stick the handle straight out and apply a little drag with my thumb. Love that pole you made me blue.

Awesome! Very happy to hear it. I had mine out last weekend and I was reminded of just how much fun they are. Now…..if I could just create a model to fish in water depths greater than 8ft.

Tom, I was watching a John Gillespie show this morning on Winnebago. The guide was using what looked like a 2ft’r in fairly deep water. After the hook set he brought the fish up hand over hand. Not sure what line he had on it though.

I’ve never tried the hand over hand method of retrieval. Sounds like it might work, but I’d be worried about knots in the line or the line snagging in the ice and breaking.

I do recall making one of those long rods for Jeremy Crawford and he was using it in 18ft of water. His technique was to set the hook and take off running with the rod in his hand. Those fish would come flying out of the hole if he didn’t stop in time.

Ahhh…I do remember the day J.C. develeloped that method. Worked very well for him Those fish were literally flying out of the hole