13 Fishing Widowmaker

Anyone else pick one of these up yet? I finally got my hands on one today and boy is it nice! After seeing the review of it from iCast I knew I wanted one! I picked up the 37 inch light action today and the rod is very light you hardly feel it in your hand. Very nice on the eyes and well as in the hand. Now a 37in ice rod, some might say what is the point of that, for my style of ice trolling and chasing fish all over its perfect. There are other various lengths that can be chosen to fit your style. They are all high quality rods. The 37in Has a nice split grip handle and a flat tapered tip which is something new I haven’t tried because I wasn’t sold on the “tickle stick” last year that they released, that one just seemed too flimsy. This Widowmaker though seems to have a overall better flat tapered tip along with enough backbone to handle the occasional walleye or pike while pan fishing. Nice green hi-vis tip is also a nice touch. I do the bulk of my ice fishing on Devils lake and the surrounding area lakes and I have a feeling this is going to be my “go-to” rod for hoisting those jumbo perch this year!
Go out and check one out if you haven’t heard of them yet!

I grabbed a 26″ medium light. Seems like a sweet rod, possibly a decent alternative to those who don’t want to quite pony up money for the more expensive guys.

I picked up a few of the 27″ UL’s today. I’m strictly a bluegill and crappie guy so UL’s are all i use 90% of the time. At first glance, I’m blown away by how light these things are – balance very well with the inline reels I stuck on them as well. I was also surprised how good the backbone was with the very light tip for a UL, this should be great for deep-water fishing.

I for one am very excited to give these things a try once hard water shows up! To my knowledge, this is far and away the best on the market if you’re not willing to spend the money on a custom, like TMF89 stated.

Quick update, played around with these rods for a while this morning. These are definitely the highest quality rod you can buy at retail. I’m fairly certain I’m going to fish these over my customs moving forward as well, the components are just better (IMO) and the rod has a much better load / backbone. Plus, they are much cheaper than my customs, so its easier on the pocket book to have a bunch of these and gives me some leeway with the wife =)

Biggest selling point, for the way I fish, is the new diamond coated line guides they used on these. I hole hop a lot, and I can’t stand when guides freeze. The diamond coating actually sheds / repels water which is very slick, and will result in much less line guide freezing. Critical for me when it comes to ice rods. If I have time later, I’ll post some pictures of the set-up.

I got mine. Now just waiting on the hard stuff

In my opinion, the $70-$80 price tag on these puts you in the ballpark of a true “custom” rod.

They look nice, however.

Andy Fiolka wrote:

In my opinion, the $70-$80 price tag on these puts you in the ballpark of a true “custom” rod.

They look nice, however.

Thats what I thought too.

AaronMoore wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>Andy Fiolka wrote:</div>
In my opinion, the $70-$80 price tag on these puts you in the ballpark of a true “custom” rod.

They look nice, however.

Thats what I thought too.

It looks to me like they’re $20-$40 cheaper than your “true” customs. $40 is half the price of these rods… that’s a pretty big ballpark you’re playing in there.

Plus… they’re not just single diamond plated, but DOUBLE DIAMOND PLATED

At $80, it’s $20 less than say, a Tuned-Up. Like I said in “my” opinion, the $20 up-cost is justifiable. Maybe in your case it isn’t. There is no right or wrong decision. Most of the 13 ice stuff I’ve seen is very nice. These I’m sure are no different.

I would have to agree with Andy. The slight up-charge for a custom ice rod to me is worth the money. I have several customs from Glacial Lakes Outdoors at a price of $85 to slightly over $100. Don’t get me wrong, I also have a number of 13 fishing and other brand ice rods that I use for clients, guest and family. T hey’re good rods, just not for my personal use.

Besides handle shape, size, type, cork color/design, wrap colors, IMO the biggest advantage of a custom rod is that the blanks are splined before guides are installed. A splined rod provided better response and increased sensitivity. Production manufacturers can’t afford the cost to spine a rod. A badly splined rod will want to twist or rotate away left or right of center. That’s just what you don’t want when you have that fish of a lifetime on the other end.

If there’s a deal on the 13 rods I’d grab one or two, just from the experience I had with a couple of their “summer” rods. I have a couple tuned up ice rods, to me, stepping up $20-30 isn’t a bad deal for a custom. Customs are not for everybody, but once somebody else borrows it, keep an eye on it. I think the 13’s could have some sort of end of year clearance, where as the customs won’t. I could upgrade a couple rods with 13’s, then I’d need new reels, bigger bag….yadda yadda yadda

I definitely agree with andy. I just purchased my first high dollar rod and to in my opinion I wasn’t going to skimp out 20 bucks by not getting a custom. The 20 dollars is worth it to me

Andy Fiolka wrote:

At $80, it’s $20 less than say, a Tuned-Up. Like I said in “my” opinion, the $20 up-cost is justifiable. Maybe in your case it isn’t. There is no right or wrong decision. Most of the 13 ice stuff I’ve seen is very nice. These I’m sure are no different.

And at $70, it’s $50 less than a split grip quick tip or bull whip. I see what you did there, nice.

Seems impossible to have a thread about rods without bringing customs into it.

Another advantage will be picking it up off the shelves of select retailers… picking it up, holding it and comparing them right in a store. And as said, I’d expect some sales to effect this as well. Even be it a 10-15% off all ice fishing gear type of thing that happens often enough. For a couple time a year guy like myself, this is an enticing option.

As another side note, these rods may have the coolest name out there to date! I love the widowmaker moniker, very clever and half the battle of selling us all this new stuff every year is branding. Just based on its name, it kind of makes me want to go out and snag one. I agree with many of the posts in this thread. The custom v. retail debate will continue to rage on. I think it all circles back to the customs are just that. They are basically infinitely customizable when you work with the right person/people to do the job. You will get higher quality parts and components with custom assuming you ask for or inquire about them.

The biggest downfall as the last poster eluded to for me with a custom rod is the inability to feel the rod in your own two hands before you purchase it. I have a need to feel the rods I am going to put to use before I buy them, it’s just how I am. The sole reason I haven’t dabbled in the custom market yet is because I can’t feel’em before I buy’em. Many guys have offered to let me use or “feel” their custom rods from TUCR, Thorne or other makes but it still isn’t the same. Because in my experience and my style of fishing I prefer as long of rod as possible for the situation so many of mine are 48-60 inches and I’ve never met someone yet who has a custom rod that would even be remotely similar to the stuff I’m looking for as far as length, feel, tip action and weight on such a long rod as I would have made for me.

Also I can’t get to the St.Paul ice show to “feel” all the sample/demo rods from the manufacturers since I come from central WI and the time and money spent to get there is just out of the question. For those reasons I’ve opted to pass on the custom market as of yet. Perhaps when I finish college and begin my career I’ll have the means to go out and buy the top line customs but not for the moment.Also for the amount of time I spend out on the ice probably 20 days give or take in a season the extra 20 I can stick into other equipment such as jigs etc. Full disclosure I will probably not be buying a widowmaker this year unless I get it gifted to me for X-mas or birthday etc. Also I have had nothing but the best of experiences with all of my 13 gear. I too, have no doubt that these rods are of the same very high quality that I have come to expect from them.