Anxious to try my brand new ice fishing toy!!!!!!!

Mike/HOF and I were talking a couple weeks ago about ice fishing rods. Not so much the action of these rods, rather the lenght. The standard ice fishing rod measures between 24 and 28 inches. This is a good length if one is fishing in a shack. We were discussing how we often will walk from hole to hole when outside a shack. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a longer rod, so when checking the trap line, one doesn’t have to lean or bend over so much. Sure the 24’s and 28’s work, but you can get a back ache trying to keep the tip of the rod close to the water, so the wind doesn’t play havoc with the lite line. Told Mike, the next rod, which I will call my “walking stick” will be considerably longer. Then will hole jumping I won’t have to bend over.
Well, went out to the shop and Mike had a big smile on his face. Said I got a little something for you. He had Mike Fischer put together a nice ultra lite 42 inch panfishing ice rod. He even had one made for himself. Nice action, great lenght. Now we can stand up straight and even lean backwards a little bit to avoid sore backs and fluttering lite lines. We are thinking of fishing off the docks tomorrow since there isn’t any safe ice. Man that extra long rod will make a difference there too.

I got a 4 foot noodle rod coming from the same general location.
Hoping for the best. The flip over Eskimo has plenty of room for
lengthy ice rods and their use and abuse. Hoping this is the answer for
crappie that like hitting on the drop. Thanks Mike. If its pretty will send you pix to post, if its just functional, send you fish pix.

I love longer rods for ice fishing. I have four 5ft jigging rods for Panfish and three 4ft rods for jigging Walleyes through the ice.

Soon enough I plan to have 2 brand new Walleye ice rods made at Hooked on Fishing.

I love the idea of ice fishing, but the reality of it is probably in the distant future. WE NEED ICE!!!!!!!

Love my new walking stick. Fun, fun, fun. Didn’t catch as many fish as I would have liked to, but the ones I did, the rod performed perfectly. No more bending or stooping over. Thus no back ache tonight. Like I told Mike/HOF, who likes his as well, it actually felt comfortable in hand. Geez, not sure, but I think I need at least a couple more.

Yes, I liked mine very much! Sure was a strange day for us – we thought we could go ice fishing off some docks in a harbor and ended up fishing open water because the ice was pretty much gone……… We did manage a few panfish including some very nice crappies, but lost a few big ones because they fell off trying to lift them from the water to the dock. A net would have been a good idea! Oh well, it was still fun to get out and do a little fishing.

Good Fishing,
Mike

Mike showed me his new longer rod and of course I had to have one so I told him to make me one. Its my understanding that these rods are fiberglass. Mike, how much more for making mine with a St. Croix graffite blank instead? With permanant carpo tunnel in both wrist/hands the more senitive rod would help me from getting beat too bad fishing on the ice next to you two panfish gerus. . Oh, almost forgot. I need to also order some good solid ice too. Thanks, Bill