Does anyone have any legit tip downs that use spinning reals that actually work good. I have a few danglers and they work decent on walleyes, but looking for something that is of better quality that has a spinning reel associated with it.
I have made my own tip downs that you can use a pole with a spinning reel. They work great and I’ve never had the pole come off the tip down. I’ve even had some big Walleyes on them and they can’t get the pole off. I will try to post a pic. If there are some guys on here that would be interested in buying some I will make some up when it gets a little warmer out.
Very interested in this topic, my cousin and I have been drawing up plans to make these. But each time we have run into issues with having the reels weigh too much and decrease the effectiveness of the set-up as the crappies once they encounter any resistance on the line will most likely drop the bait (walleyes might be a different story though). The true genius of the tip down is the neutral pivot in which the fish don’t have any resistance from the rod. But I would love to make a spinning reel tip down for when we fish in deeper water. Hand over handing in deeper water just increases the odds of losing the fish. Regardless I am interested to see what others have to contribute to this subject.
I have tried for a long time to get a spinning reel to work and you will never get the smooth tip with the little resistance that’s required for panfish.
The Dangler is not a Tip Down, it’s nothing more than a rod holder. There is constant pressure to the fish.
The best option would be a mini baitcaster that’s used on crappie poles. Even that will probably not work as well as the HT or Schooly rods.
Plus add the cost of the rod and reel and your getting up there in price.
price isn’t a concern if someone has a plan for these that work.
Maybe one of the crappie bait caster style reels? I don’t know much about them but maybe they make a smaller ice version size? Let it free spool and when the rod goes down click it
Over and set the hook. But then again, I’ve never used tip downs so I don’t know if this has already been tried.
I have honestly spent countless hours trying to think of ideas for a spinning tip down set up but it all comes down to the extra weight of the reel. I suppose if you were to use a really heavy type rod it could maybe be done but even then its a stretch. There just isn’t enough weight on the end of a rod to compensate for the added weight of the reel. I’ve even contemplated adding or attaching some sort of weight to the end of the rod to help the balance but that doesn’t seem reasonable either Once they come up with an ultra light plastic spinning reel then it might be able to be done but until then I agree with IceNutz. If it could have been done effectively it probably would have already been done, because there are a lot of smart creative guys who have thought about this and still none have solved it.
I found 1 from Double H Outdoors that looked intresting-but I never did buy it…..They have some other plastic accessories for buckets that look interesting also….
Ht makes one. works great.They work with my spinning reels as well.I installed a ice screw on base to fully secure and less chance to tipping over. Very senstive for dead sticking and easy to jig the lure with a touch of the finger. Fish safe.
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Ht makes one. works great.They work with my spinning reels as well.I installed a ice screw on base to fully secure and less chance to tipping over. Very senstive for dead sticking and easy to jig the lure with a touch of the finger. Fish safe.
Again nothing more than a rod holder. With a true Tip Down the rod sits in a stand at roughly a 45 degree angle and the rod tip is about 2 feet or more off the ice.
It takes very little and I mean very little pressure to pull the rod down from 45 degrees to horizontal, a slight wind can do it. From horizontal the rod will free fall the remainder of the way with the rod tip ending up on the edge of the hole feeding the line to the fish.
The free fall gives the Crappie/Perch a foot or so of very little pressure and another foot of totally resistance free line. That is the key, no back pressure from the pole.
All of these rod holders that are called Tip Downs are not a true Tip Down (Dangler, HT, Sullivan, TL Designs, etc.) they have constant pressure on the fish because they do not tip easy enough and never free fall.
Getting a spinning reel to do this is almost impossible, maybe with a mini baitcaster and a lot of trial and error. The fun part will be finding a rod to mount it to that is fairly short.
True Tip Downs
http://www.tipdown.com/ One of the better designs
http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/sure-strike-tip-down/0000000060989
I wonder where they got there design from?
Not true Tip Downs
http://www.icefishingtipdown.com/
http://www.amazon.com/HT-BTD-50-Master-Deluxe-System/dp/B0086DY0CM
http://www.doublehoutdoors.com/tipdown.html Not a bad idea but not a true tip down and I’m not carrying a bunch of 5 gal buckets.
This question comes up every season for a solid tip-down that work effectively with a spinning reel. There are two that come to mind but are still not perfect.
The first is the Artic Warrior (acquired by Clam). I have a couple of these and they work well. They have a heavy metal base, low to the ground so they don’t blow over in the wind and have a flag. I put a set of jingle bells on the end of the flag when using outside my Otter. I’ve used them for perch, crappies, walleyes and just recently with a set of 38″ rods for Lake trout. My only complaint with them is that the reel has to sit upside down. They take a ton of adjustment to get to balance right. Too far back and it takes a lot to pull the rod over. To far forward the rod tips at the slightest breeze.
http://clamoutdoors.com/store/clam/arctic-warrior-tip-up.html
The other one I just recently found but have not had a chance to try is the TL Designs Ice-Fishing Tip-Down. It’s a heavy metal base that folds up. The plus is the way the reel sits in this one. It doesn’t have a flag which could be easily resolved and it’s seems that the rod pivots easily. I’m trying to find one in stock to order and give a try. This one I’m concerned that getting it to balance could be troublesome. To much weight past the pivot point unless you can get the pivot point to move closer the reel.
http://www.amazon.com/TL-Designs-Ice-Fishing-Tip-Down/dp/B00QQU5BI4
We’ve tried the Sullivan tip-down and several other brand/styles and am less then impressed.
