# Desperately seeking opinions on Lean Bars for poling/casting platforms.



## Fritz (Jan 17, 2017)

Okay, my new skiff build starts soon and if I'm going to add a lean bar to the poling and casting platform this is the time to do it. Or I could save more then a little bit of money and let that fall off the list...

I have exactly no experience with lean bars. Do I need them? Are they in the way? Can you actually lean on them or do they flex a good bit? 

If you swear by them OR at them, I would love to hear your opinions.

Thanks,


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

I don't see needing a lean bar until I'm old and probably don't have any business on a platform poling a boat around anymore. Sorry to sound disrespectful but I really think they get in the way. The first thing that came off my boat when I bought it was the sissy bar.


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## privateer (Dec 6, 2013)

I'm old...and somewhat stability challenged and have fallen or slipped off more boats, gheenoes, and SUPs than I care to admit (though thankfully in shallow water). 

On our recent trip to the keys my wife and I went out with a guide on his Dolphin Super Skiff in some moderate chop. He had a lean bar on his casting platform. My wife spent time up on it. At the end of the day she told me that we need to add one to ours. "Yes Dear."

I plan to add a removable one to the casting platform sometime this year


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## GullsGoneWild (Dec 16, 2014)

They have a time and place. I have a buddy who has a 36" tall casting platform and he has a sissy bar and I enjoy it. Its a little on the taller side as far as sissy bars go but it doesn't get in the way of casting. My BIL had a 3/4 cage built for his casting platform for his 21' mako so we can hang on to something when fishing the beach front.


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## Zika (Aug 6, 2015)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> I don't see needing a lean bar until I'm old and probably don't have any business on a platform poling a boat around anymore. Sorry to sound disrespectful but I really think they get in the way. The first thing that came off my boat when I bought it was the sissy bar.


This.
IMO, if you need a sissy bar on a platform, poling or casting, then you either don't need to be up there or you should find calmer water to fish. Definitely get in the way, are ugly as sin and a storage issue.


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## Shadowcast (Feb 26, 2008)

Their value really comes out if you spend a lot of time working tarpon off the beaches on the Gulf or ocean side in the Keys if it is rough out. For backcountry stuff or your everyday flats fishing, I think they would just get in the way.


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## fishicaltherapist (Mar 9, 2013)

They have their pros/cons......AND, if you have never fallen off of a poling platform...either you don't fish enough (do any of us?) or your last name is Wallenda ! I've got one for beach fishing.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

fishicaltherapist said:


> They have their pros/cons......AND, if you have never fallen off of a poling platform...either you don't fish enough (do any of us?) or your last name is Wallenda ! I've got one for beach fishing.


I'm a ninja


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

I run one in Louisiana. If nothing else it stops whomever is on the platform from stepping off the back. If I have an experienced angler on the boat I take it off, newbies get the lean bar. 

Plus it satisfies rule #1- Look cool.


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## Sublime (Oct 9, 2015)

If you want one get one. I've only fallen off one platform and that was on a HPX-15. I had more than one kid "fall" off the platform of my BT. Both of them weighed about 130 and just landed on their feet in the cockpit. I've thought about a grab bar at times. If nothing else for getting down off the platform. To me , that is the trickiest part.


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## Zika (Aug 6, 2015)

jmrodandgun said:


> I run one in Louisiana. Plus it satisfies rule #1- Look cool.


Do you wear a pink Buff too?  JK.


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## Atomic (May 26, 2017)

If I was getting a platform I'd have it, but I've also had knee surgery and my balance leaves little to be desired.


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## csnaspuck (Apr 2, 2013)

If you get a removable one the tubes on the front of the platform also double as rod holders for when you are poling and need to quickly grab your rod.


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## jmrodandgun (Sep 20, 2013)

Zika said:


> Do you wear a pink Buff too?  JK.


Are you talking about our matching pink finger condoms? If so, yes.


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## Zika (Aug 6, 2015)

The mini rhinestones really match my other accessories.


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## Net 30 (Mar 24, 2012)

I talked to the guys at Bluepoint Fabrication and they said it's the #1 item added to poling platforms after guys take delivery on a new skiff...they do LOTS of them.


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## K3anderson (Jan 23, 2013)

If you do beachside tarpon, you need them. If not, you dont.


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## EvanHammer (Aug 14, 2015)

As mentioned it depends on where/how you fish. I've got a cage for my casting platform and a leanbar for my poling platform. Don't use them unless I'm tarpon fishing but if you're anchored up with swells breaking over the boat it's nice to have something to hold onto.

For older fishermen it's also much less fatiguing to stand up there all day if they have something to lean against / sit up on. I had my leanbar made low enough it won't interfere with the pushpole when it's in front but you can hang onto it if you're driving the iPilot or posted up in rougher water.


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## Fritz (Jan 17, 2017)

I really appreciate everyone's input, for now I think I'm going to drop the lean bars and tubes from the new boat build.


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## bryson (Jun 22, 2015)

I know you've already made your decision, but I agree with everyone else that it's very dependent on the type of fishing you do. I'd like to think I'm a fairly athletic guy and that my (relatively) large boat is more stable than a skiff, but I still would have appreciated a lean bar on the platform of my Hewes when fishing oceanside tarpon down in the Keys last week. It's not terrible and not necessarily dangerous, but it's a pretty good core workout.  I also feel like having one less thing to think about would let me focus more on spotting fish. That being said, I can imagine it could get in the way of poling, though I've never poled a boat with one.

It will definitely be removable, but I plan on making one in the near future -- I also figure I can always use the attachment points for other things, like racks to mothership yaks or paddleboards or something, or to drop in a few extra rod holders.


