Nice Bob, that’s the exact bobber-maybe being fussy but would like it built into the rod with the one guide turned-but Gorilla glue is plan B. Might be interested in the St. Croix for me, thanks Rip.
Tim, you can attach one of these exact spring bobbers directly to any rod by sliding a shrink tube over the last eye, heating it up while aligning it with the eye. Once the shrink tube is tight, a couple drops of loctite will hold that thing on the rod for years. What I’ve found works best is using a needle nose or hemostat to stretch a tighter shrink tube slowly wider until it slides over the eye. They shrink down much better than the thicker wider shrink tubes. Only word of caution is to slowly heat up the tube as certain tip eyes will rotate or if you go way over the top you would melt the rod tip altogether. But overall its really simple and a lot less bulky than the rubber clip on options IMO.
Another thought for a spring bobber that is more sensitive and doesn’t freeze as often as the metal version you are referring to. Take the coil bobber you can find at fleet farm, unscrew the coil spring, grab a 5mm or 4mm colored bead, loctite it onto the tip of said coil spring, then take some heavy mono line (30 lb or so) and cut it into a small U-shape, slide that in the eye of the bead, add a bit more loctite and you have a perfect spring bobber complete with a tip that will not collect nearly as much ice as the metal. Affix to any rod using the shrink tube method as mentioned above a you have a sensitive panfish catching machine.
