IceShanty.com's Ice Fishing Community
Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! => General Tips => Topic started by: finchasr on Feb 14, 2014, 07:30 AM
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OK so there's a thread covering best purchase of the season so what about your worst? Something that made you say "If I only knew _______". Hopefully we can save some members some grief here being that the end of the season is coming and lots of gear is going on clearance now.
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Fishing license - It led to a string of expensive purchases...
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Frabill srping bobbers. I guess they'd be fine at temps above freezing, but they freeze up really easily below. Very frustrating.
(http://www.marinegeneral.com/images/productimages/frbl-sprgbob2pk.jpg)
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Fishing license - It led to a string of expensive purchases...
FOR THE WIN!!! ;D ;D
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Fireline, it ices up so bad in cold weather you can't reel a fish in....back to mono I go.
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Eskimo Z71 the new ones are complete garbage
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Eskimo Z71 the new ones are complete garbage
What is wrong with it? I have a friend who got one this year and loves his.
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Just wait till he yanks the pull rope out of it. Plastic parts. Plus they already know they have a problem with this and keep selling them anyhow.
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Eagle claw inline
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Frabill inlines, got them at outlet store so I can't complain too much but....
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Just wait till he yanks the pull rope out of it. Plastic parts. Plus they already know they have a problem with this and keep selling them anyhow.
4 Years and rope intact. Plastic parts all intact. Either you are careful with your stuff or you break it. Same goes for people that bust all the breakable parts in the interior of their cars with in the first year. You just can't expect everything to be unbreakable. These type people can't wash dishes either. OH that one is clean throw it in the other side to rinse.
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clam nitinol bobbers.stays bent over in the cold and straighten back out when warmed up.
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Strikemaster magnum 10 inch auger. I guess there was a reason I got it so cheap.
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Celceus ice line (the dark blue mono stuff) I knew Celceius was bad, but I was low on cash and $2 was all I had, spooled it up in the right direction, and the transparent blue looked awesome on the reel, went out to the lake and half the line poofed off the spool, while inspecting the mess at home I noticed it was really thick for its #, infact the 8lb celceius was visibly larger in diameter then every other brand 10lb mono on my bench, snd it was stiffer then copper wire after jigging for 30 minutes
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Nylon coated tip up line. I've heard so many good things about the "problems" they solved like line freezing. It only causes problems, and they don't seem to stock 100 yard spools of regular dacron past november so I'm stuck with it. ::)
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Frabil Straight Line 101XLA
A buddy got one the same time I did. The spool handle broke off on BOTH within two weeks! I'll be boxing mine and sending it back to Frabil, they can keep it.
It's not that I'm hard on reels, or new to this style. I've got two clam spoolers, a crappie hunter(way too small), Pflueger Medalist fly reel, Cabelas plastic fly reel(model unknown, two Cabelas wind river fly reels. Anyways, I've got a several, this is the only one that couldn't stand up to normal use.
Also, the drag is absolute crap. When you pull line out, it has a real rough feeling to it, and it just doesn't loosen up enough. As stated, I've had many fly reels, and this one is particularly poor quality.
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Frabil Straight Line 101XLA
A buddy got one the same time I did. The spool handle broke off on BOTH within two weeks! I'll be boxing mine and sending it back to Frabil, they can keep it.
It's not that I'm hard on reels, or new to this style. I've got two clam spoolers, a crappie hunter(way too small), Pflueger Medalist fly reel, Cabelas plastic fly reel(model unknown, two Cabelas wind river fly reels. Anyways, I've got a several, this is the only one that couldn't stand up to normal use.
Also, the drag is absolute crap. When you pull line out, it has a real rough feeling to it, and it just doesn't loosen up enough. As stated, I've had many fly reels, and this one is particularly poor quality.
I went into Cabela's one day and saw a Straight line Combo. Picked it up and the spool fell off. Pushed it back on and it clicked,so I thought it was on there good. Wrong it fell off again and then the handle broke off after hitting the carpet. Cheap piece of crud.
