Ice Fishing Tips -Check your local regulations! > Tipups

Windlass tip-up freezing  

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-Dan:
I was wondering if any one has a remedy or trick for preventing the line from freezing up in the hole on my H-T windlass tip? Today is the first day I used one and other than the fact that my line kept freezing up it seemed to work okay.

Thanks,

Dan  

JP:
When it's really cold, there isn't much you can do. Afterall, when water freezes, it freezes.

On those borderline days when ice is in fact forming but you can still fight back a little, try a roof shingle. Note that the sun has to be out of this to work.

Slit it from the edge inward, and run your line through the center. It will draw in enough heat to keep the temp that critcial few degrees higher, keeping your hole/line trouble-free longer.

Block slush from blowing in and gathering on the line and in the hole by setting a wind-break on the windward side of. It doesn't have to be more than 10-12" high, as all the snow is close to the surface of the ice. A piece of rectangular wood paneling works fine. Heaped snow works also.

Keep using the Wind-Las: they're super-deadly. Best of Luck.  

-Chris:
Tom Grunewald has published a few books on ice fishing.
In at least two of his books he profiles the Windlass. His solution to your problem is to take a piece of plastic pipe/tubing and run it through a piece of wood so that 1/2 is protruding from either side of the piece of wood. Let the wood float in the hole and run your line through the plastic tubing. Supposedly this prevents freezeups. The windbreak trick JP describes helps too.

Snag:
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Try a little tablespoon of cooking oil in the hole. but if it is sub zero...forget it.  

singleshot:
H-T produces a black foam rubber hole cover that I use under my tip ups. It has a slit to center and a small plastic tube that goes through the center of the cover. The cover does a good job of stopping my holes from freezing and I suspect it would do well with the windlass. I intend to find out as soon as there is hard water.

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