I bought a new Thorne Bros Tripwire ice rod and paired it with a Shimano Symetre 500 last Winter but because of a lack of "safe" ice I haven't been able to try it out yet!!
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I bought a new Thorne Bros Tripwire ice rod and paired it with a Shimano Symetre 500 last Winter but because of a lack of "safe" ice I haven't been able to try it out yet!!
I use "Gaffight" custom rods made by a guy out of Albion, Indiana.
Bump up with a question:
Are the combo's from Frabil and/or Ugly Stick serviceable for a fella wanting to give ice fishing another shot or are the rods like the Thorne Bros. really that much better?
I'm most likely going to give the jigging through the ice a shot this winter since I've rekindled my fishing interest so much in the last 2 years. My targets are panfish; perch, bluegill, crappie. I'm sure I won't be a diehard about it; due to a traumatic injury to my left hand years ago my hand gets cold relatively quickly in the cold weather. I will be wearing gloves or mittens 99% of the time. Graspability will be important.
I don't mind spending the extra if it will make a night/day difference. I will be stopping at Cabela's on Sunday to see if they have their stuff out yet so I can do some comparisons.
The rods I use are what are called noodle tips, sorta have a built in spring bobber for detecting very light bite. The best is probably the Thorne Power Noodle, but the Mitchell Meat Stick is also good and a whole lot cheaper. I use them pretty much interchangably with a couple of rods I made myself rebuilt from a couple of real cheap but specific types from HT. I have replaced the tiny guides and tip with ones that have more space to avoid iceing, generally using single legged fly rod guides to keep the guide weight from dampening the blank action on all my rods except the Meat Stick. You can get the oversized tip from Jann's Netcraft with the tiny tube that fits the ends of those rods. The rods I made for myself have cork handles and an extra sleeve over the actual blank inside the cork to give a solid butt. I have used the 22" Frabill panfish rod, too. That provides excellent bite detection with or with out the spring bobber, but it is a complete noodle with no backbone whatsoever. Tips on the Frabill are a bit fragile, too.
BTW the Jason Mitchell ice reel with the oversized shallow spool performs quite well for the money, both on the ice and as an openwater ultralight reel.
I donot use a spring bobber like the "trip wire". It takes some getting use to, but a lot of folks swear by them. I keep my rods rigged and those things just get in the way of that.
Thorne rods are about as high a quality as you can get, but they are also premium priced for sure. There are some much cheaper rods that catch fish every bit as good, although they may or may not stand up quite as well. I would rather carry a couple or maybe three "as good" sticks than one that I paid a large amount for the name on. The name on the stick does very little to add to one's catch.
Be aware that titanium returns to a permanent form very well, EXCEPT under very cold conditions when the reforming can get real sluggish.
Thats very helpful info, thank you. I gave away all my ice fishing stuff years ago but looking back on it, I was set up for tip ups more than jigging. I don't think I had proper jigging tackle either. I'll probably end up with an entry level rod and see how this year plays out. I was looking at the Frabill line but your comments on them have me leaning away from them at this point. Hopefully, the East Hartford Cabela's has a good selection of rods on hand so I can make an intelligent selection. I'll be dropping some coin on some ice fishing tackle as well. One of the concerns I have is feeling the bite through gloves on the rod versus watching the tip as the fella's from the Thorne Bros. video's described. I've watched many of the video's they offered comparing the feeling vs. watching.
Hopefully, no matter what I end up with I'll actually catch something on it and have a successful day on the ice rather than just getting cold and frustrated. I'm counting on the fish finder to start that trend. Technology to the rescue!
The rods I use are made by HT or Berkley in medium to low priced range. All of my pan fish rods are equipped with spring bobbers so I don't invest in a premium rod.
I do spurge some when it comes to reels and use the cardinal 300u.
I like the frabill panfish popper but the line that comes with it is not very good so I switch it with trilene 4lb. My other fav rod is dave genz true blue series with fireline crystal ice line. I am thinking about trying frabills new straight line241 but the price is preety high fore a ice rod and reel at 79.99
Ice bite can be notoriously soft, you have no choice but to watch.
