Ice rods

I do alot of perch crappie and bluegill fishing mainly perch and crappie. Looking for a new rod. What do you recomend? Please give a not so expensive and tip of the line rod

You’re going to get a million Custom Rod choices presented to you, so I’ll try to get towards the top. If you are mostly a tungsten fisherman, the TUCR Bullwhip is the perfect rod for crappie, perch and bluegill. If you prefer to mainly use small spoons, the TUCR Fusion is fantastic. If you were looking for a mainly panfish rod, go Bullwhip. If you want to be able to target occasional walleye, go Fusion.
As for the less expensive options, I really liked my Cabelas Quick Tip combo. It was around $50 with a reel.
Thanks,
Dan

Jason Mitchell MeatStick is a very good rod for the money. The only issue I ever had with mine was the eyelets freezing up and snapping the tip reeling in fish. That was a few years ago so I would expect them to have fixed that by now. A top of the line rod I would say a TUCR quicktip or Bullwhip. If you want to feel get the QT, if you wanna see the bite get the BW. I have both and enjoy using them. If I am fishing small its the BW and if I fish a little bigger I use the QT. I just bought the JT Panhandler with the spring on the end and I am excited to try that, but I don’t have any reviews on it yet.

My go to panfish rod is 13 Fishing Tickle Stick in 27″ UL. The built in strike indicator is sensitive enough to detect the upbite of crappies, and has a strong enough back bone to battle pike. Landed a 28″ on it last year. I pared it with a free fall ghost and have an awesome light combo.

What’s your price range?

Shakespeare Wild Ice Rod. A lot of rod performance in very low price. Either in ML or L power.

Picking a rod is not always about targeting the fish. It’s more about the lure and weight of the lure.

I started with some Ugly Stik ice rods and they did awesome for me for years. I used to just slip bobber fish only with minnows or waxies with pretty much just some line and soup/beverage can. Then I moved up to the pegged fishing pole.

JT Custom Rods have 3 panfish options that I think you would be interested in. we have a 24” UL Panhandler with a built in nitinol spring bobber, a 30” L Panhandler with and without the nitinol spring bobber. a big advantage with the rods we offer is that our blanks are carbon fiber, meaning you get excellent energy transfer from the tip all the way to the handle. with that built in nitinol spring bobber, you get the best of both worlds as far as a visual bite detection in the spring bobber, and the feel with the carbon fiber blank. we also offer a 28″ Shiverstick that is an awesome Perch, and larger panfish rod.
Alot of people use this rod with smaller spoons and larger panfish style jigs.

all of our blanks are propitiatory to us. I know if you went with one of these options you would be very happy.
Please let me know if you have any questions regarding the rods or the techniques i use with each, i’d be happy to help in any way. I can also give you a code to get some money off an order if you choose to do so.

I personally would stay away from any rod/reel combos. One component or the other or both is probably going to be akin to junk. If the rod is junk and you take it back to where you bought it, you still have to return the reel and line. I’d also stay away from individual asia-made ice rods. Go into any shop that sells even the branded rods made in asia and you find all sorts of things wrong with them.

My advice is to go buy a quality reel in the size that you like. Then start looking for a rod to balance it. TUCR makes a great rod. Jake offers yet another source to check out. Thorne Bros makes good ice rods. And once you’ve gotten a balanced outfit, put decent line on it according to what and how you intend to fish.

If you invest in quality your level of confidence will be way greater than if you have an all new, $29.95, made in japan rig and have problems. If finances make a higher end purchase out of the picture right now I’d buy a mid-range branded outfit to get on ice but I’d start buying the pieces and parts that make a quality rod as money came available.

Tom Sawvell wrote:

I personally would stay away from any rod/reel combos. One component or the other or both is probably going to be akin to junk. If the rod is junk and you take it back to where you bought it, you still have to return the reel and line. I’d also stay away from individual asia-made ice rods. Go into any shop that sells even the branded rods made in asia and you find all sorts of things wrong with them.

My advice is to go buy a quality reel in the size that you like. Then start looking for a rod to balance it. TUCR makes a great rod. Jake offers yet another source to check out. Thorne Bros makes good ice rods. And once you’ve gotten a balanced outfit, put decent line on it according to what and how you intend to fish.

If you invest in quality your level of confidence will be way greater than if you have an all new, $29.95, made in japan rig and have problems. If finances make a higher end purchase out of the picture right now I’d buy a mid-range branded outfit to get on ice but I’d start buying the pieces and parts that make a quality rod as money came available.

Very sound advice!

When I started ice fishing I used HT cheap polar rods. I would buy one GOOD rod and reel. Make it your go-to combo. Okuma has a great little reel and as others mentioned TUCR, Thorne Bros, all build a great rod. For pannies I still run a Thorne Bros power noodle. Get a good case and keep it safe. Once you use the same rod every outing your success will go up. My back up is a Jason Mitchel meat stick. Great rod for the $$$. I use it for ripping raps and lures. The power noodle is for tungsten tiny presentations. I hate to break the bad news, but buy the good one now, you’ll have $45 in an average rod and next year you’ll be upgrading. That $100 rod costs that much for a reason.

I made the mistake of buying one Jason Mitchell meatstick. Not only did the guides freeze up faster, but the tip actually broke setting the hook on what ended up being a decent sized pike. That is something you likely would not have to worry about by using a TUCR bullwhip. I actually prefer the 30″ TUCR precision noodle most of the time for panfish. Detects EVERYTHING and so fun to real in slabs on it!

Tom Sawvell wrote:

I personally would stay away from any rod/reel combos. One component or the other or both is probably going to be akin to junk. If the rod is junk and you take it back to where you bought it, you still have to return the reel and line. I’d also stay away from individual asia-made ice rods. Go into any shop that sells even the branded rods made in asia and you find all sorts of things wrong with them.

My advice is to go buy a quality reel in the size that you like. Then start looking for a rod to balance it. TUCR makes a great rod. Jake offers yet another source to check out. Thorne Bros makes good ice rods. And once you’ve gotten a balanced outfit, put decent line on it according to what and how you intend to fish.

If you invest in quality your level of confidence will be way greater than if you have an all new, $29.95, made in CHINA rig and have problems. If finances make a higher end purchase out of the picture right now I’d buy a mid-range branded outfit to get on ice but I’d start buying the pieces and parts that make a quality rod as money came available.

I fixed that,quite a few Japanese made reels are excellent(like older Shimanos).China made low price,you get what you pay for.Most of those combos include a cheap reel,and components on the rod.