Good ice reels?

I hear a lot of hype about ice rods, but not usually the reels. What are some of reels you guys on the IDO team use and you other guys use to catch your fish.

I love my Black Betty

Nick Trudeau wrote:

I hear a lot of hype about ice rods, but not usually the reels. What are some of reels you guys on the IDO team use and you other guys use to catch your fish.

Shimano Sedonas on the ice for me. While there’s plenty of reels that will work on the ice I’ve tried a bunch of different reels from different manufacturers and I keep coming back to Shimano for one reason. Durability. They just seem to last forever. Case in point I still have some Sedonas I use regularly that saw guide duty back when I was still guiding on the river.

I like the Sedona 500’s for perch and panfish and the 750’s (if you can find them, Shimano discontinued that size some time ago) for walleye. If I’m going to be fishing big fish (trophy eyes, pike or lakers) I use my Shimano Stradics 2500 off my summer rods.

Second James on the Shimano’s I have had great luck with the 500 series sienna model. And usually for the great price of less than 35 dollars you cannot beat it, -QB

I have beaten the snot out of all my quantum gear. Specifically, the older Catalyst 10’s. I use them for everything from Lakers, Browns, panfish, and eyes and they have performed flawlessly for me.

Unfortunately, Quantum has discontinued the vast majority of size 10 reels. I find the 15’s are a bit large for some applications (panfish), but for big fish, they are very well suited.

Quantum Hotsauce is by far the lubricant for cold weather. Regardless of what brand reel you buy, if you want them silky smooth in sub zero weather, clean them and use Hotsauce

Quantum Hotsauce is by far the lubricant for cold weather. Regardless of what brand reel you buy, if you want them silky smooth in sub zero weather, clean them and use Hotsauce.

Great point, Hotsauce is amazing for a cold weather lube. I have a mix of Quantum, Shimano, and a few of the inline reels for shallow panfish less than 20 ft.

For inlines I tried one of the cheap Eagle Claws, it works OK for the cost but it’s not well suited for outside in below freezing temps, to much line freezing to the spool for me. I also bought one of the 13 Fishing Tear Drop reels at the end of this past season, so I have not tested it out yet.

I’m a big fan of the Tica Cetus SS500 or SB500. I’ve been using them for years and haven’t had any complaints.

philtickelson wrote:

I’m a big fan of the Tica Cetus SS500 or SB500. I’ve been using them for years and haven’t had any complaints.

X2

This last season was the first season I used the Shimano Siennas and they are the smoothest reels I’ve used for ice fishing. Added a Sedona already for next season. Previous years I was using the Pfluger Micro Spin, it was ok, but there is a very noticeable difference with the Sienna.

I fish mostly shallow <20 ft, and almost exclusively for panfish, sans the largemouth we get by incident. I have tried a few and my favorite are the Shakespears! Cheap, reliable, cool free spool feature, adequate drag system for what I do.

I just pretty much use my open water reels for ice fishing. So for spinning, they are mostly Shimano stradic and Pflueger president reels. Bait casting reels, I have a dedicated Shimano Chronarch 50MG and two Curado 50E. They’re kind of expensive for just ice fishing, but I do enjoy it so much more. Then there’s those fly reels. I have an Okuma Vashon 3/4 fly reel that is my dedicated set up. Again it’s a fairly expensive reel.

Shimano Sedona and Pflueger President’s are both great options.

I pretty much put all my spinning reels down last year and used entirely black betty origionals. Love the simplicity, durability, drag, and no line twisting mess. I use shimano sahara or i do have a few 500 sized siennas. No complaints with the shimanos other than it being a spinning reel.

Black betty’s have a learning curve. Gotta pick up line fast when you need to!

I run sienna’s they are great for the price. Plus you don’t feel bad when you have to throw your rod down on the ice.

Another Tica guy here. Pretty much the whole crew I fish with has about everything out there. They pick up one of my rigs and by the time the next trip comes around they’ve switched out a reel or two. At the ice show I’ve found a few 500 series for $29.99 plus tax

How often do you clean your reels? Before every season?

lrott2003 wrote:

How often do you clean your reels? Before every season?

Spinning – as needed
Bait casting – annual

And that is probably more often than most

lrott2003 wrote:

How often do you clean your reels? Before every season?

I used to clean annually sometimes twice. Just depends on use and how often I fish in the rain.

Now maybe once every other year or three years. I don’t fish as much and new equipment are so much better performers.

A good cleaning+ Hot sauce can make a cheap reel a decent performer.Hot sauce is a must for ice reels,never had one get stiff after using it.

I clean open water reels every winter,so they are ready for next year.Dedicated ice reels do not need cleaning that often.

Looks like the Sedona size 500’s have been discontinued. The Shimano site shows the Sienna, Sahara, and Symetre as the last reels with a 500 size spool in those models. If you want a Sedona 500 start looking on the shelves.

Now, what should I pair up my new TUCR Deadstick with?

Thanks,
David

I’m running an aray of shimano 500s on panfish rods siennas sedonas and Sahara’s I’m running a couple fly reel set ups with the okuma slv 2/3 on my power noodles I have a couple ticas that have been going strong for 12 plus years great reels I like them a lot but prefer the spools on the shimanos last year I bought 2 of the black Betty 6061 love these reels the only problem I’ve found is have to watch the line wrap on the outside spool knob and I’ve had issues with the handles bending and in the 2015 models I believe they’ve fixed this problem 13 fishing sent me 3 different styles of handles when I told them about the problem and and decals top notch customer service plan on buying more 6061s this year there a work horse

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Another vote for the 500 Sienna. Along with the Hot Sauce I had John at TUCR replace the factory drag disc with carbon ones.
Those two simple upgrades make a good $29 reel great.

Tica Cetus for this guy also!