Set Lines

[Adudenurse]

Alright, looking for insight from some people who know more about sitting and waiting for fish than I do.  Last year I bough some tip ups and had some luck on them but now I see it appears to be all the rage to use the IFish Pro stuff and use a rod and reel.  Anybody out there feel like these actually do any better than a standard old tip up or is it just about not having a mess of line on the ice after having a flag.  Moved to MN from mostly fishing northerns on tip ups which didn't seem to care about things not spinning as smooth as these darn walleyes do around here.  Would a rod and reel system like the ifish pro or finicky fooler actually help to have less false flags? I'm at a bit of a loss here with the more picky fish.

[IceHawk]

First welcome! To some degree they will be a little more forgiving to letting out line without as much resistence as a tip up but aren't totally error free. A good tip up lubed  and maintained especially a Beaver dam will work just as well IMO. I personally ice walleyes all winter yet on tip ups and wont ever toss them aside. There a few reasons you see these rod style tip ups. One is as far as the I Fish pros alot of the big dogs in the fishing industry are getting them to use on there shows for sponsorship and endorsements. Heck when IDO outdoors and crew first had them on one of there shows . They were slaying Mllac's walleyes and within a week you couldn't find one on the shelves anywhere. One of those scenerios if the big dogs use it I better or I won't catch fish . I personally fished with I fish pros and thought they were bulky and cumbersome. I switched over to Finiky  Foolers and have never looked back. The second reason for useing these and probably the main reason is to be able to fight a fish on a rod reel versus a hand line. Little more thrilling and easier especially for a newbie or kid landing a fish. Tip ups require  some skilll and practice being able to feed line back out keeping line untangled on ice  and not slicing your fingers when a big fish makes a run for it. Tom Boley has a great Tip-UP video on YouTube that really goes into detail and tricks to catching eyes on tip ups, this dude knows his stuff highly recommend it!

Edited December 15, 2020 by IceHawk

[Adudenurse]

I watched the Tom Boley video last night and I don't think I've been doing anything too drastically different than what he was talking about aside from potentially having the tip ups that may work an awful lot better at 60 degrees in the garage than they do on the ice. The frabil thermal ones do seem to get a bit less smooth out at 10 degrees. Like I said that wasn't really an issue with northern growing up but it seems maybe I need a bit more refinement for walleyes. I keep reading about the finicky foolers as awesome. What do you think makes them better than the other rod and reel options?

[IceHawk]

For me its being able to adjust the amount of tension according to the species and the bite your on. Besides walleye I've used them on panfish perch and catfish and they have never let me down. 2nd is the compactness of them I can stack a couple in a milk crate with ease. Not so bulky as the ice fish pro's 

[Adudenurse]

Well that sounds like quite the deal. Thanks for the info. I might add that to the wish list.

[BobT]

21 hours ago, Adudenurse said:

Alright, looking for insight from some people who know more about sitting and waiting for fish than I do.  Last year I bough some tip ups and had some luck on them but now I see it appears to be all the rage to use the IFish Pro stuff and use a rod and reel.  Anybody out there feel like these actually do any better than a standard old tip up or is it just about not having a mess of line on the ice after having a flag.  Moved to MN from mostly fishing northerns on tip ups which didn't seem to care about things not spinning as smooth as these darn walleyes do around here.  Would a rod and reel system like the ifish pro or finicky fooler actually help to have less false flags? I'm at a bit of a loss here with the more picky fish.

I use an HT setup that is similar. About the only thing I have encountered is that if the hole ices over, it freezes the line in the ice. For this reason, it takes a little more frequent maintenance. Any fish biting will feel that resistance or possibly not even trip the flag. My rig doesn't have the hole cover with it so that makes it even worse. I'm thinking of finding a hole cover similar to the IFish Pro. It works great in warmer weather when the hole doesn't freeze so much. 

 

Edited December 16, 2020 by BobT

[Adudenurse]

Yeah I would imagine that the hole cover would be even more important with just line in the hole as opposed to a big tip up spool turning down under where the ice would form. 

[Adudenurse]

Got out for awhile this morning and ran into a problem I have had in the past. After catching a couple little northern and re baiting the tip ups I found my line to be completely frozen onto the spool. Proceeded to have 3 suckers stolen without the flags being able to be tripped due to the icing up. Temps were around 0 and currently have the suffix tip up line on them. Anyone have any tips to avoid this particular issue?

[IceHawk]

Bad thing about tip ups when super cold out. I spray mine and my outside combos with Reel Magic helps keep some ice build up off the line and helps with freezing  In a serious pinch common lip balm rubbed over spool and line will help.

[Wanderer]

Is Suffix tip up line coated?  Never looked at it before.

 

I use the black vinyl coated tip up line for the main line with a fluorocarbon leader.  No freezing or tangles.  The only time the spool of line has frozen is wrapping it up at the end of a cold day and leaving it it out over a sub zero night then trying to use it the next day.  Even then it’s strong enough to just pull a bunch of extra line off to shed the ice, then re wrap.

[whateverisbiting]

I have used the vinyl line and don't like it as much does not seem to hang as straight but I do like it otherwise...good grip and just a little stretch.  Braided line can hold water and freeze.  I look for a tightly knitted nylon seems to hold less water.  Either way, the spool should be below the water and that should keep it from freezing.  Put two foam rubber hole covers on the hole that keeps the heat in and you will have not problems with hole freezing or line freezing even down to zero...except of course when you catch the big one and line is laying on the ice!

 

https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/beaver-dam-ice-fishing-ice-hole-cover-3-pk/0000000361700?Ntt=hole cover

 

[Adudenurse]

I just respooled them all in the basement and it appears that there is no coating on the line. Just seems like a fairly loose braided nylon I would guess. I'll look into a coated line to see if that helps. 

[Austin12345]

Just looked into the finicky foolers they look pretty slick and are way more affordable then the i fish pro another great option I have used is the clam arctic warrior rod and reel tip up it looks pretty much the same as the finicky fooler is far as I can tell and is about the same price. I also agree with ice hawk Tom Boyle has great tip up instruction videos that are very helpful.