I stopped in a large outdoor goods store I passed on the highway. Wow, it’s a bubba’s world, but that’s anther story. I’d once looked for some sort of mud foot for polling on muddy bottoms. Two outfits make a “push pole foot”, and they sell them at Bubba’s world.
I looked at the Hunter’s Specialties brand. Looks like this: http://shopping.msn.com/prices/hunters-specialties-push-pole-foot/itemid806939146/?itemtext=itemname:hunters-specialties-push-pole-foot
Anybody ever use one of these pole foots? It surprised me that the spring opens the “duck bill”. Seems to me that it would open when you pushed on it, and that you’d want the spring to close that thing right up again so that it would be easy to retrieve through mud and water. Nope. That ain’t it.
The spring pushes the duck bills open. I’m wondering if it would be worth the effort to adapt this gadget to fit on the end of a pole or not. They are kind of heavy and would seem to require more effort to retrieve the pole and set it down again.
Any experience? Opinions?
~~Chip
I had one like that
It worked well in the really gushey mud. The springs let it close when you are pulling it up so it is easy to get unstuck. Then they open when you push down so you don’t have to push too far down into the muck.
I’d get one again for really gooey mud.
I’ve used two different ones.
Both were aluminum and actually quite light. Neither had any springs, and worked great. Like MikeMcrea says, they are really made for providing some Oooomph for getting a Jonboat through shallows or thick vegetation, so they aren’t made for “true” canoe poling, but when the bottom is soft mud, you will be S.O.L. with a standard canoe pole, so what the heck - go for it. If that model with the spring is all you can find, simply take the spring out - it’ll work fine without it.