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Fishing license - It led to a string of expensive purchases...
And they continue...
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Bought a case of beer called Beer Thirty Light. It was only $13 for a 30 pack. By far the worst purchase to take ice fishing! ;D
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I bought two of the expedition paddle reel combos. Oh did I make a mess spooling one. If you catch it on the first turn after the line jumps reel it's just slightly frustrating. Any thing past the third turn and your taking it apart. They do put a lot of line down the hole fast, tho, and the pole they come on is pretty nice. Points for trying something new. -points for how it worked. No hard feelings tho. It takes bad ideas to make good ideas.
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I ll vouch for Eskimo tho. I ve had a q51 for three years and have been nothing but happy. And I have to agree that buying a fishing license does seem to be an open ended purchase. :o
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I just purchased 2 Frabil 101 XLA reels. There is no information available for the line capacity. I even called Frabil, but they were unable to answer my question. What is the recommended yardage for 4 Lb.test? I will be primarily fishing for panfish.
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I just purchased 2 Frabil 101 XLA reels. There is no information available for the line capacity. I even called Frabil, but they were unable to answer my question. What is the recommended yardage for 4 Lb.test? I will be primarily fishing for panfish.
From the look of it, I would think at least 100 yards. Make sure you stay back from the edge of the reel at least 1/4 inch filled up. ;)
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I just purchased 2 Frabil 101 XLA reels. There is no information available for the line capacity. I even called Frabil, but they were unable to answer my question. What is the recommended yardage for 4 Lb.test? I will be primarily fishing for panfish.
For panfish you wouldn't need a lot of line. I only put on about 50 feet, but i usually fish in less than 20 feet of water.
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Fireline, iced up, back to mono
Small diameter spring bobbers froze up, get the large diameter ones.
suitcase shanty, too hard to drag in the snow, when the ice was blown clear wouldn't sit still, even when anchored. Little buttons to push to break it down very difficult after long day of fishing.
"runners" on the bottom of my jet sled, all they add is weight, no easier to drag with them on.
boat style fish finder in ammo box with battery instead of a true flasher.
gosh...I hope that's it :)
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Frabill srping bobbers. I guess they'd be fine at temps above freezing, but they freeze up really easily below. Very frustrating.
(http://www.marinegeneral.com/images/productimages/frbl-sprgbob2pk.jpg)
I saw something that said use that cooking pan spray on the spring bobber and the ice wont build!
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Way too many plastics! Not really a bad thing, but they just don't seem to work for me. It's not for lask of trying either. We buy bait and the first jig down the hole is tipped wit some sort of plastic as I really want these things to work for me. 9 out 10 times though it's back to live bait. I will try throughout the day with the plastics again, but always the same results.
Honestly I was out last weekend and live bait was the only thing the perch were taking. We happened to be there on the "hot time" and were pulling fish with no bait at all. I figured, hell of a time to try these plastics again. At least I would be able to say I caught a fish on them. No kidding I tipped the jig dumped it down, nothing! Guy sitting right next to me with nothing on his jig out fishing me. Frustrating to say the least.
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two fly reel type inline reels.
I fish too deep for these to be effective, they're going back on the bench.
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I just purchased 2 Frabil 101 XLA reels. There is no information available for the line capacity. I even called Frabil, but they were unable to answer my question. What is the recommended yardage for 4 Lb.test? I will be primarily fishing for panfish.
I spun about 80 Yds. on mine. (that's what I had on hand) It's not a big issue on these
straight-lines; spin what you want on it...100 Yds is more than sufficient, IMO. Why use more?
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Blue Tipz. Bought a couple, and neither one went off reliably. Big disappointment.
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I am fairly new to ice fishing and I bought a hub shelter....Wish I would have bought a 2 man flip over.....
That's OK...I will keep it and maybe buy a flip over if I can find one on sale and use the Hub when my family goes out on the ice..
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Gander Mountain is trying to get rid of their ice fishing stuff right now. 10% off the entire store when i last went there..Maybe you could find a good deal.
