Talons vs Power Poles

[ALMOSES]

I have Gen 1 talons on my boat now and they do pretty good for holding you where you want to be. My question for those who know more than I, is which is better over all. Talons or Power Poles? does Power Pole have the rough water mode to hold you when you are faced with boat traffic or rough water? Does Power Pole constantly find the bottom to keep you in place?

[Syncros]

I recently switched from gen 2 10 foot talons to the new version of 8 foot blades. My Talons were 5 years old and had been used (and abused) a lot. I had the red housing replaced twice because of the paint peeling but other than that they ran pretty flawlessly for the first 4 years and started to get a little wonky this spring.

I think best is realitve and depends on what is more important to you. With the addition of the Ultrex I found that I used my anchors less and less. So reach and compact size became less important to me and weight, the ability to work on a PP vs going to ASC became more important to me. You also can't find a foot switch for a non blue tooth Talon and that lack of support for previous generations really got under my skin. I was really hesitant about adding the hydraulic element but in my case it turned out to be a non issue. The lines were not much harder to run than the Talon power cord and bleeding was beyond simple (I didn't have to drill holes to run the hydraulic lines but my do so this fall because I think it looks cleaner).

I think at the end of their reach the Talons held better than the power poles. Middle of the range of reach they seem equal to me. There is less flex with the Gen 2 Talon brackets and the Talon itself but that comes with a huge weight penalty.

PP seem quitter to me because the pumps under the deck. Not sure what the fish hear but I don't miss the clunk of the Talon extending the next stage. That said I never felt like the Talon clunk scared fish.

I like that if I'm fishing off shore using spot lock I can deploy the PP and fish off the back deck easier with nothing in the way other than the motor.

If you have easy, convenient space for the pumps install is a breeze with PP, as it is with Talons. If I had to cram pumps in a hard to reach and see corner filling up the pumps would suck.

Edit to add. I have 0 regrets switching to PP and would do so again. Love the weight savings. Love the foot switches. Love how they look in 8 foot and under sizes. The 10 foot PP look a little goofy to me.

[Meadows]

I recently switched from gen 2 10 foot talons to the new version of 8 foot blades. My Talons were 5 years old and had been used (and abused) a lot. I had the red housing replaced twice because of the paint peeling but other than that they ran pretty flawlessly for the first 4 years and started to get a little wonky this spring.

I think best is realitve and depends on what is more important to you. With the addition of the Ultrex I found that I used my anchors less and less. So reach and compact size became less important to me and weight, the ability to work on a PP vs going to ASC became more important to me. You also can't find a foot switch for a non blue tooth Talon and that lack of support for previous generations really got under my skin. I was really hesitant about adding the hydraulic element but in my case it turned out to be a non issue. The lines were not much harder to run than the Talon power cord and bleeding was beyond simple (I didn't have to drill holes to run the hydraulic lines but my do so this fall because I think it looks cleaner).

I think at the end of their reach the Talons held better than the power poles. Middle of the range of reach they seem equal to me. There is less flex with the Gen 2 Talon brackets and the Talon itself but that comes with a huge weight penalty.

PP seem quitter to me because the pumps under the deck. Not sure what the fish hear but I don't miss the clunk of the Talon extending the next stage. That said I never felt like the Talon clunk scared fish.

I like that if I'm fishing off shore using spot lock I can deploy the PP and fish off the back deck easier with nothing in the way other than the motor.

If you have easy, convenient space for the pumps install is a breeze with PP, as it is with Talons. If I had to cram pumps in a hard to reach and see corner filling up the pumps would suck.

Edit to add. I have 0 regrets switching to PP and would do so again. Love the weight savings. Love the foot switches. Love how they look in 8 foot and under sizes. The 10 foot PP look a little goofy to me.

That's about as good of a review as you're going to get!

While I haven't owned Talons, I do have Gen 1 10' PP Blades and love them.

That being said, I've had some issues with them - mainly hydraulic lines popping loose at the fitting, or lines busting and leaking hydraulic fluid everywhere. This has happened more than once. I also had the circuit board in one of the pumps go bad once, but with all the issues I had - Power Pole was happy to send me all new fittings, hydraulic lines, circuit boards, etc. whenever there was a problem. They even sent me new spikes one time because mine weren't seating properly and it was my fault because I found out there was air in the lines.

I almost traded my poles for talons to a guy here recently, but decided not to instead. I reinstalled the poles, put new lines and fittings on and I swear they seem to work even better now. I think I might not have got everything as tight as it needed to be on my original install.

I like the sleek, slim look of the power poles and the way they are mounted vs. the Talons. The talon mounts alone is enough to make me not want to buy them, plus they are a lot heavier.

Not having to fool with pumps and hydraulics on the Talons would be nice, but I also have a friend that's had some minor issues with his Talons and he's had to take his boat to the dealer to get it fixed. I can work on whatever I need to with my poles should I have a problem.

Poles do not have a "soft bottom or hard bottom" mode like the Talons do, which would be nice if you fish a lot of softer bottom tidal fisheries like me. There's been a couple times where my poles have gotten stuck and I've had to crank the big motor and back up to get them free.

I think the 10' model poles don't hold nearly as well as the 8' models because there's so much flex. But that's mainly the case in really shallow water. Anything over 6.5' and my poles hold very well.

Keep in mind that my poles are the Gen 1 Blades and not the Gen 2. The Gen 2 models have totally different hydraulic lines and fittings that are much better than the ones I have, and not near as prone to problems.

[lamoon78]

PP if for anything Customer Service they are awesome no matter what the problem is.

[ALMOSES]

thanks for the reviews and advice. Still undecided.

[Dirtyeggroll]

I like that if I'm fishing off shore using spot lock I can deploy the PP and fish off the back deck easier with nothing in the way other than the motor.

Why did I never think to put the poles down for the co-angler when fishing off shore!?

Good idea

[KandKKustomz]

Why did I never think to put the poles down for the co-angler when fishing off shore!?

Good idea

lol.. they stabilize your boat as well when offshore in big water act like outriggers

[botrdav]

I don’t know if this will help, from all my research and reading all the posts I just ordered a set of 8 foot Power Poles from Kevin at K&K.

[KandKKustomz]

I don’t if this will help, from all my research and reading all the posts I just ordered a set of 8 foot Power Poles from Kevin at K&K.