In line ice reels

Looking at buying my first in line reel to go along with my lite flurocarbon line. What’s a decent reel at modest price

I have 3 CGI’s,a Clam ice spooler elite,and 3 Descent reels.I prefer the Descent reels.I would chose a reel that has a free fall function and an easily removable spool.If you plan on fishing with light line
(2-3 lb) you will probable have to tune up the drag on most reels.Maybe not the expensive reels, I wouldn’t know I don’t have any.
For your first reel I wouldn’t invest a lot of money in a reel until you are sure they are what you want to use.Most are $35-$40 next step up is $75-$90.
Good Luck

My best tip would be to look at a reel with a decent drag and something that is not 1:1. Some of the cheaper inline reels have no drag and you have to back reel. My brother started off with something like that and hated inlines until I let him use my BB6061. I like the Black Betty 6061 reel but they are on the high side. There are some great options out there that don’t cost as much. One thing you will also notice with inline reels is they have an off-center balance to them. Some people don’t like that. To counter that I place my reel a little off center so my guides hang straight when I balance it on one finger. I have not noticed a problem with the line building up too much on one side of the spool.

I have a couple 13 free fall ghost reels. I got them at the end of last season so haven’t had a lot of time testing them yet but they seem like nice reels.

One thing i don’t care for with the inline reels is that they take up a lot more room in my rod case.

I figured I’ll try them more this year and if I don’t like them I’ll sell them and get some more spinning reels. They retail for $75 a Piece but I found a site that had them for $60 last season and scheels matched the price for me.

It seems like all the hype on inline reels has kind of fallen off. I jumped on the bandwagon and have since jumped off. I liked the concept of limiting line twist, but found they just didn’t preform well in outside cold conditions. And yes I replaced the factor grease in them all with Hot sauce. They are also rather heavy and big. I had both a Black Betty and a CGI. After giving then a good try for 1 ice season I ended up switching back to spinning reels.

This is what I use for panfish. Drag not great but more than enough for panfish. Very light. You can get on EBay for a couple of bucks. If you like in-line reels you can always trade up. Good luck.

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Here is another of my favorites. Better than the one above and this one is blast with bigger fish. This is a 13 Fishing model.

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I picked up one of the clam drop in lines and I love it.

I have been running the decent reels since they were cgi, and they are pretty good especially for the money.

Thinking of adding a free fall to the mix this year, because why not?

I had the freefall and the Eagle claw I went back to spinning. I went up one size on the spinning reel less spin. We went back because we used a camera and I used a spinning reel my wife the inline both kept spinning. Just another tool that may work great or may not for you.

Pflueger now makes an Inline President reel. I like there other reels so I’m looking hard at this one. This is the only place I’ve seen them available

https://www.sportsmansguide.com/product/index/pflueger-president-inline-ice-fishing-reel?a=2231022&szc=000&clrc=000&pm2d=CSE-SPG-15-PLA&utm_medium=PLA&utm_source=Google&utm_campaign=CI&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI5sWLut7A7AIVSrzACh2bJgGtEAQYASABEgITIfD_BwE

That’s not a bad price if they are good quality like there spinning reels

I’m against littering the lake but the satisfaction I got from throwing my inline POS down the hole was well worth the guilt. Hate em!

I bought 2 combos last year. Free fall ghost reel with the pickletickle stick rod. I reel with my right hand and when I found these I had to have them. On sale for 90 each. I believe they now cost 130. I used and tuned them alot and know they’re my go to panny rods.

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yeah, when james was using his okuma, i jumped on the bandwagon. okuma, clam spooler, eagle claw, black betty, all the way to freefalls.

all of them had sub par drags, and couldn’t drop a 3mm tungsten jig if their life depended on it without help.

the line twist issue has never really been existant for me. my fishing partner never got the itch to switch and there were rarely times where one outperformed the other. I keep the cheapo eagle claw in the arsenal in case for some reason its needed but it basically sits there untouched. sienna/presidents for me.

hnd wrote:

yeah, when james was using his okuma, i jumped on the bandwagon. okuma, clam spooler, eagle claw, black betty, all the way to freefalls.

all of them had sub par drags, and couldn’t drop a 3mm tungsten jig if their life depended on it without help.

the line twist issue has never really been existant for me. my fishing partner never got the itch to switch and there were rarely times where one outperformed the other. I keep the cheapo eagle claw in the arsenal in case for some reason its needed but it basically sits there untouched. sienna/presidents for me.

Okuma makes an inline ice reel?

turningleavesandice wrote:

Pflueger now makes an Inline President reel.

Looks like something I need to check out.

Looking at one of these options for new ice gear for this year. Can a person drop down a 2.5 mm or 3mm ice jig on these without helping it down?

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vinella wrote:

<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>hnd wrote:</div>
yeah, when james was using his okuma, i jumped on the bandwagon. okuma, clam spooler, eagle claw, black betty, all the way to freefalls.

all of them had sub par drags, and couldn’t drop a 3mm tungsten jig if their life depended on it without help.

the line twist issue has never really been existant for me. my fishing partner never got the itch to switch and there were rarely times where one outperformed the other. I keep the cheapo eagle claw in the arsenal in case for some reason its needed but it basically sits there untouched. sienna/presidents for me.

Okuma makes an inline ice reel?

okuma makes fly reels which is kind of what got the whole craze started. (some will argue the schooley’s did but schooley’s have been around for ages)

I have the Radioactive Pickle and can say yes it drops small jigs fine, you may have to adjust your freefall settings.

I bought one 3 years ago. Tried it 3 or 4 times and it just wasn’t for me. It’s hanging in the garage now. Had planned on selling it at our garage sale but that didn’t happen because of the Covid. It’s on a Clam rod if anyone is interested. Will sell cheap.

Most of the inlines will drop 2.5 to 3mm jigs just make sure the freefall setting is set as low as it will go and use a dry lube

on the spool spindle.