Author Topic: Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?  (Read 1772 times)

Offline azj5001

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Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?
« on: Nov 28, 2018, 02:38 PM »
Hey gents,

I was brainstorming how to re-purpose some bait caster reels that I have sitting around that I use for Muskie fishing. I was thinking of converting these into homemade "Russian Style" tip ups. I plan to use these to target pike using large dead bait. The plan is to simply use these to hold line, not to reel in the fish. It has a bait clicker, but I'm not sure if that will add "too much tension" for indication. Still brainstorming if I should add a flag or something but that's not important at the moment.

The main question is what are your thoughts on this actually working. They have 80# braid on the spools, which I do not want to remove since I still use these during warmer months for muskie. The spool might freeze over after I get a run and wet line is on the reel. I plan to use gloves when hand lining a fish in.

These are cheaper Okuma conventional reels that have moving line guides, will these freeze over easily? I'll be using PVC pipe to "hang" the reel over the hole to make a stand. My thoughts are that I'll give it a shot, since I'll only be out some PVC pipe and clamps so not much of an investment.

I'm not a fan of tip ups in general. I hate getting my hands wet and fussing with them so I stick to jigging. I have a productive pike water in the area so I might target them this winter. Don't know if it's worth buying 4 new tip ups so I'm considering making them.

Just brainstorming some thoughts, and wanted to see if anyone has any input if this is worth pursuing.

-Alex

Offline DR.SPECKLER

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Re: Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?
« Reply #1 on: Nov 28, 2018, 03:05 PM »
Any reel used above water on a tip up is going to freeze up sooner than later.unless built in a box with a heat source.jmo

Offline HWeber

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Re: Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?
« Reply #2 on: Nov 28, 2018, 03:18 PM »
While you could make it work they'd be bulky and most likely not very sensitive

Offline perchnut

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Re: Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?
« Reply #3 on: Nov 29, 2018, 07:40 AM »
Ive got some very old homemade tip ups, with old reels that we got from Herters.  Conventional style, but very basic, but also very sturdy....still have a couple that work good.  Would love to find some replacement reels like that....they were all metal, had a clicker, but really just basically line holders.....I still use those tips and usually outcatch my underwaters.....Ive tried to replace them with some of the plastic types, but they sure dont last long..oh well....So give it a whirl and see what happens......what do you have to lose...

Offline Tuma

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Re: Home made "tip up" re-purposing conventional reels?
« Reply #4 on: Dec 20, 2018, 12:56 PM »
The line will hold a lot of water and the water will get everywhere.  Think about how much water gets thrown off at the reel when you are open water fishing with it and that’s after it has passed through 8-12 guides.  What about adding 30’-50’ of tip-up line as a “leader” and removing it in the summer.  Another thought is to make a tip-down for the reel.
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