I am fairly new to ice fishing and I bought a hub shelter....Wish I would have bought a 2 man flip over.....
That's OK...I will keep it and maybe buy a flip over if I can find one on sale and use the Hub when my family goes out on the ice..
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Frabil 5 gallon minnow bucket with padded seat. >:(The foam bucket liner is complete crap. The foam is porus and water weeps through quickly. As the water permeates it, the liner then rises to the top of the water left in the bucket and soon you'll have little water left in it for the minnows. If they would find foam that is waterproof like a real minnow bucket or cooler, they would be onto something. Then it would be handy to keep the other bait on the of the liner lid, yet still inside the bucket for storage and transport.
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Yep that Frabill 5 gal insulated bait pail is n/g. Mine leaked the same except the foam insert froze into the pail and the lid froze to both. Had to bust the lid to get bait. Worthless.
Nice snap lid though...
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black betty reel. It is not half the reel the eagle claw is.
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Eagle claw reel. Drag is terrible .
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I would rather have a reel with a bad drag, than one that won't un spool a small jig.
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Eagle claw reel. Drag is terrible .
All drag or no drag .... :-\ I'm going to take mine apart this spring and try a couple of things . What ? Don't know yet . I'll post if I figure out something good .
Bucktownboy
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That eagle claw has kicked my butt so far, drag sucks, if it freespools too fast you will have the snarl of a lifetime, and the tips are very fragile. Post your drag fix, its a good looking setup just needs to have a real fisherman give them some guidance. Do they not field test this stuff? I have a 5 dollar bargain store rod and zebco that is way less hassle.
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Gander Mountain is trying to get rid of their ice fishing stuff right now. 10% off the entire store when i last went there..Maybe you could find a good deal.
My entire purchase from Gander Mountain :-/ Ordered a sled from them and turned out the dimensions on the site were off... by 20 freaking inches >:(. Emailed customer service but no reply. I hate calling people but looks like I'm gonna have to because I can't fit a 5 gallon bucket and my 4.5" Nils in the stupid thing without the Nils falling off. I miss my old sled... And my 5 gallon bucket.
Afraid to use the lip gripper tool I ordered from Gander Mountain because I only have a 8" hand span, think I need a 12" hand span if I want to use it one-handed. So much for holding my pole and grabbing a toothy fish by the lips.
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A Celsius m/h rod that snapped when I put the reel on and checked the drag. Never had a chance to try it on a fish.
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That eagle claw has kicked my butt so far, drag sucks, if it freespools too fast you will have the snarl of a lifetime, and the tips are very fragile. Post your drag fix, its a good looking setup just needs to have a real fisherman give them some guidance. Do they not field test this stuff? I have a 5 dollar bargain store rod and zebco that is way less hassle.
I followed the advice of someone else on this site and added a split washer between the drag wheel and the reel handle. When you tighten the reel handle back on do not crank it down tight, you wat the ssplit washer to be giving resistance but not fully closed. This will give you room to tighten and loosen the drag and the two will no longer lock up on each other changing your drag when you don't want it to. It is a 1-2c fix, i don't understand why they didn't add one to start.
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i bought 3 Shakespeare Crusader reels. bought them in february, and by august they had all broken. and that's with me not even fishing during the month of july.
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Yep that Frabill 5 gal insulated bait pail is n/g. Mine leaked the same except the foam insert froze into the pail and the lid froze to both. Had to bust the lid to get bait. Worthless.
Nice snap lid though...
I just sprayed the outside of the foam insert with flex seal black, seems to fix the problem so far. Thinking about doing the inside with the clear.
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how about 80% of my jigs - they looked like they'd catch fish in the store... 20% of the lures catch 80% of the fish.
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5 inch laser when I should have gotten a 6 inch laser?
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Eagle Claw inline reels that I bought last season. Worst purchase I have ever made!
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Last year it was the Do-Jigger spoon by Bay De Noc. Its silver with a glow stripe on one edge, with a red flipper. (cant find one this color online, discontinued already?)