You may limit out and never feel a bite the whole time. Especially true of crappies, but it can also happen with sunfish and perch.
Cabela's had a ton of rods to handle and choose from. I looked at them all from the Ugly Sticks, to rods from HT, Frabill panfish popper and straightline 101 and 241, Cabela's, Genz, and who knows what else. I ended up with a Dave Genz 26" Ice spooler, medium light action with a fast action tip. $40 for the combo. It has the fly rod style reel system and felt good in my hand with 2 different gripping styles for me. It will feel good in my hand with either gloves or mittens on. They had similar rod with a spring bobber type tip but it seems pretty delicate and I felt sure I'd be busting it off before I even got on the ice but it sure was responsive. It would have moved if you blew on it.
I also picked up a selection of small jigs to start; various colors, weights, styles and some boxes to organize them into. By the time we get ice and I get an invitation to go I'll have it all organized and ready to go. I'm not setting up with the auger and all yet; I'll impose on others for a while since I supplied the boat all summer for them. :biggrin
I bought 2 Jason Mitchell "meat stick" rods last season and love them. Sensitive enough tips and plenty of backbone for a good hook set. The tips are brightly colored to help see bites. Along with a tungsten jig they perform very well. Now if only we had some ice!
yeah the jason mitchell rods look nice i like the idea of a light tip but with more backbone ill have to try them sometime
A word about the Meat Stick: when they first came out they were completely graphite and the soft tip was brittle enough that it broke easily. That has been changed to fiberglass and it is no longer brittle.Quote:
Originally Posted by Crappie Vermonster
I got the afternoon off today and went out to first Dick's and then Fleet Farm to check out the Gentz in-line reel and bought one. Fleet Farm has a huge selection and there are quite a few different rods out now with the extra soft tip like the PowerNoodle and the Meat Stick. Some are junk but that still leaves a decent collection to chose from. Either the soft tip or a spring bobber will help catch panfish throught the ice.
When looking for better backbone examine the rod blank as it comes out of the handle up to the first guide. That will tell you if it is built up for increased backbone. Also pick the lightest guides you can find, since a lot of the cheaper ones are heavy enough to dampen down the rod blank action. Some are heavy enough that the rod just continues to pendulum back and forth from a flex. You want the balance between guides and blank to be such that the rod blank dampens out that wobble real quick - IOW the blank should control the action rather than the guide weight. Also look for flat spots in the arch, just like you would for an open water rod. You want a smooth transition in the arch whether on a pure noodle like the lighter Pan Fish Poppers or one of those with reenforced backbone otherwise you will have a weak spot in the blank.
For some reason trash spinning reels come out for the ice fishermen, too, by the buckets full. You will get what you pay for. It doesn't have to be a fortune but skimping on your reel and your line will only cause you grief. I buy my rods and reels separate myself.
When I started ice fishing some years ago, I didn't have a clue, but quickly found out that a lot of the trash tackle cost me catch-wise. On the other hand top of the line very expensive tackle didn't increase my catch either, although it did show me what to look for in less expensive tackle. Ice fishing is rapidly changing though; so it pays to keep your eyes open and then get out on the hard water and see what works best for you.
We use a couple of inexpensive Shakespeare combos that we use with spring bobbers. We also have Frabill tip-ups and two home-made rods that we sit in tip-downs. Those rods are a little stiffer and pretty good for the trout we usually target if we get decent ice. I bought handles and line winders from Jann's Netcraft and glued them to 2 foot sections of broken bass rods. I'm losing hope for using our ice shelter with the lack of ice. This weather is nuts.
I like the black Alpha reels they put on those. Not the rods so much, if fact not at all. I watch for the after season clearance sales when you often get the combo at a good enough price to be money ahead to just keep the reel and throw away the rod, besides that is about the only way to get the reels any more. I have been using that reel or very similar black or bronze Alphas year around for the better part of a decade. For the money they have one of the smoothest drags, and it does not creep. And they are cheap enough that you can equip several rods and have switchouts available in an instant. Or set up quite a spread.