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Actually I like them alot.....they have one of the most sensitive triggers...and when they go off I can see if the fish is running because I can see the "flag"...the black/orange styrofoam fish "flag" spinning....I like that alot...like the polar traps tee's spinning.........and they stick up above the snow (which the polars don't) ...so I like them...if they work like they are supposed to work...sure they are'nt the best best traps for all applications....I have jacks, heritage, 40-up, allagash, polars, beaver dams, etc ...and others...including a finicky fish factory....so....I have plenty of other traps to play with.....I just would like these to not freeze up....do you know how to fix them?
Jack...why did you give your tip an spins away?....because they froze? or just because you did'nt like them for some other reason?BTW, I have a set of 6 Heritages Lakers with old school metal spools and my two sons both have newer sets with the plastic spools...They are nice traps, as are the Bob's Big Boys, we use on big lakes when there is a lot of snow but we can't see the spool spinning from a distance on either, like we can with our old Tip N Spins...........thanks for your help ..... the flag/fish puts too much resistance to a hard running fish and they tear the bait off on a good run just about everytime. forget them for sal. and togue unless you like to feed the fish w/ nothing to show for it. i have 5 different typpes of traps and this ones the only one ive given away , if that tells you anything. i tried the lowering of the flag too but doesnt help w/ the resistance. just my 2 cents.
back in the day i fished the tip and spins for brookies and perch....same with the plastic polars and Frabills... but we usually use Allagash, Thompson, Jacks, Heritage,40-ups and some other traps that I don't even remember thier names for salmon and togue....My go to traps over the last 20 years have been my metal spool Heritages...but one of my sons likes his set of Allagashes.....the other one prefers a set of mixed Thompson, Moosehead and some other antique traps with no name on them....We usually bring a couple Bob's Big bots and sometimes will set a sucker on the Bob's Big Boy down on the bottom....or if we set a trap way out on the ice.....we mix and match depending on the species and conditions....I'm still wondering...did your tip n spin's freeze=up or not? If not then my grease has dripped out of them because they were standing up right in a pail in my basement for the last 5 years...but if they never had grease to begin with and they just have that design flaw of freezing up in cold weather...I wont frig around with them and just use them when it's warm ....Like I said...I had'nt used them in a while...I saw them in the corner last week and figured I'd try them out because i had'nt fished with them in years.....It was wicked cold and they froze up on me last weekend ...still caught fish but they were not tripping as easy as they do when the are'nt froze-up....I just don't remember if i always had that problem....I do know that i caught a lot of brookies with these traps when I used to use them before.....
The flag can certainly occilate around and bounce around...no question about it...but I can live with it...so if anyone thinks these traps totally suck I'll take them of your hands or even purchase them from you.....you can do some stuff to minimize the flag problme.....if you slide the fish down to the top of the spring that helps...and you can minimize it even more by cutting the foam fish in half and just using the head or the tail part of it...you still see it if it trips and there is certainly enough color to see it if it is only half the size...that puts it at about the same size as any "normal flag"....also a stiffer spring helps...when they get old they get looser...so if you replace the spring and rod it stiffens the whole thing back up again...I'm even thinking of taking the whole fish off and just using something lighter maybe just tie a bow on it with red ribbon or something like that.....maybe a rectangle of cardboardI think the design is cool too....they just need to be tweaked a tad......Also I just want to say something about Heritage traps,,,seeing how they are so popular...IN my opinion, when they w ere built in Orland they were way better than the ones you buy now that I see in stores...I don't know where they are built but they are'nt as good as Orland built Heritage Lakers were....