Havent caught a thing on it yet in 11 months. Looks cool though....
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My Marcum LX-6 has been a purchase I've regretted. Even though I got it for $479.00 new, I almost never use it. I fish shallow water the majority of the time and it does not read the first 32" under the transducer. I hear they are going to offer a fix in January 2016. Well I've owned t since 2014. It sits on the shelf while my rock solid H-Bird Ice-35 goes fishing.
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An HT ice skimmer that is about 6 1/2" in diameter. I use a 6" nils... looks like I'll still be raiding the kitchen again this year.
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An HT ice skimmer that is about 6 1/2" in diameter. I use a 6" nils... looks like I'll still be raiding the kitchen again this year.
LOL
If its plastic, grind some off on the grinder!
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An HT ice skimmer that is about 6 1/2" in diameter. I use a 6" nils... looks like I'll still be raiding the kitchen again this year.
Order half a dozen orange plastic ones. That's all I use. I have lost so many or broken or dropped down the hole so I order a bunch every single often.
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It's steel. I work with metal for a living so wouldn't be a problem to cut it down. Was still funny to see that.
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5 inch laser when I should have gotten a 6 inch laser?
That sounds like my fly boxes. Carry three of them with hundreds of flies, some of them have never felt the water. I use maybe six patterns. An old wise fly fisherman told me "you will catch most of your fish with the one fly you have the most confidence in." He's right.
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Wedding cake.
Need I say more???
:tipup:
Lobes
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Wedding cake.
Need I say more???
LOL I like that one you win
:tipup:
Lobes
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bought an HT ice rigger, gotta say i've been eyeing them for a while now. i thought it would be a fantastic way to do dead rods inside the shelter.
unfortunately, when i tested them on the local trout pond a couple of product-breaking problems made themselves apparent.
first, the tension on the flag release mechanism is not adjustable, and it is tight enough that only the most aggressive fish will trip the flag and even those fish sometimes don't.
second, the clip holding the line does not release the line quickly or easily. of the 5 fish i managed to hook on this thing, 3 of them got off because i was struggling to get the line out of the clip.
and lastly, the flag was poorly made and poorly attached. i actually had to glue it back onto the flag arm halfway through the day, and the stiff plastic the flag was made of caused it to stay in the rolled-up position it had while in the packaging.
i can replace the flag, but i am sincerely disappointed in this product. it's supposed to trip the flag when a fish bites, and allow you to smoothly and efficiently hook and land the fish. it does neither of these things.
here are the numbers to compare for that particular day:
HT Ice Rigger, rigged with a jigging spoon tipped with a small chunk of nightcrawler: 8 flags, 5 hookups, 2 landed fish
tipup, rigged with two #4 circle hooks tipped with small chunks of nightcrawler: 16 flags, 7 hookups, 6 landed fish
rod in rodholder, rigged with a jigging spoon tipped with a sall chunk of nightcrawler: 12 bites noticed, 11 hookups, 11 landed fish
jigging rod, rigged with various small jigs tipped with a variety of glow or green plastics: 27 hookups, 24 landed fish
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Panfishman13, good report. :thumbsup:
Lobes, there ain't no job that can't be done by hand. :woot: :roflmao:
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for me last year was yak trax, year before it was rocky boots. yak trax didn't last one season on the ice, and the rocky boots didn't make it two seasons
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Nothing!! 60 degree temps coming my way............ Good thing my boat is still ready to go
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Last year it was the Do-Jigger spoon by Bay De Noc. Its silver with a glow stripe on one edge, with a red flipper. (cant find one this color online, discontinued already?)
Havent caught a thing on it yet in 11 months. Looks cool though....
Those are walleye killers.
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Those are walleye killers.
Well no walleye in Maine so maybe that explains why I havent caught anything on it yet. LOL
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any ice gear I bought this season cause there is no ice!
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Frabil Straight Line 101XLA
A buddy got one the same time I did. The spool handle broke off on BOTH within two weeks! I'll be boxing mine and sending it back to Frabil, they can keep it.
