ice fishing rods

[DinkADunk]

There are other options for attaching reels to rods besides a normal fuji spinng reel seat or electrical tape. Although the St. Croix Legend rod has a great spring bobber there are a couple of things in their design that I don't like; 1) guide sizes and spacing, 2) reel mounting, 3) flat mounting of reel that when combined with the guide choices resulting in too much choking of the reel which hurts the feel of the rod while your jig is falling (at least IMHO).

So, I've started building some of my own. I've enclosed a picture of a handle with a reel seat that I like. The handle is normal cork, and then relieved a bit for the tabs of the seat. Then size C rod wrapping thread is applied and finished with rod expoxy.

Although the handle is straight and has some of the problems of most ice rods at least the guides, guide spacing, and reel seat placement were chosen with a specific reel in mind and it allows jigs to fall more freely off the spool. I'm working on a couple for this season that use the same seat but a tapered grip inorder to get the reel spool axis to be more inline with the guides.

The point is that ice fishing equipment engineering is still in its infantcy and there is a lot of room for product improvement. I would like to find a good, small, light, freespooling, casting reel that would be appropriate for smaller line diameters; this would probably match up better than spinning reels in these very short rods.

[Bob Horn]

Rumor has it the Legend ice rods are going to have a reel seat this year. They are suppose to be the reel seat from the Legend open water rods. So all you guys that like Legends without reels seats you better get them while you can.

[Bob Horn]

Well I guess it's true. I found this on a european site.

[hanson]

Thats so sad. Thanks for digging up the pic and the info.

Glad mine doesn't have a reel seat and I'm on the hunt for some others without reel seats.

[perchking]

I just bought 4 St Croix Legends at Reeds for a great price. $93.32 that includes spring bobbers and S+H and no they do not have reel seats. They are last years model.

I just called and they dont have a ton of them left so I would get them quick.

[deadminnowcatcher]

how would those compare to the thorne brother rods?

[CNY Tim]

Perchking you read my mind and congratulations on the new baby. I bought 3 more about 2 min ago from Reeds, there a steal at that price eh?

[Tyler Holm]

Picked up 4 as well.

[Matt Johnson]

Quote:

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how would those compare to the thorne brother rods?

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The spring bobber system of the Legend Ice rods is very nice, no doubting that, but the rod portion of the Thorne Bros line of rods is a much better rod in my opinion.

The Thorne Bros spring bobber might be stiffer, but it still allows me to detect bites and utilize the rod as a control instrument instead of just an indicator. The Legend Ice rod is designed to be an indicator, and no such much of a performance rod. Now, this doesn't mean the Legend Ice won't perform, because it does, and I also use them, but the line of Thorne Bros rods are designed specifically for performance and are matched to suit the desired condition perfectly.

The addition of a spring to a Thorne Bros rod just adds a new dimension to the options available, a dimension that has proven to be worth it's weight in gold for me.

I fish with both the Legend Ice and Thorne Bros line of ice rods, but I prefer the Thorne Bros line if I was asked which one I couldn't live without. Thorne Bros are more versatile in my opinion and I'm not forced to use them as only a finesse system...

[CNY Tim]

Matt's correct and I must add that the Thorne Bros. blanks are much better quality in my opinion than the St. Croix blanks because I have had some quality issues with one of the four I own and Tuzzy did too. Now with my 5 Thorne Bros. rods I have yet to have an issue and a couple of em are 7 years old and have caught a ton of multi species fish including lake trout and that's a panfish rod . When your bull whipping panfish the Thorne Bros Sweetheart Plus and Sweet Thing get the job done with authority because there strictly feel rods, superb for pounding jigs. There just a very tough horsepower rod for instance while fishing bluegills a few years back I ran into a school of about 20 largemouths and it whipped these 2.5 to 3 lb. largemouths with authority.. But when the bite is tough and the chips are down the visual strike indicater on the St. Croix Legend spring bobber is simply amazing because the softness of the spring allows you deliver those subtle type movements especially with regards to my plastics that can help you immensely when finessing negative fish.

I think there's room for both rods and situationally on the ice I want to be prepared at all times. There both win wins!

[Bob Horn]

I got 4 from Reeds to.

[augernaut]

I just picked up 2 of the light actions from Reeds - thanks for the heads up!!

The important thing to remember about the Legend rod is that the whole spring bobber is really kind of mis-named. It's more designed to be a lure delivery system in conjunction with a strike indicator. Basically, all spring bobbers are good for softening the jigging motion and imparting a natural look to the bait, but the Legend spring does it better than anyone elses (so far). I like the Legend design over the Thorne design because it is far less apt to ice up when fishing outside (which I find myself doing about 90% of the time now). For years I've built spring bobbers out of the spring from inside a bic lighter - basically the same as the Thorne system, and it works well, but I think the Legend is superior.

On a side note - the reel seat they have added this year is a very nice reel seat. It's the Fuji NPS - I'm a custom rodbuilder and have gone virtually exclusively to this seat. Does it have a place on an ice rod? That's up to each individual, but I definitely prefer the tennessee style handle for exactly the reasons CNY Tim noted above....