Tip-up lights

[senco 1]

Has anyone used the lights you clip on the flag? How do they work?

[meschke]

not a big fan of them myself, my friend has some alarms and they are pretty nifty i reckon.

[Jim Uran]

I would also like to see what people use on their tip ups, as far as add on light, bells, whistles or whatever...

I add reflective tape to mine, that's as far as I have gone.

[castmaster]

Yep, the alarms are a nice deal.

[bigyooper]

if you do a search online for the home made model, I built mine in 20 min with $8 lights from menards. I built 4 and still had 4 lights left.

yooper

[bigyooper]

Found the link

[Steve Foss]

I used the clip-on lights for a few weeks several years back and then tossed them in the garage sale pile. Since then I've been using a strip of reflective tape and a pair of small jingle bells. With only a small amount of light from a lantern, the tape glows really well, and the combination of sound and sight makes a flag hard to miss.

Not to mention it's really cheap!

[deadeye]

I use the lights and they work pretty good. IF I had it to do all over again I would get a pager though. Lights only work if you watch your tip up all the time. With a pager you know the second the flag pops up even if your back is turned.

[EBass]

Nice tip on the bells Steve.

I have the frabill thermal tip-ups. 10" round ones, any ways, frabill makes a little light deal that snaps on the flag. It has some sensor in there that will only light up once it's perpendictular (sp?). So when the flag pops the light turns on.

How much are those pager deals?

[deadeye]

The alarms vary in price but it looks like the first one that pops up on google is like 55 bucks. Ouch...Maybe worth making my own with stuff from ax-man. Then I can use a la cucaracha car horn for the alarm.

In the meantime I will get some jingle bells. Thanks for the idea Steve.

[slurpie]

I just bought two lights hope they work. The bells and tape would work but usually i set the tip up a ways away so i thought i'd try the light first. But thinking the bells are going on also. great idea.

[NCLaker]

The orange Frabill lights work good (yellow two color once from HT are junk from my experience).

The pager system is on my xmas list, at $55 it is hard to justify. Like the jingle bells, but might be hard to hear if I'm in the shack.

[bassmann77]

The pagers are a great option. You can find them readily on sale for around $25. I got mine a few years back, and they are a great item to have especially on really cold days. It is nice to sit in the shack and not have to worry about looking out the window of your ice crusted portable shack. Just make sure that the pager part is securely fastened to your jacket, because they go down the hole easily while leaning over bringing in the fish (a few close calls).

[NCLaker]

Where do you see them on sale of $25? Lowest I've seen them for the transmitter & reciever is $50. I'm referring to the "Strike Sensor" product.

[acman2u]

If you have a perm I used to have a panel of 4 lights that would tell me which tip up tripped. Very easy to make, you just get some 18 gauge 2 strand wire, alligator clips, 12 volt bulbs, and a couple of pieces of metal coathanger.

First you bend a piece of coathanger into a u shape and attach it into your tip up frame slightly behind and next to the flag on each side so when flag trips it makes good contact with the wire. (either drill small holes and firmly push into wood or melt into plastic depending on model)

Attach clips to your alarm wire. I cut my positive side about 6" shorter than the neg to prevent them arcing when they fall to the ground when retreiving a fish.

The wire goes into house, attach one lead to your bulb and the other to the battery, then attach other side of bulb to other side of battery. Go outside and attach clips to your flag and attached coathanger and you are done. Flag goes up and light goes on.

You can duplicate this for any number of bulbs, and the trigger can also be a spring style clothes pin ends wrapped in wire and clipped to flag, flag pulls out and wires touch. many ways to create a switch, be creative if you dont like my way.

It may not be as nice as wireless but it is less than pennies on the dollar in comparison.

[jigginjim]

I got the pager/sensor alarms, work great, sit in the truck listen to the ball game. Pager goes off look for the light. I run 3 sensors to 1 pager. Working on a non freeze box for cooler nights.

[bassislife]

Tip-ups and pagers.... Poor mans fishing to me!! Lets get down and jig em jiggin!!