If you decide to go with Talons, you might want to read through this post here. It gives some good advice as far as mounting. Has some good pictures, too.


Installing Talons

if you can only get one, and you have decided on a talon (or either brand), do you put it on port or starboard?

I put a single pole on the port side of my old boat. My reasoning was twofold:

1) If I am fishing alone, the slight weight of the pole is at least on the opposite side of the boat, maybe helping weight distribution at least a tad. With 2 people, there's no way around it being a slight imbalance.

2) I can more easily glance back to see that the pole is in fact up. From the driver console, a quick glance over the left shoulder and I can say "yep, I didn't forget it". If it's on the starboard side, I would basically have to look behind me to check it.

Has anybody tried the EVO brand?

One reason, I like the power poles because the whole unit lowers when you activate it. Some bridges sit low so with a talon you have to use the foldable brackets to make it under, which I think are manual. I realize this isn't the most common scenario, but with the talons, it's an inconvenience.
The best part about the talons is that they have different settings for different water and re drive into the ground multiple times. With power poles, in big waves you have to re drive the poles yourself or the waves will lift your spikes and your boat will drift rather than sit.
It all comes down to personal preference. I am a fan of the power poles, my dad is going to buy talons for his next boat. I don't think you can go wrong either way.

I just installed a pro series II 8' power pole. I love it. It's fairly quiet, and as far as the pumps i thought I would have a hard time finding a place to mount them but they're actually really small. I've ordered a 2nd pole now

Which one is easier to cast around for a person in the back of the boat?

Remember that the entire power pole goes down when deployed. If you want them lowered out of the way for an angler, passing under a low bridge, or backing into a garage with a low door, you simply lower the pole(s) part way.

With the Talon, the stake housing remains. There is no difference in what's in the way with the pole up or down. To get under an overhead object, you must buy/install manual tilt brackets and lay them over onto the deck, then put them back up again. In my mind, this is a big drawback.