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## kenb (Aug 21, 2015)

Having had multiple surgeries on both feet(including skin grafts) I 've had lean bars on my poling platforms. One, I've never fallen off the platform. Two, I find it does not impede my poling whatsoever. Fishing with a guide one day oceanside, he stuck the pole into a hole in the coral, it stuck and pulled him off the platform onto the cav plate, prop, and skeg. Many stitches, and he had to cancel several days of charters.


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Get one made for the front of your poling platform. Getting up and down from the platform is much easier, and if you fish in chop or oceanside waves you'll appreciate having something to catch your balance every now and then.

I accidentally bent mine forward a little bit and liked that even better. Never gets in my way.

I'm going to have another one made that is short enough that I can travel with it in the inverted position off the front of the poling platform.

https://www.microskiff.com/threads/sissy-bars.44315/


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## Fritz (Jan 17, 2017)

Very cool MariettaMike, I had not thought of putting the lean bar in front of the poling platform. Probably hit it with the pole a great deal less often that way, and they seem like something you grab to catch your balance more then actually lean against, though I have exactly no experience to draw on.


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Fritz said:


> ...though I have exactly no experience to draw on.


...and neither do some of my guests, so the sissy bar also helps me get more bow time.


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## bryson (Jun 22, 2015)

@MariettaMike Thanks for sharing that! I really like the basket holder idea. Much better than some of the ideas I had in mind.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

MariettaMike said:


> ...and neither do some of my guests, so the sissy bar also helps me get more bow time.


I missed your sissy bar thread somehow. I really like it!


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## Roninrus1 (Mar 9, 2016)

I have a detachable one on my poling platform. Don't worry about what other people think, it's your boat and health. At 70yrs. old I don't need any more broken bones. Take too long to heal. 
Managed to break bones over 20 times, from ribs to toes. From wrecks to rock climbing falls and I'm still going to be on that poling platform!


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## ek02 (May 8, 2012)

I agree with the last post. I'll be 72 soon. Balance is not what it was back when I started. I had a sissy bar made to fit receiver tubes welded on 12" centers to the bow and stern platforms. It tapers up to 6" wide and 41" tall with a curved bar at the top with plastic caps on the ends. Works great on both ends of the skiff. It stays on with quick release stainless pins that go through holes drilled through the tubes and bar. I can remove it to tow or store in the garage.


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

bryson said:


> @MariettaMike Thanks for sharing that! I really like the basket holder idea. Much better than some of the ideas I had in mind.


I cut down the bar to 30", and it's even better now. Plus I can sit on it.


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

I am 69 still do sprint triathlons
So right now I don't need a sissy bar. While polling you use the pole for balance 
Tonight my ruptured disc in my back is barking so I may rethink this positions


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## Fritz (Jan 17, 2017)

I really appreciate all of the opinions! I decided to compromise, the new skiff will have the receiver bars welded onto the poling platform, (these would be hard to add later because the anchor light wire will run through one of the tubes), but nothing else. If I think I need a sissy bar in the future, it should be easy to add. 

I do see a platform mounted fly line holder like MariettaMike has in my future, that looks great for solo missions.


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## Roninrus1 (Mar 9, 2016)

permitchaser said:


> I am 69 still do sprint triathlons
> So right now I don't need a sissy bar. While polling you use the pole for balance
> Tonight my ruptured disc in my back is barking so I may rethink this positions


Get that disc fixed. Does wonders for the way you feel overall. No pain, is a strange feeling the first few times you get up. 
If a sissy bar saves that kind of issue from a fall, it is worth twice the price.


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## Smackdaddy53 (Dec 31, 2012)

MariettaMike said:


> View attachment 14837
> 
> I cut down the bar to 30", and it's even better now. Plus I can sit on it.


More photos please. I think I might make my stripping bucket removeable and do the low handlebars...


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## permitchaser (Aug 26, 2013)

Roninrus1 said:


> Get that disc fixed. Does wonders for the way you feel overall. No pain, is a strange feeling the first few times you get up.
> If a sissy bar saves that kind of issue from a fall, it is worth twice the price.


Going for an MRI Saturday to see if I can pole this fall. Had to bag my tri season for the rest of the year cause of the flair up....ouch


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## MariettaMike (Jun 14, 2012)

Smackdaddy53 said:


> More photos please. I think I might make my stripping bucket removeable and do the low handlebars...


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## Ruddy Duck LA (Jun 23, 2017)

I find having one on the casting platform is helpful. Leaning back on it takes some of the fatigue out of standing static for long periods of time.

I poled a boat that had one on the poling platform and found it to be in the way. It was terrible.


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## BM_Barrelcooker (May 4, 2011)

I used to think them unnecessary. 

I had a major back injury 7 years ago. It took a year to get back into fishing shape. 
Last fall I fished out in the gulf for false albacore and had a blast. 
I couldn't have done it without the leaning post on the casting platform. 

It really made the day. 

Not sure I would use one on a normal calm day but in heavy stuff it really helped. 


All you tough guys will get old some time too. 

Haha. No shame in doing what it takes to get out.


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## Marsh Pirate (Sep 15, 2016)

Fritz,
I had ECS make mine like a small leaning post. My lower back starts brothering me after about a hour of standing. I really like it a lot. Only thing I would change is to add a cup holder.


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## ek02 (May 8, 2012)

Some photos of the sissy bar made by Brad at Welding and Fabrication next to Islamarine. I can use it on the casting platform or the poling platform. It does not get in the way while poling because it is narrow on 12" centers. It's held on with quick release pins. I haven't used it yet on the casting platform, but it works great when poling on the ocean side for Tarpon.


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