ice rod

[Carpenter]

I have a bunch of fly rod tips to be used as ice rods and am trying to organize them by power (they don't have ratings on them). I ordered a medium power ice rod off of mdhole, but its fiberglass. Would that be an OK comparison even though I'm working on graphite? Would medium be too stiff for walleye fishing? Just seems a little stiff for me, but I'm a medlght guy.

[Bobb-o]

be careful using fly rod tips for ice rods. they can/will shatter when cold

[upnorth]

As nice as I can, where does the shatter when cold come from. Fiberglass/graphite really doesn't change when cold.

[Northlander]

Some of my nicest panny rods were made off of fly blanks. They worked great in and out of the house.

[Bobb-o]

As nice as I can, where does the shatter when cold come from. Fiberglass/graphite really doesn't change when cold.

Thats from personal experience after building some big fish rods on hollow graphite fly rod tips. Have had two shatter on me (may have been cheap to begin with) but I will never build an ice rod unless it is solid carbon or glass again.

[upnorth]

Dings or even wrapping the guides on too tight will cause issue with a hollow blank. Too tight will force the foot into the blank and create a weak spot.

[Carpenter]

Thanks for the info guys. My rod building coach said the same on the fly tips. Where do you guys get your ice rod blanks then? I see MH and another carry blanks and at good price (<$10) but they have that orange tip. I'd really like all one color.

[A.W.Wolfram]

Midwest has Med and Med light 28" solid carbons in black for less then $12

[Bobb-o]

you can find ice rod blanks at a bunch of different places at various price points. Glass blanks are easily painted if you dont like the color.

[augernaut]

I used to build rods on St. Croix fly rod tips. I had trouble with the higher modulus graphite tips - say SCIV and above. They would shatter on the hookset or when fighting a fish. Lower modulus blanks were fine and as far as I know there are still a bunch I built out there catching fish. Now I build only on solid graphite or solid fiberglass (custom hand ground) blanks, as you can get a much better action from a solid blank than you can a hollow blank.

[uffdapete]

Thats from personal experience after building some big fish rods on hollow graphite fly rod tips. Have had two shatter on me (may have been cheap to begin with) but I will never build an ice rod unless it is solid carbon or glass again.

[toadbelly]

The biggest killer of hollow ice rods is ICE'

that is ice inside the blank

it comes from condensation from going from warm to cold and back

there will be condensation forming in the rods (just like on glasses)

that SINGLE drop freezes and expands splitting the blank from the inside

you never notice it until the rod is stressed (ie)on the hook set or fighting a fish then the rod blows and all you can say is "[PoorWordUsage] happened"

if you would leave the rods in the cold car trunk or keep them warm and dont let them freeze this should not happen its the changing of temps thats hurts them more than anything else

Hope this helps Guys

[JEK]

I have never had a problem with them freezing and spliting.But I always take them in where it is warm when I am done icefishing. Jerry