Found these at the dollar store while restocking my wet wipes supply! I always thought they would work well for this application, $1 and comes with batteries included. They also come with sticky tape that secures it solid to the jacker. I'm really surprised that it works the width of the rod release. I figure even if they fry out when/if they get wet... they're only $1.
If you live in north Idaho, I'm sorry cause I'm going to buy out every dollar store in 100 miles of these things
I'll post again after I try them on the ice. I'm thinking about using epoxy to secure pieces of velcro to both the units and the jawjacker so I can take them off and throw them in my bucket and deploy them if it's nice out.
It adds only a little resistance to the rod hook, in the video you can see I mounted it aft of the axle for the trigger so once it breaks that initial resistance it actually has aft inertia to take the hook vertical. I don't see any reason why these wont work, other then they might get water and short out. Plus I do not advise using these if you have a hang over!
Give em a try!
Here's the video:
http://vid514.photobucket.com/albums/t345/sagebrushhunter/Ice%20Fishing/20150129_152129_zpsitkgk3bu.mp4