New Ice Rods

After watching the last couple shows I was inspired to improve the rods I use for ice fishing. Another consideration was my recent back issues. The rods I’ve been using are all 24 inches long or so, meaning on a lot of occasions I have to lean forward to get the tip of the rod over the hole. I wanted something longer, and something with better action and a higher quality blank.

I bought components from Mudhole (www.mudhole.com, search on “ice rods”). They sell several different styles of blanks, including the MHX solid carbon blanks. I bought three kits: a couple of their thirty two inch Ultra Light fast actions, and a thirty six inch Medium-light moderate-fast action. They came with single foot guides and seven inch long Corkalon handles.

I’ve built a lot of rods in my time but this was different. The tips of these blanks are really limber, any tension on the guide wrap thread would just flex them off to the side. I also struggled with the single foot guides. I’m used to fly rods and snake guides, where you can tape down one end of the guide and wrap the other end first. I fumbled around for a couple of hours before I finally decided to wrap the guides using the thread bobbin I use for fly tying. Different, but it worked.

I splurged and bought a Clam rod case to carry them around. I’m ready!

SR

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I have been working on those blanks now for a few years. You are correct about the tips being tough. I actually began using the 2.5XL slip over tips and used epoxy but last year I did exactly what you did and used a fly robin to just tie a single foot fly guide at the tip.

Believe it if not but you would notice a HUGE difference in the feel/weigh of the rod if you only fly guides and not those bug A frame single foot guides. I did not believe my buddy when he told me the same but I assure you it is true.
Jann’s Netcraft makes a decent single foot flexlite guide they are called and I use a size 16 or 12 for my first guide then fly guides there after in size 5 and 4.
Also Mud hole sells a nice 5″ cork handle with a .1875″ dia. hole for $6. I have found that piecing the components together is cheaper than the kits, lighter weight and I dislike reel seats also.
If you need the order # for those cork handles let me know, they are a hard item to find as they are not listed on their site but the do carry them.

Try heating the guide up with a lighter a bit and use a dab of hot glue on the back of the guide then stick it to the blank. I like this better than tape and it will also break free later when aligning the guides.

Another trick is to add a bit of fine glitter to the epoxy, not only does it add a flash but it can hide some errors in your thread wrap, especially robin wraps.

Thanks Mark, that’s some really good info.

What I ended up doing was to hold the guide in position, and then make a temporary (ugly) wrap to hold in in place. Then I could start out on the blank and make a nice wrap up onto the guide foot. When I got close to the ugly wrap, I’d hit it with a razor and cut it off. Then I could finish the wrap. I used size A thread and took my time, and they all ended up looking pretty good.

I agree, a full blown real seat just adds weight and complexity here. I sure wish I could post pictures….The handles I have look and feel like cork and have rings on them to hold the reel on. Very light and simple.

SR

They make a guide foot glue that really helps. It looks like a little hot glue stick. Melt a little on the base of the guide foot and stick it to the rod. Holds it well enough to wrap the guides on, yet the bond can still be broken to align the guides after wrapping.

The fine noodle tips are still a challenge to get nice even wraps, but the guide foot adhesive helps a lot. A stick is only a couple dollars and will last forever.

Tucker

They look sharp! Great job

Nice rods!

Wrapping the tip backwards (from tip to butt) helps to hold the guide in place too especially if you underwrap towards the tip first. Do your underwrap, tape your guide on, then continue the wrap and adjust the guide to allignment.

Another thing that helps me is to not think about wrapping a size 3 fly guide on a <1mm tip. Just wrap the sucker and epoxy. Usually turns out better than when I actually try to do well lol.

Prepping your guide feet will make a world of difference on those tiny guide feet. If the wrap is giving you trouble, file a little more minding burred edges.

I like to use PAC Bay minima size 12-10 spinning guide then american tackle single foot fly guides size 5’s & 3’s. Affordable and work very well. I can usually get the 5 guides I need for ~$5. PAC Bays minima fly guides are nice too but I don’t care for their style on ice rods.

Those cork grips mudhole sells are very nice. So are the Eva grips (very affordable). I like to cut 1.5″ off the butt and split the grip 2″- 2.5″. Don’t forget the winding checks though. Which I purchase at theflyshack for literally 1/5 the price of the same rubber checks mudhole offers. For 5x the amount of winding checks I’ll pay the separate shipping, which isn’t much and worth the price if you plan on getting 10 or more.

Also, don’t forget to dress up that split grip either. A tiger wrap is a very simple, very awesome wrap.

Those tip wraps will get better the more you do it, just keep at it, and as long as the tip stays put….The fish don’t care.

Sportsmendirect offers some nice carbon and fiberglass blanks that can be made into some real great rods. Both sand very well. Their extreme taper glass blanks can be sanded into professional quality noodle rods. Left how they are they make great jigging spoon, rippin/jigging rap, and deadstick rods. Very affordable.

I use mudhole for grips and guides, SD for blanks, And TFS for winding checks. With those sources a guy can build any ice rod he wants for about 25 bucks (excluding shipping). Start up cost (supplies) doesn’t count lol.