Windlass Tip Ups

[JimBuck]

Just curious what people's experiences have been with Windlass Tip Ups....I've been looking at them a bit and love the idea, however some of them seem to lack quality. I don't see them out on the ice much but have wanted to give a few a whirl this season. Any suggestions?

[charliepete]

The idea of the windlass tip-up is great, but the quality just isn't there in the HT version. They are cheap plastic junk and won't actually move unless the wind is howling. I'd definitely be interested in a quality implementation of this concept though.

[Duffman]

I've got an older one, it's worked pretty well. But I only try to use it when the air temp is over 32 degrees. Otherwise you get an iceball forming on the line where it continually gets dunked in the water. I generally just take it with on late season (March) winter trout trips, I can set it up and watch it from camp. It's performed as advertized, havn't caught a whole lot with it, but it jigs your bait.

[JimBuck]

I saw an episode of "In-Fisherman" that they would use a piece of vinyl tubing and attach that to a hole cover then used a small amount of mineral oil to keep the line from freezing on the Windlass Tip Ups. Seemed to work well. It was pretty cool seeing 8-10 of em' all jigging in a row on the ice. The HT's are the only ones I've seen for sale. I'd like to get something a bit more sturdier.

[Jim Uran]

They're not that bad, I've got a couple. They're priced good enough to buy one and experiment with it. I saw the episode of Infisherman too and thought that was a good idea. Like Duffman said, I don't dig mine out unless it's warm outside. You can set the sensitivity pretty light on them, they'll move with a slight breeze.

[Ed Carlson]

I've used the same 2 Windlass Tip-Ups for 15 years...they hold up well. The tube trick works very well in cold weather in conjunction with a foam hole cover.

A new Tip-Up I like is the Hook-Set Tip-Up, very effective, low fish mortality, very few missed strikes. Check them out once.

The Hook-Set Tip-Up has 4 settings (off-light-med-hvy), off is the non-hook set setting... so in some states where they are classified as a "spring loaded device", and may be considered illegal, if they are set to "off"...you can still use them.

[OnAFly]

Would these be considered illegal in Mn since they are spring loaded?

If so, I would assume you cannot buy them in Mn. Anyone know if this is correct?

I would like to try one as they look pretty cool. Missing flags is really annoying.

[Doop]

Windlass work well ONCE you get them set up correctly...that can take time.

If you buy them from the manufacturer......do yourself a favor and take ALL of the line off the spool that the manufacturer put on and make sure the line is TIED to the spool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds dumb....but we lost two fish last March when we got to the tip up....the fish had spooled us...this happened TWICE....then we checked the other 4 Windlass tip ups we had and NOT ONE OF THEM HAD LINE ACTUALLY TIED TO THE SPOOL!!!!!!!!

[carpmanjake]

Windlass work well ONCE you get them set up correctly...that can take time.

If you buy them from the manufacturer......do yourself a favor and take ALL of the line off the spool that the manufacturer put on and make sure the line is TIED to the spool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sounds dumb....but we lost two fish last March when we got to the tip up....the fish had spooled us...this happened TWICE....then we checked the other 4 Windlass tip ups we had and NOT ONE OF THEM HAD LINE ACTUALLY TIED TO THE SPOOL!!!!!!!!

[JimBuck]

Cool. Jake, looking forward to the video. It seems people have a love/hate relationship with these.

[mrklean]

my dad has older ones and they worked good, caught fish on them just gotta find one that works for you

[marine_man]

Would these be considered illegal in Mn since they are spring loaded?

If so, I would assume you cannot buy them in Mn. Anyone know if this is correct?

I would like to try one as they look pretty cool. Missing flags is really annoying.

[OnAFly]

Well, that answers my question...