JT panhandler rod – Quick review

There was a post last week about the Various customer rod brands. At the time of the post I was waiting for my purchase of a 24″ JT panhandler rod with a built in spring bobber rod to arrive. I received the rod on Friday just in time for my first ice outing of the year. My first impressions was that it was a really great looking and built rod. After using it for a morning of fishing, All I can say is WOW !!! After starting to fish More and More spring bobber’s the last few years I’ve wanted to get into a more custom build with a Built In Spring bobber. There just are not many of them making them ( That I ‘m aware of anyway ) The Spring Bobber on the JT is Perfect. I will not fish any spring bobber not made out of Nitanol. This one has the perfect stiffness for fishing the 3 and 4 MM tungsten jigs that I fish the most often. I was not sure how I was going to like the slightly larger Bead on the end of the spring bobber, but I think I’m going to end up really liking it. Its perfect for detecting the lightest bites including those minor uplift bites that pressured crappies as know for. The fast Action of the rod has a consistent flex from the spring bobber all the way to the handle. It seems to have enough backbone to handle even slightly larger fish than the normal large crappie or sunfish. I landed a 4Lb + LM bass on it on Sat. on 2lb. test line. If you are looking for a quality panfish ice rod with a built in spring bobber, It would be hard to find a better one than this one.
By the way – This may sound like a Pro-staff member endorsement, But I have no connection to JT rods in any way. I’m just a ice fishing junkie who like good equipment.

I will be the second to endorse it. I broke mine fishing for walleyes with it. That may seem stupid as it was meant for lighter fish, but I loved it for small walleye. I like a lighter rod than most do it seems. But yeah great rod I had a longer version without spring bobber.

John Rasmussen wrote:

I will be the second to endorse it. I broke mine fishing for walleyes with it. That may seem stupid as it was meant for lighter fish, but I loved it for small walleye. I like a lighter rod than most do it seems. But yeah great rod I had a longer version without spring bobber.

Like you I often fish much lighter rods than most for fish. I mostly fish for fun and not meat, so I enjoy the fight on lighter rods.

The transition is one thing I did notice about JT spring bobber rod. Its not spring all the way down than the rod starts to move. They work together.

fishthumper, what reel did you pair it with?

brian_peterson wrote:

fishthumper, what reel did you pair it with?

For now I have a Okuma Ceymar C-10 on it. I think Santa is getting me a 13 fishing Free Fall Ghost for Xmas that I think I will try on it. I gave the Inline reel thing a try a few years ago and just didn’t like them. I thought it may be worth another try.

Rodwork wrote:

The transition is one thing I did notice about JT spring bobber rod. Its not spring all the way down than the rod starts to move. They work together.

I think that is what I like the most on the rod – The overall transition from the fast tip into the backbone part of the rod. I’m looking forward to putting lots more hour’s of use on it this winter.