Assembly of Stillfish reels to rod

Have the still fish reels and need to learn how to assemble them with a inline rod blank. Any suggestions on how to do that and what type of glue to use? Also information on how to attach the spring bobber at top would be helpful. Thanks!

Okay, I like real cork handles but the Still Fish doesn’t work well fastened directly to cork. So I take a short piece of the foam rod handle material and 5 minute epoxy that to the very butt of the blank. Then I start to trim it to the correct diameter with a sharp filet knife and finally shape it with the coarse teeth of a 4-in-hand wood rasp. The Still Fish clamps nicely onto the foam. Then I fit my cork rings to the blank with 5 minute epoxy and rasp and sand them to the final diameter I like. Usually 10 cork rings.
I much prefer HT spring bobbers fastened to the blank tip with heat shrink tubing.

Duke

Thanks Duke! I will try your suggestion. The stillfish rod and reel I bought now has a wooden handle and has a great feel and action but using the cork will be a lot easier for me than to try and reproduce the wooden handle without the right tools. I’m using a 48″ stillfish set up now and hole hop. I would like to build a tad bit longer rod and reel setup thus the inquiry

All the best,

I started with a 48″ that I bought from a guy on the ice. He told me I’d be better with a 5 footer but I had to learn the hard way. A cork handle and a 5 ft. balance perfectly with a Still Fish reel. My new favorite is a 6 ft. blank cut back to 5’6″ by cutting 6″ from the butt. Still use 10 cork rings but the rod balances much better with a B&M crappie pole thru blank reel. The B&M is better made, harder to disassemble on the ice as you need a Phillips screw driver and are harder to find. So you have to decide if they are worth it.

My concern for me with a much longer rod than I am using now is that where I fish the wind is wicked some days and that limber tip and spring bobber would bounce around so much that I might find it harder to detect the light bites. Plus most of the time where I fish with the stillfish the depth is 10 ft or less. Calm weather out of the wind I think it would be a hoot to play the big crappie and gills that we catch on the longer rod. As the fish move to deeper water I change to spinning reel and shorter rod.

Oh yes Sam, you are right. Windy days are tough long rodding. I have a 24″ rod stashed in the sled and several palm rods for super finesse or huddling over a hole, in my bucket. You do what you have to.
The long rods really shine in shallow water hole hopping. There are few things more fun than a hot crappie bite in 5 ft. of water on late ice.

Duke