I've always used the metal, triangular smoke sticks. Ever since my professional days. I have never tried dowels. I like the triangular one, as the links stay put. But now that I think of it, we used round SS sticks, back in the shop. The only difference was the ends were flattened, and welded shut. That way the stick wouldn't roll.
I tie the first end shut, then stuff the casing full, to the end, and tie that end shut too. As I link the casing (hog casings in the pic), when I get to the end and I have an extra link, I will just flip that one through one of the double links, or around and through one of the four link sets. I hope that made sense.
The only thing you want to be careful with, is when you are placing them on the sticks, that they don't touch each other. If I have too many links for the smoke stick, I just cut them apart so I have only a single link hanging.