Reels?

[icefishingluva]

Anyone use the schooley reels to chase after gills?

luva 

[icejunky]

no, they are not very common in my area. I use a fly reel on one of my set-ups and standard spining reels on the rest of my gill rods. The spinnign reels are great for opening up and getting a small jig back down fast

[Swift]

Not often anymore but they are very good on 'gills in less than 10'. Take them out a couple times a year on a nostalgia kick, still as effective as ever. Locally many still use them

[icefishingluva]

Thanks.  Gonna give it a try and see how it works.  Hopefully when i fish over 10' it won't be to big of hassle.  Why do you like to use them in shallower water?

luva

[Swift]

With it's design it's about all the line I can quickly handle. They're more of a line holder/depth setter as opposed to a true reel for pulling in fish

[icefishingluva]

Well I'm gonna give it a shot fishing about 20' and see how it handles.  If nothing else just put on a spinning reel.

luva 

[Swift]

They were state of the art 50+yrs ago when I started. They'll work, have taken lots of fish @ 30' consistently over the years with them, just can be a PIA at times. Have the spinning reels on layaway. 

[icemantwo]

No but if you like the look of schooleys you might want to try a fly reel. They're a lot of fun.

[JigginRod]

I switched over to tightlining with the Schooleys a few years back and would never use a spining reel for panfish again. I fish mainly 2-25 foot of water but have fished 45 with the Schooleys. No worrys about ice up, drag sticking. Super light weight and balances perfectly with 24-18" rods for all day comfort. Less moving parts means less to wear out or bust plus they take plenty of abuse and keep going. For the price I would spend on one decent Shimano reel I can get about a dozen Schooleys. Also when striping line off the reel in the act of sending the jig down I am streching the line and taking out any memory coils which gives me better feel and bite detection. One thing about these reels is the way you use them. Most are used to the hand over hand technique or setting the hook and backing away from the hole to pull the fish up. I dont use either of these methods. I choose to hand reel in every fish. I get aprox 6" per revolution of the spool. Now this is not much compared to the gear ratios that spinning reels have but I have never had issues with trying to keep up with a fish or anything like that. Along with using the Schooley there is no line twist from anything other than the fish spinning on the way up. When using a spinning reel you get way to much excess line twist which causes my bait to spin and I feel this is a big turn off to the fish on most days. 

[Van_Cleaver]

I always have one Schooley rod and reel combo with me. JiggingRod already related many of the virtues and I like to use the reel to fight the fish, too. I fish it dead stick most of the time, and it often catches more than my best jigging efforts. I like to drill about a 1/4 in. hole through the end of the handle and put an old piece of broken rod through it at a 90 degree angle.  Make sure you leave a few in. extra on each side. I like watching other guys get excited and start yelling when a fish is dragging it in the hole. It has accounted for my largest crappie, gill, and perch, and I usually take at least seven jigging rigs out.

[panfishman13]

i still have a schooley reel on one of my ice blues rods. i use it mostly for when i find fish sitting right at a specific depth, cuz it's easy to put a peg in and get back down to that spot quickly
the rest of my rods have spinning reels, but i'm gonna buy some of these http://www.slatersjigs.com/crappie_reels/crappiereels.php this year and give them a shot.

[tinyfisher]

I switched over to tightlining with the Schooleys a few years back and would never use a spining reel for panfish again. I fish mainly 2-25 foot of water but have fished 45 with the Schooleys. No worrys about ice up, drag sticking. Super light weight and balances perfectly with 24-18" rods for all day comfort. Less moving parts means less to wear out or bust plus they take plenty of abuse and keep going. For the price I would spend on one decent Shimano reel I can get about a dozen Schooleys. Also when striping line off the reel in the act of sending the jig down I am streching the line and taking out any memory coils which gives me better feel and bite detection. One thing about these reels is the way you use them. Most are used to the hand over hand technique or setting the hook and backing away from the hole to pull the fish up. I dont use either of these methods. I choose to hand reel in every fish. I get aprox 6" per revolution of the spool. Now this is not much compared to the gear ratios that spinning reels have but I have never had issues with trying to keep up with a fish or anything like that. Along with using the Schooley there is no line twist from anything other than the fish spinning on the way up. When using a spinning reel you get way to much excess line twist which causes my bait to spin and I feel this is a big turn off to the fish on most days.

+1

Another plus to Schooley's is the ability to "thumb" the drag.  I like setting the drag very loose, and then controlling it with my thumb or palm.  Works really well for very light line.  Plus, if you put the pin in, you will always be able to get all the way down without plunging the bottom, which is a plus if there is a lot of dead vegetation to get hung up on (ruining a hole).

[Gamedog1]

I tried one and felt limited......I felt like a caveman , now I only use them for tip-downs.

[Iceassin]

i still have a schooley reel on one of my ice blues rods. i use it mostly for when i find fish sitting right at a specific depth, cuz it's easy to put a peg in and get back down to that spot quickly
the rest of my rods have spinning reels, but i'm gonna buy some of these http://www.slatersjigs.com/crappie_reels/crappiereels.php this year and give them a shot.

Kinda like that lil' bait caster. Is that the one you're gonna try? Let us know what ya' think.

Been a Schooley man most of my life but slowly going via the spinning reels. In fact, for the first time, none of my rigs has a Schooley on them this season...and I'm not sure why  . I've used them in all depths of water...it didn't matter. Always loved setting the hook, grabbing the line and pulling up hand over hand...dunno...just seemed a better feel to me. Little tough when cold out and having the mittens off but it's a lot of fun 

[rugby ice]

Just bought 2 of the red crappie reels at Bass Pro this past weekend. Didn't want to fork over the dough for a flyreel but really like the looks of these. Similar effect of the Schooley. Nice looking setup with the red coloring. Anyone else try these?

[silvercreeker]

Schooley are great, use them on many of my rods.

[RIVERRAT2]

ALL the time helps stop the jig from spinning[gills HATE spinning]
 
RAT