BlueWater Boats & Sportsfishing – July 2019

aluminium, fibreglass or carbon-fibre poles. Each

comes with their own set of pros and cons, but many

find that aluminium hits the sweet spot in the mix of

weight, strength and flexibility.

Tigress Marine’s Boone Oughterson says while

fibreglass poles are the most economical, they don’t

offer you much flexibility in your spread. Since

fibreglass isn’t as stiff as carbon-fibre or aluminium,

it’s sometimes hard to pull larger baits or lures as the

poles will bend and allow the baits to dig too much.

Flexing poles can flick your baits or lures whenever

they pull through the face of a wave, causing tumbling

and tangles.

Darin Asher says fibreglass poles are not as rugged

and are heavier than aluminium. Weight is especially

important when you are installing them on the T-top of

a centre-console boat that’s going to be moving fast.

Whenweight is an issue, that’s where the carbon-fibre

polesshine. Snure adds that there are now carbon-

fibrepoles up to 9m in length.

Corrosion is a big issue for aluminium outriggers,

whereas carbon-fibre and fibreglass do not corrode

in saltwater, so maintaining them is much less

of a hassle. The telescoping aluminium outriggers

commonly found on centre-console T-tops have a high

failure rate if they aren’t properly maintained.

If you are putting outriggers over 4.5m on a centre-

console, Asher recommends carbon-fibre poles,

pointing out that Rupp Marine’s 5.5m aluminium poles

weight 3.6kg each, whereas the 5.6m carbon version

weighs just 1.8kg. Oughterson adds that carbon-fibre

poles are almost indestructible, and their light weight

makes them much easier to deploy and retrieve with

a manual base. However, you pay for that light weight

advantage as carbon-fibre poles usually cost more

than twice as much as aluminium.

HOW STIFF SHOULD THEY BE?

Since fishermen use different methods in a variety of

ever-changing sea conditions, determining how stiff

your ’riggers need to be has a lot to do with personal

preference. There are some who think carbon-fibre

poles are too stiff and will jerk the baits out of the

water in rough seas, preferring aluminium which

bends and flexes a bit more.

You want a good balance. Too much flex and you can

get structural fatigue and start breaking parts, but too

stiff can create problems as well. Fibreglass flexes most

of all, and many anglers prefer the longer, slow rebound

of baits pulled through the water with more give.

Aluminium outriggers are strengthened and stiffened

through the addition of spreaders holding a criss-

crossed array of reinforcing cables. As far as cable

tension goes, Rupp publishes a rule of thumb for

each section based on the number of spreaders. The

base cables (closest to the boat) get up to 22kg of

tension, with the numbers tapering off to 7 or 9kg

at the tips – although these are just guidelines, says

Asher. The cables should keep the outrigger rigid,

but they can’t be too tight or you’ll start breaking

parts. Snure says that tuning aluminium outrigger

guy wires is like tuning a piano. You want them all

to have the same tension on each section, which he

Outriggers set at a low angle

provide more spread, but you need

height to maintain towing angle on

lures run a long way back. It’s also

important to ensure your ’rigger tips

won’t catch on waves as the boat

rocks on rough days.

Aluminium

outrigger poles are

strengthened and

stiffened with a criss-

crossed network

of stainless-steel

cables running over

spreaders.

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