best tip up

[FirstIce]

What are everyone's favorite tip ups?

[Will]

The round, insulated frabil ones are nice. They do a good job of keeping the hole from freezing.

[FBMH]

the cheapest ones. (frabill arctic or something like that) i have 8 of them.

[hoytshooter]

I like the Frabil wood ones, they seem to be durable and the spool is nice and smooth.

[FirstIce]

Is it really you get what you pay for with tip ups? Someone told me once that the beaver dam ones are really good.

[Hawg]

You can buy 3 Polars for 1 Beaver Dam. Given the choice, I'll take the Polars regardless of price. I have about 20 of them and even the oldest work like new with a little grease. 2 got run over by a guy with a portable trying to get close to me last year, he got out and looked at me, got in his car and left. Neither stand up to cars.

[nofishfisherman]

I have a few cheapies that i bought for myself and I also have some of the nice wood beaver dam tip ups that I salvaged from my neighbor whow as throwing them away.

The beaver dam tip ups are fairly old but are still way better than the cheap ones I have.

Neither variety keeps the holes from freezing but there are other ways of preventing that.

[CrappieAttitude]

Anyone use the new Frabil "Spider" ones? I got one for xmas and haven't tried it out yet. I did notice it had a smaller spool, so I was thinking more of a walleye set-up.

CA

[Farley]

Frabill wood tip-ups with the metal spool are my favorites. i dont mind the round insulated ones but I like being able to see the line go out and sometimes when you spin the handle to give some slack before picking the tip up out of the hole on a bite, the line can double back. Cant see that with a round one but you can with the wood ones. I'd never buy another plastic spool though unless it was under an insulated round tip up, the hole freezes over and you cant break through ice with plastic.

[Northlander]

Best is a Beaver Dam with a insulated cover under it.

[toughguy]

Frabil insulated on cold days. Beaver Dams on nice days.

[Jmeyers]

Beaver Dam for sure...great product and customer service. Very reliable

[mallardnwalleye]

Frabill Orange insulated- but in cold weather check every 1 hr and break ice. We have a system with them in 5 gal orange pails. Slick than ...... only risk is in cold 0deg. and leaving them in for over 1 hour as 1/2 ich ice will form and the plastic spool wont blast through if you rip them out. the Frabill orange have the best system and the insulation helps unless its really cold. You should check and move a tip up every hour use survey flags to mark in deep or blowing snow..

[Walleye Guy]

Beaver Dam hands down. Have tried many others and nothing compares froma quality and smoothness.

[B-man715]

Best is a Beaver Dam with a insulated cover under it.

You are right there sir. I like to use a 16" square of 2" purple foam insulation with them (and pack with snow). You can leave them out a lot longer than the thermal Frabills.

But for packability, the thermal Frabills are hard to beat......they are also a breeze to wrap up. One down fall though is they get drifted over rather quickly.

[berfish]

Beaver Dam- There is a reason why they are the most expensive....they are the best and most durable.

I got one from my dad that is really old (at least 25 years). The flag is a deep dark red vs. the lighter more standard red. Survived URL, Lake of the Woods, and Rainy Lake. Not to mention my college years. Works flawlessly. Insulate under it somehow (carpet, foam) and it should run for a few hours in cold weather.

[Whopper Stopper]

Beaver Dam. I have 6 of them; three of them are over 25 years old. A couple of years ago I repacked the oldest ones and they are as smooth as the day they were bought. I did pick up a few of the round Frabill ones just to check them out but they are nowhere close to being as smooth and reliable as the Beaver Dams.

Also I spent a couple of days up on Rainy when the temps weren't fit for a one legged Eskimo. The winds were on the up-side of 25 mph and you needed a screw driver to dig the beer out of the cans. By putting the closed cell disk under the tip ups they never came close to freezing or drifting in. I have nothing but praise for Beaver Dams.

WS

[CrewJones]

i wish the beaver dams would have something to asist spooling the line up like the frabil. the beaver dam just has a spool that you spin with your thumbs

[herefish101]

It's all about how smooth they are, and how much pull it takes to trip them. You don't want the fish to feel a thing when it takes your bait.

In my opinion, the beaver dams work best, but I also have a few cheaper frabill tip ups that work as well, it's all about the smoothness.