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It looks like you knocked out Advanced Inshore Navigation back in December. And, as you know, I cover white poles and their madness in-depth.
But your questions are a little more exacting, so without risking repeating myself I’ll add what I can here:
You really don’t know what side of the white poles you should be on. There is no uniform method for this. Ultimately experience will tell, but usually you’re good if you just stay near them. Obviously if a boat is coming down one side you should probably pass on the other.
But remember my Shell Beach example of white poles that are lined up not to mark a safe route but an underwater row of rocks. Imagine if you tried following close to those poles!
What you really need is context. Doing your homework on GED will provide that context. Take it from a guy who has a collection of ruined lower units: that advice about GED is the best you’re going to get.
After that, yes, sometimes white poles are used to mark oyster leases. You can compare these against the LDWF Oyster Lease Mapper to see if that’s really the case or not.
Sometimes they can be arranged in a similar pattern to mark an area you want to stay out of, like a pile of rocks. If you’re not sure, slow down to an idle and look.
