Thermal Tip-ups?

[fish..fear..me]

Hello everyone,

I am new to the group and just getting my feet wet in this forum. My quetion is: What does everyone do for freezing tip-ups? Are thermal tip-ups the way to go? Are there any other remedies to keep a normal tip-up from freezing in?

thanks for your responses

[metrojoe]

I've got a few of the thermal tip ups and they do work really well. I've seen people use pieces of carpet. Not sure how well that works, but it would be something simple to try. they also sell those black foam insulators, which I think would be pretty cheap.

[prophet]

i use carpet remenents only when itssub zero or snowing

real hard,i dont mind the hole freezing a little,the tipup

spool is underwater and will still work,you can use the carpet for kneeling on when the flag is up

[P.DONA]

Freezing up = not checking your tip ups often enough

I"ve used polar thermals, they do make a difference through out the day, but at the end, there still is freeze up.. Definitely better than a normal tip up, though.

hmm? BLACK matting?? I may try that!!!!

[buzbunni]

fish..fear...me, Welcome to FM. A wealth of information and many friends to be made on this site. I hope you stick around.

In regards to your question: I can only speak from my experience, (well, I could speak for others, but that would be plagarism ) but I find that extreme cold weather is going to freeze up even the most determined tip-up system. That said, the thermal-type tip-ups do appear to slow down the freeze a bit. I feel that you can get the same effect with regular tip-ups if you just cover the hole some-how. Stone legacy's Freezebee is one good option. I have the Frabill thermal tip-up; I like it. Some may find it cumbersome, or to susceptible to cracking (I fish mostly in the Metro Twin Cities, and have not had a problem with this unit cracking. I did leave it on the roof of my car once though...that's another story... ), but I have had good luck with it. If you can afford it, the best thing to do is just give one a shot. I often run my "regular" tip-ups alongside my thermal one just to experiment. It seems the thermal helps to some degree. For shallow water, I also like the fact that it blocks out the light-hole. This may or may not be a factor, but I feel more comfortable with it.

Good luck whatever you choose to do! Again, welcome to FM.

[Steve Foss]

ffm:

Welcome home.

I have three Frabill thermal round tip-ups. They are good units, but they now sit on my shelf waiting for next summer's garage sale.

I use the Polar HT standard tip-ups (under $15 each), with the medium sized spool, and put them on top of round soft-foam hole covers that cost about $4 each. Total cost per unit is about what a thermal costs on sale, but the Polars fit in the side sleeve of my Croxton Pond bag, and the hole covers get chucked in my portable shelter. I use these tips for pike, 'eyes and lake trout (the lakers, which can strip a LOT of line, are why I use the medium spools rather than the standard smaller ones.)

The Frabill thermals also are harder to store unless you have a 5-gallon bucket to stack them in. I'm pulling a portable Trap II behind my snowmobile, so space is a pretty big deal. From a pickup, who cares?

I also like the Polars, with their metal-against-metal parts, for light-biting fish like perch. It's easier to set them at a hair trigger than it is the Frabills, which are plastic-on-metal.

Either way you go, they are good systems. Good luck.

[Wables]

I would probably like them better if I didn't have a 10" auger. The suckers freeze around the edges and are a pain to get off the hole on cold days. Here is my favorite setup... I bought a foam sleeping mat from Walmart for about $6 and cut it into 14" diameter circles. Then cut a slit from the edge to the middle, with a little cross or X cut at the center point. Slide the shaft of your standard tipup (polar, arctic, etc.) through the slit to the center, and you have an insulated, covered hole with a better tip-up mechanism. The nice thing about using this system, is that you can fit your tip-ups into your Croxton Pond bag, and roll up the covers and put them in the bag, or slide them into gaps in your portable, etc.

One other thing I have witnessed on the thermals - The end of the flag sits in a hole to keep from getting "wind flags. I have seen fish hit the bait so hard that the plastic trip mechanism spins and catches on the flag pole before the end of the flag clears the hole. Instant lost fish.