what do you all make your push poles from and how long do you make them

I have a 14 foot flat bottom , sometimes I like to get in or rather through some shallow places , I probably only draft 5-6 inches

I have been thinking of making up a push pole for getting in and out of some of these places

I also get into such a mess of weeds some times it would be handy to push myself out of them as they just bind around the trolling motor and outboard

I use a 12' of 1 1/4" pine dowel rod from the lumber yard. Works well.

I think my boat is very similar to yours. I actually have several different poles that I have used over the years. All my orginal ones where wooden pole. Not surehow long my pole are without measuring. They Do all fit inside along gunnel and are short of front deck. So guess I would say 10ft. I have pushed my boat around in all kinda of shallow water and also in and on the ice. My orginal poles I used on ice were wood and actually pikes not just push. Two of those are no longer but metal. Long one is aluminum tube and short one is steel tube. My true push poles which have duck bills. One is wooden and the other is fiberglass.
Im going to be in garage sometime after lunch. I will be shoot some pictures edit them in.
They are far from fancy but get the job done.

These are the two in the boat right now aluminum and fiber glass. Wooden one is under tarp in other boat. The aluminum pole is from a load spreader they use in semi trailers. The fiber glass pole I got from a friend and don't recall what it was from. It maybe a old broken pole vault pole?
Almost forgot I make the pike ends from older tire irons I scavenge.




Mac

When I was commercial minnow trapping I had to do a lot of poling.
I made a pole out of 1" PVC, 10' is too short, I extended it a few more feet. For the top I made a T handle out of a 1" Tee, for the bottom I made a mud foot out of a 2" tee cut in half, for a half round foot and that cut T necked down to 1", I forget if they make a 2" x1" T, but you can get fittings to make it work...

The 1" pole has a lot of bend while pushing, but you use that bend like a spring to give you more "push", I did stiffen it up by filling it with expanding foam, then it won't sink if you drop it overboard.

I used it on a 19' Carolina skiff, you might be happy with a 10 footer but you get more work out of the longer pole

When I used to catch turtles a lot, I used a 12' long, aluminum pool skimmer pole with my net mounted on the other side. With the net, the total length was 17' feet.

I scooped up between 2000 and 2500 turtles, mostly painted turtles, with that net a year.

Keith

Same here.

I have a new outboard since this picture and added a foot control bow mount trolling motor

I have 14' and a 16' jon boats that I puch around plus use as a push pole/hook in my canoe. I gave up on wooden poles. Because of building houses, I have a bunch of white metal closet poles. The adjustable kits are a 1.75 and 1.5" (ish) ID enabling one to slide into the other. You can get the spring buttons heap on Amazon. Few minutes of time and you can easily have an adjustable push pole from about 10' to almost 20'. I wrapped paracord around them for handles to grip. Additionally I made a detachable hook/poker end and a mushroom shaped end for the bottom. Just drill a couple extra holes near the bottom so it drains.

They also have served as landing net handle extensions for lake MI.

Best pole there is for push poling . . . a pole vault pole.

Used to coach track back in the day, and when the pole vault coach "retired" a pole . . I always let it be known I'd give it a good home.

Light weight, they float, and mostly weather resistant.

Check on your local high school, ask the track coach, they just might have one ready to go to the dumpster.

Teachers have an inside TRACK to those kinds of things

C'mon Randy . . . groaner bigtime.

You want sticker shock price a for real push pole, lol...

I used 10ft length of conduit.

This^^ I’ve used several old pole vault poles over the years. In my experience they don’t float for long unless you plug the ends, which I do anyway so I can install a pic on one end and a wood disc on other. Another good one is old lineman’s switch pole. The old ones are wood with metal ends you can swap out different attachments on.

Got a duck bill one from Macks Prairie Wings a few years ago. Can't remember the exact length (10 or 12'), but it's extendable - nice for space management in the boat. Not a round pole, it's hex shaped, so you don't have to guess where the lock button is when extending or retracting. I use it all the time duck hunting

If you zoom in on the end of the metal pole in my picture. You can see that I have shot it with the great stuff foam. I didn't do that to make it float as I use it mainly when on ice. I did think it may float? But mainly did it because I didn't like the sound it made rattling. If I was going to foam one again I would use the black landscape foam.
The only problem with using that foam in a tube like those poles. It can take a long time to cure inside where cant off gas.
I guess there are other ways to stuff foam in one them poles. Could be as simple as packing foam. Or the fancy beads you put in the e n heat. I usually figure out whats free or easy.

Mac