frozen eye guides

Is there a lube to stop ice from forming on the eye guides? I have tried reel magic…not too good. I have kept a sterno canister burning under a coffee can full of water. Water gets pretty warm, dip eye giudes in and ice melts fast. Still, I prefer no fire on board the boat. Any suggestions?

Bob.

I don’t have an answer for you, but I am very interested as well. As far as I know, there isn’t a good way to get around it, unless we stay home when the bite is hot

Kevin VanDam Line and LUre Conditioner. I field tested some last winter. Coat the eyes and spray it on your spool the night before and let it dry really good. The ice barely sticks to it and pops right off if it does stick.

PAM spray works great but leaves a mess, so make sure after your down fishing for the day to just stick the rod down in the water and rub your rod down

I fish in cold weather as often as anyone and the whole frozen eyelet thing just hasn’t been much of an issue since I made one key change. I stopped using braided line. They absorb water like a sponge and transfer that water to the top eye. Mono hardly picks up any water at all.

On the rare occassion I do get ice build-up on my rod I swish it around in the water to melt the ice and once the ice is gone I shake off any excess. By doing that I’m good for another 30 – 45 minutes or so on the coldest of cold days.

The whole heated water thing sounds like more of a hassle than the ice on the eyelets.

WD40

James is right (when isn’t he???).

I only missed open water fishing for one month out of the past 12 (Feb 2006). During the rest of the winter months, I fished with relative ease by just swirling the rod tip in the drink to clear any ice build up. On a sunny day it really isn’t much of a problem at all, even with temps well below freezing.

There was one occasion that I really struggled. It was during a March IDA tournament that featured air temps at take off of 6 degrees F. Yikes, that was a COLD morning. I struggled for about 2 hours, not because of ice forming on the guides, but because the line spooled up on my reel was turning into a line-sicle. Once the sun popped out around 9:30, problem solved. That has to be my coldest open-water experience, and even then, line/ice issues were for the most part manageable.

I’m with James on this one too…I have fished P-4 during Thanksgiving in 15-20 degree temps a few times Good Mono line and a few shakes in the river and your good for another several casts.

KVD Line and Lure Conditioner!!!

I guess I am in the majority here. I just use mono and swirl my tip in the water when it ices up. I have heard of people using vaseline to keep ice down but have never tried it.

Thanks for the replies guys.