"caroline" wrote in message
...
a pole?

In other words what defines a whip as a whip and a pole as a pole?

Is it based on length, or line attachment...or other factors? Or a
combination of things?

TIA

In short, to the last question. Yes!!

OK read on. While this is not always the case. A pole tends to be broken
down when landing a fish, until an manageable length is reached to net the
fish.

A whip tends to be fished to hand and the fish swung in. The whip or short
pole tends to be the method of choice for catching small silver fish that
are fairly close to the bank. You are likely from time to time to come
across a carp or large tench. Then you will have a fight on your hands with
a small whip. This is where a margin pole comes into play, they are much
more robust in their handling of larger fish.

Whips and Margin poles tend to be up to 9 metres long.

Poles in general tend to be from 9 - 16 metres long (there are longer
floating poles) these poles enable the angler to reach features that bit
further out, but can of course be fished at any length within that range.

HTH