Tight Lines
x2 on setting up the Arctic Warrior as a tip down but there some drawbacks. May be me or may be the setup.
Missed maybe my first chance to catch a fish in this year’s Brainerd Jaycee’s Extravaganza. Arctic Warrior combined with a Jason Mitchell Meatstick(for the noodle tip) and balanced for near zero resistance.
This is not at the pure 45 degree angle that Ice Nutz is referring to. It only has a couple inches before gravity takes over for a free drop. Same principle as a pure tip down but less time and line for the fish to run before you have to do something. ex open bail or set hook.
It tripped 5 minutes before the contest ended. Here’s the bad part of the story. I had given up on catching and was talking to some guys about 30 feet away. A buddy who was near by saw the flag pop, rod tip down, and tried to open the bail quickly. Well as quick as you can after several hours of happy juice 
. By the time I ran over it was too late. Minnow gone and the horn blew.
While technically this setup worked I’m not sure I’ll be using it as a tip down in the future. The timing is just too short if you’re not on top of it. Thinking like just use it as the tip UP it was designed to be.
Mr Jigger works as a miniture tip down. Slight resistance after it’s been pulled down some and not as much travel as IceNutz tipdowns have. I do own two of his tipdowns. They are zero resistance like he says.
I’ve modified a heavier duty rod with a baitcaster to work on his tip downs – though i’ll be honest it isn’t great – yet. I’ve played around with spinning reels on the tip down and not sure how to make that work (YET)- just too much reel weight to contend with. So far i think the best option for a spinning rod is a balancing rod holder like the MR Jigger. Tip downs – buy what icenutz has. Maybe mod a baitcaster rod to work.
I think icenutz hand lines all his fish off his tip downs. I found out real quickly that this setup isn’t quite big enough for catfish through the ice 
Yep, it can be done, but the reels aren’t meant to crank them in and the rods don’t have much bend. After two fish i decided i’m running the risk of losing rish so i quit and started playign around with baitcaster reels. Honestly though; the catfish bite was so light that they weren’t hardly pulling the tip down down. I digress; but look into the MR Jigger for spinning rods and consider a tip down to be what it is.
Thanks for the links IceNutz; those all look like knock off Mr Jigger’s; not true tip downs like you say!
I’m going to go back at it this off season and see if my cousin and I can come up with a better solution that will allow a mini baitcaster or other reel that can be used to easily reel fish in.
I cannot see a spinning reel working but a mini baitcaster should, I just don’t think it will have any better reeling capabilities over the cheap reels.
I have caught some big fish on the cheap HT rods that I use. The Bass in my avatar, a 42″ Northern, now that was a battle and I was nearly spooled twice. Thumbing that plastic reel was wearing some skin off. That’s why I started putting a lot more line on my tip downs. Several 20″ plus eyes and lots of smaller Northerns.
I love having the leash line on your tip downs too. I missed grabbing a rod once when it went down and in the hole. Just slowly pulled it back up and out of the hole and brought up the fish. Damn little northerns. They sure are fun though
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sidescan wrote:</div>
Ht makes one. works great.They work with my spinning reels as well.I installed a ice screw on base to fully secure and less chance to tipping over. Very senstive for dead sticking and easy to jig the lure with a touch of the finger. Fish safe.Again nothing more than a rod holder. With a true Tip Down the rod sits in a stand at roughly a 45 degree angle and the rod tip is about 2 feet or more off the ice.
It takes very little and I mean very little pressure to pull the rod down from 45 degrees to horizontal, a slight wind can do it. From horizontal the rod will free fall the remainder of the way with the rod tip ending up on the edge of the hole feeding the line to the fish.
The free fall gives the Crappie/Perch a foot or so of very little pressure and another foot of totally resistance free line. That is the key, no back pressure from the pole.
All of these rod holders that are called Tip Downs are not a true Tip Down (Dangler, HT, Sullivan, TL Designs, etc.) they have constant pressure on the fish because they do not tip easy enough and never free fall.
Getting a spinning reel to do this is almost impossible, maybe with a mini baitcaster and a lot of trial and error. The fun part will be finding a rod to mount it to that is fairly short.
True Tip Downs
http://www.tipdown.com/ One of the better designs
http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/sure-strike-tip-down/0000000060989
I wonder where they got there design from?
Not true Tip Downs
http://www.icefishingtipdown.com/
http://www.amazon.com/HT-BTD-50-Master-Deluxe-System/dp/B0086DY0CM
http://www.doublehoutdoors.com/tipdown.html Not a bad idea but not a true tip down and I’m not carrying a bunch of 5 gal buckets.
