My tip-ups are not setting off the flag when a fish is hooked. I have the drag set to the bare minimum. The tip-up’s are explorer wood from icefish.com. Should i have some kid of lube on the reel and flag shaft?
It wouldn’t hurt to take them a part and lube them up if that is happening. What do they feel like when you spin them by hand? Should spin smooth. For a lube, I’ve been using Lucas. Been happy with it so far.
They don’t spin freely. I was just worried about oil in the water where I was fishing. I wasn’t sure if this would repel the fish?
I wouldn’t worry about that, most tip ups come lubed up already.
And if there is lube already on it, clean that off good and put new stuff on
Usually my tip ups trip easier on one side vrs. another and I ‘x’ the side that works better. Also not sure all lubes are the same, Beaver Dam tippies always turn smoothly in the coldest weather, you could try their lube, or buy the TU. Good luck
They were dry as a bone. I put silicone all temp lubricant on them and the flagpole which is in a tube. Now they spin! Thanks for the help!
Great, but that won’t work for long. I’m not a fast typer so somebody tell him the right way.
LOL!
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I’m not sure what the “right way” is, but I’d recommend a low temp waterproof grease of some kind, not oil. Tim is likely right that Beaver Dam probably has a good option. After watching some underwater footage of fish struggling to set off sticky tip-ups or even i-fish-pros, this is something that I think is a big unknown problem for many anglers. I personally like the finnicky fooler since it’s so sensitive to trip and I feel like I can set it up faster than a tip-up, but to each their own. The bottom line is, I would recommend that you do everything you can to make sure that your tip-ups spin ultra smooth, otherwise you’ll likely end up missing out on fish.
I am heading to the local tackle shop this morning to see what they have. I have a white lithium grease that I use on my spinning reels. It is good down to only 0 degrees. The water under the ice is 40 degrees on the lake.
The problem is most check their tipie when the grease is warm, either inside or right when they pull it out of thier car. Put that thing outside for some hours and then check. I am not an expert on this stuff but I do check. Northerns this time of year are surprisingly fussy (watch the You Tube vids) don’t expect a hard attach even from a big fish.
For your reels try Hot Sauce, on the tip ups I’ve had the best luck with Blu Lube. White lithium gets too stiff. Tip up lube is a very specific product. Every brand makes one, you’ll find 3 or 4 but I think Blu lube is the best and Frabill the worst.
The grease worked great! Before I could pull the trap and check the bait without the flag go off. Now they have a hair trigger like my deer rifle. Took two flags to the face before I learned to move my head! Lol!!
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