It's not that I'm hard on reels, or new to this style. I've got two clam spoolers, a crappie hunter(way too small), Pflueger Medalist fly reel, Cabelas plastic fly reel(model unknown, two Cabelas wind river fly reels. Anyways, I've got a several, this is the only one that couldn't stand up to normal use.
Also, the drag is absolute crap. When you pull line out, it has a real rough feeling to it, and it just doesn't loosen up enough. As stated, I've had many fly reels, and this one is particularly poor quality.
Shoot I just bought one and can't return it.
I hope that I have better luck
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I would have to say Mr Heater Big Buddy.
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I would have to say Mr Heater Big Buddy.
That's too bad....you might be the only one.
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Clam shanty light/fan for 20$, which fell from the ceiling of my Bigfoot 4000t and shattered on the ground. :%$#!:
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Hmm, I haven't made any purchases this year other than a few more of my favorite jigs/plastics, and some line..
Last year I had a bad one, tony roach inline reel.. JUNK, good concept but bad product. Felt like I was using a $5 shakespeare reel, which is pretty much what it is. Rather use a shooley reel than that thing!
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Two dozen crappie minnows. Fiddle around with them every day to keep them alive, usually dedicate one pole to a minnow. So far all the fish I've caught, crappies and otherwise have been on plastics and waxworms.
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A new to me snowmobile for ice fishing after last year getting 4 wheeler stuck with all the snow we had !
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Wasn't recent but i bought a collapsable table from Clam and it didnt even last long enough to be setup. The plastic clips smashed off when it was only -5C outside, and this was inside the popup. Terrible product.
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Clam light fan combo.
That will be my last Clam purchase.
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Clam light fan combo.
That will be my last Clam purchase.
I bought the clam hole light when it first came out that when I finally said no more calm products! I either threw it in the trash or mom might have donated it the salvation army not sure what I did with it?
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I followed the advice of someone else on this site and added a split washer between the drag wheel and the reel handle. When you tighten the reel handle back on do not crank it down tight, you wat the ssplit washer to be giving resistance but not fully closed. This will give you room to tighten and loosen the drag and the two will no longer lock up on each other changing your drag when you don't want it to. It is a 1-2c fix, i don't understand why they didn't add one to start.
How did that work for you?
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My buddy picked up these battery powered jigging tip ups new in package at a garage sale he payed $15 for 3. We tried them out and they where the biggest pieces of garbage, stupid things hardly worked and fell apart during a day of fishing. They where such junk we laughed about them all day. There was a dumpster in the parking lot and that's where they went after we where done. Nature vision jig ups if you want to look them up for a laugh.. Guess they came out 7-10 years ago but they are still lurking around garage sales
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Well no walleye in Maine so maybe that explains why I havent caught anything on it yet. LOL
Really no walleye in maine?
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This would be from last year but it's definitely the worst piece of junk I've ever purchased. The Clam fan/light. I like to smoke cigars in my portable while I'm on the ice and that thing barely moves any air or puts out any light. For $40 I was definitely disappointed. After purchasing my Nanook thermal and loving it I was a Clam guy but the more products I buy from them the more disappointed I get. :-\
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How did that work for you?
Lol took most of a year, but I noticed this now >.>
Worked well for me, have been using it this way for some time now and it has stopped the drag accidentally changing 100%. I still prefer my frabbil 361, but it was a huge improvement on the eagle claw.
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Well no walleye in Maine so maybe that explains why I havent caught anything on it yet. LOL
Ouch that's a double kick to the mid section
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Aqua vu crt quad cam from craigslist. I signed the receipt and turned around to look at it more. While I was looking at it, they guy wrote "As is" on the receipt. Didn't notice until later that week when I tried it out.
Called Aqua vu to see if I could get a new camera for it. Nope, but they did have a refurbished lcd one that they would give me 150.00 off. Bought it... LCD keeps going out periodically during the trip and you have to turn it back on.
Love the quad cam, just wish I could get one that worked perfectly.
Inc