The sickness begins TUCR rods

I still set the hook on pannies when the vex tells me too. Seemed to catch as many on a normal UL rod vs. the snitch with in-line reel … albiet that rod tip was fun to watch.

I thought the pannies fed pretty agressively through most all of January, but boy did they go soft touch in February.

Oh the subject at hand … I just purchased a TUCR deadstick and Okuma baitfeeder reel. I am curious if it makes a difference vs. an ultra small bobber on walleyes.

flanders51 wrote:

So here is my deal: I mainly panfish during the ice season. <strong class=”ido-tag-strong”>Panfish bite very light from say January – February. Therefore, I swear by spring-bobbers. The best, I have found, is the St. Croix black series with the light spring-bobber and a 3mm tungsten jig. Money set-up. It detects the most wee, tiny bites. Sometimes, I might even be imagining that the little spring just dipped slightly. Boom, set the hook. Game on.

I haven’t gotten the sickness for custom rods yet, but I feel it tugging me. What stops me from going the custom rod/expensive rod route is the spring-bobber thing. I just can’t imagine the so-called “noodle” rods doing what a properly tuned spring-bobber can do.

Convince me otherwise.

Noodles are hard to beat in my opinion. Spring bobbers have their place unfortunately for most of them, their place is in a heated shack. I get tired of fighting the freezing. I think if you switched to a noodle you would be impressed. I have seriously out-fished people because of the bite detection of my noodle.

flanders51 wrote:

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Your right, and that’s where the jt spring bobber rod come in to play.

Now that looks like the ticket. The sickness is upon me!
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I grew up using Schooly rods with spring bobbers that would load easily on small lead ice flies. If you’re using 1/64 or even 1/32 oz jigs, the visual bite detection on a JT Panhandler spring bobber is not going to be nearly the same as a soft or “finely tuned” spring bobber. JT’s spring bobber is closer to an extension of the rod than an actual spring bobber. That being said, I absolutely love it because it allows me to do the Dave Genz style presentation that can only be accomplished with a stiff tip. The spring is stiff enough to shimmy and dance a plastic in place but just soft enough to give a slight visual cue on strike. 10/10 would recommend. In fact, I lost a JT Panhandler 30″ at the end of last season and replaced it this fall with the exact same rod.