<div class=”d4p-bbt-quote-title”>sidescan wrote:</div>
Ht makes one. works great.They work with my spinning reels as well.I installed a ice screw on base to fully secure and less chance to tipping over. Very senstive for dead sticking and easy to jig the lure with a touch of the finger. Fish safe.Again nothing more than a rod holder. With a true Tip Down the rod sits in a stand at roughly a 45 degree angle and the rod tip is about 2 feet or more off the ice.
It takes very little and I mean very little pressure to pull the rod down from 45 degrees to horizontal, a slight wind can do it. From horizontal the rod will free fall the remainder of the way with the rod tip ending up on the edge of the hole feeding the line to the fish.
The free fall gives the Crappie/Perch a foot or so of very little pressure and another foot of totally resistance free line. That is the key, no back pressure from the pole.
All of these rod holders that are called Tip Downs are not a true Tip Down (Dangler, HT, Sullivan, TL Designs, etc.) they have constant pressure on the fish because they do not tip easy enough and never free fall.
Getting a spinning reel to do this is almost impossible, maybe with a mini baitcaster and a lot of trial and error. The fun part will be finding a rod to mount it to that is fairly short.
True Tip Downs
http://www.tipdown.com/ One of the better designs
http://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/sure-strike-tip-down/0000000060989
I wonder where they got there design from?
Not true Tip Downs
http://www.icefishingtipdown.com/
http://www.amazon.com/HT-BTD-50-Master-Deluxe-System/dp/B0086DY0CM
http://www.doublehoutdoors.com/tipdown.html Not a bad idea but not a true tip down and I’m not carrying a bunch of 5 gal buckets.
My Ht’s are sensitive, lightest touch tip goes down I mean lightest, set up is everything I guess, I use real light rigs on my deadstick . Cheap, fold thin, work for me.Looks like a tipdown, is called a tipdown in catalogues, must be a tipdown I guess.
I have tip downs with spinning reels and they work perfectly. You need to rig it up with the reel on “TOP” of the rod as it is sitting in the stand. You can play with the balance/tippng point to fine tune. you can get it so the fish won’t feel it, they only draw back is that once it tips it goes all the way down…. but it doesn’t matter, gives the fish slack and very few lost fish in deeper water vs hand over handing the line. I set it up so the rod tip falls into the hole slightly so the line doesn’t get caught on ice chunks.
The style I use has a small threaded rod thru the handle that sits in the stand. Sure Strikes from fleet. take the plastic reel off and tape on a spinning reel.
Would love to see pictures of what you guys have that is working.
Easy solution is to just buy icenutz’s tipdown set ups, either in the wood or pvc. They are perfectly balanced, work great and built well, come complete ready to go and easy to travel with-you can fit about 4 +poles in a 5 gallon bucket. Me and a buddy and 4 tip-downs, and I’ll keep my spinning rod in my hand for jigging.
IMHO 
Wareagle I will get u a pic tomorrow of what I made…then everyone on here can bash it about not being balanced and “That’s not a true TIPDOWN”. It works for me and I’ve caught plenty of fish. When crappies hit your minnow from the bottom and swim upwards no tipdown is gonna show that bite anyways so when they take off with it and there is some tension it’s kinda like they are setting the hook themselves…make sense?? Sure does to me. And mine don’t go down to the ice with the wind blowing hard either. Sounds like a win win..
Easy solution is to just buy icenutz’s tipdown set ups, either in the wood or pvc. They are perfectly balanced, work great and built well, come complete ready to go and easy to travel with-you can fit about 4 +poles in a 5 gallon bucket. Me and a buddy and 4 tip-downs, and I’ll keep my spinning rod in my hand for jigging.
IMHO
X2! Amazing value!
A guy from work made the same type that Incenutz did and charged cost for all of us on them. I think I got 3 and paid $12 a piece. They work flawlessly, but the point is that you don’t have a drag, and you still lose fish in deep water. It is also rather a pain to get line out and get it in. A reel solves this issue. I get it some of you are ok with the cheap spool that is on there, but I’m not and thats what this post is about.
Looking forward to seeing the pics, I like to play the fish with a rod and not hand over hand them I might not catch as many but its more enjoyable to me
Here is what I made and it works great..the wire that holds the pole is a piece of metal clothes hanger that is bent to fit the cork on the pole handle..this does fold up flat. You do have to fine tune your reel placement on the pole so it doesn’t lean to far forward or to far back and you want a pole with a cork handle. There is very minimal pressure to push the tip of the pole down…
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Thanks, so does the cork get wedged in the wire?
Yes you make it so it fits snug..
Joe,
I tried the same idea, and it does tip fairly easily. But there is still constant pressure and the further it tips the more pressure it takes to pull it down.
A true Tip down free falls after reaching horizontal or just past horizontal position. That design will never free fall.
I’m sure they work but when you run into really light biting finicky fish the easy of tip and free fall are key.
I’m going to try a mini bait caster, the problem with a reel on the bottom of the rod is the reel moves backwards as the rod tilts adding resistance, where a reel on the top moves forward as the rod tilts reducing resistance.
icenutz, the mini baitcaster will work, my buddy has some, as long as the reel is on top ANY reel will work.
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