Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Bluegill
Looking for a new rod
The Walri:
Nice write up Panfishman. I was recently in the market for a new gill rod and ended up going with a 25", 13 Fishing Snitch rod with the Descent reel. Hasn't arrived yet but hoping to use for tungsten jigs w/o a spring bobber. Hope it works for that, otherwise I may pick one of the flat tip rods from Sportsmans Direct. The kids are starting to get into ice fishing with me so I'm going g to need to grow the arsenal anyway so might as well pick one of those up anyway. 😂
--- Quote from: panfishman13 on Dec 17, 2020, 09:55 PM ---a couple years have passed, some new stuff has hit the market as well as my tackle box, and i'm gonna submit that i always want to have 3 rods handy when fishing for gills:
1. 26"-30" ultra-light power extra-fast action rod. this one's for jigs, small spoons, and the new micro jigging lures such as the eurotackle micro z-viber. standard stuff for bluegills. plenty of backbone to set the hook and plenty of sensitivity in the tip to detect those finicky bites. right now i'm loving the Jason Mitchell Meat Stick for this rod, retails around 40$.
2. 24"-28" medium-light moderate rod. this is for larger spoons and jigging lures, think clam leech spoons or jigging rapalas. this is for when big gills are aggressive and focused on minnows (happens more often than you'd think). the hits are gonna be strong, and you need less tip so you can work the bait more effectively. i caught my 3 biggest bluegills last season on this setup, and i'm excited to give it a go again this year. i'm currently running a 13 fishing Vital, which retails for about 15$.
3. 18"-24" light power slow action rod. this is a deadstick, which i don't fish without. either run a tiny minnow on a split shot rig, or a bit of nightcrawler on a jig; the point is to have an easy meal next to your active jigging presentation. i like to keep my deadsticks shorter so they take up less space in the shelter. just make sure it's not a total noodle: the point of a slow action rod is to let the fish move away with your bait a bit further, especially important if you're using circle hooks. i'm working on updating this rod at the moment as i'm currently running an old Silver Eagle rod, which is no longer available on the market.
--- End quote ---
Nysrx:
I have the snitch 29 inch with quick tip. I had the flat tips on a 13 widow maker and did not care for flat tips at all. Quick tip rods are great for panfish. I have a couple frabills quicktips in 35 inches rods rated 1-4 lb. they are great too.
zcm_82:
The Shakespeare Fuel 25" UL combos are decent. The reels are better than you would expect, but you usually have to sort through a few to find one with well aligned eyes, so I would only buy in-store.
The 22" UL Frabill Fenris is a nice little rod, too, but the reels that come on them are total garbage. They also have tiny eyes, so if you use them for slip bobbers, the knots want to hang up sometimes.
My favorites are the Shakespeare Wild 24" UL and the 13 Vital 24" UL, though. Those are pretty good rods at a really decent price, and they both have cork grips, which I much prefer to synthetics.
DANMAN:
HT ice blue with orange tip. Comes in different lengths. under 12 bucks
bigfoot86:
Shakespeare makes a light action rod called the Ice Noodle with a high vis tip that’s really hard to beat in that 12-14 dollar range. The smallest they make is a 24”. I got some high end custom rods but half the time I’m fishing with these. I think they’re great rods for the price point. They’re a couple more bucks than the HT blues but I think are a little nicer with a little more backbone.
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