If we don’t buy bait before we leave town, we have always had good luck at westwind resort

My arsenal mostly consists of TUCR and thorne Bros rods. I love my commander!! My fishing partner yesterday at the show bought a 34″ black reign from JT and I have to say I was impressed! Obviously haven’t fished with it yet but it definitely has my interest peaked!!

I felt it is softer than a commander, more of a moderate fast action. It appeared that it didn’t roll into the backbone of the rod as fast as a commander comparatively, however I didn’t feel like that was a sacrifice at all due to the balance of the rod and technique/bait choice. I am looking forward to snagging it out of his bag and field testing for sure.

So to answer your question, which is softer, my opinion is the black reign but the tip is lively, rod is balanced nice and the whole package looks to be a up an coming option that the most die hard TUCR fan will have to look twice, cuz it’s not going to go un-noticed!

Good luck with either, I don’t believe you will be disappointed either way you choose!

My opinion is a 32-36″ Thorne Bros deadstick. 36″ maybe pushing right against the practical range if your in the portable so if it’s specific for an Ifish Pro, then your golden. My applications weren’t always with Ifish pro in mind so I have 2-32″ deadsticks from Thorne and absolutely love them. Backbone is balanced beautifully with the forgiving tip and the 8″ Tennessee handle provides plenty of leverage and control for the fight.

Many big Walters brought topside last winter and didn’t ever have a concern that the rod wasn’t performing or I could have done better. Priced around 75 bucks, Thorne Bros checked all the boxes for me as an angler with my expectations of a quality deadstick!

Hockey tape. always on ice, wears like iron and absolutely no issues related to cold. Been using it for years….no issues and doesn’t flex at all. Much cleaner than electrical tape in my opinion and you can still preserve cork handles with masking tape.

I sent you a PM…look forward to hearing back from you.

Same here! Otter xover lodge. Much saggier than my old otter lodge and with bars down for side door entry the wind poles do not fit well at all, puts too much stress on the sewn in loops for canvas. I thought I did something goody but after looking at a few others, I am spot on in my installation, I just think it’s the nature of the new beast.

Was at hunters this weekend, they are full everything all the way to the mud, it was a zoo!!! Although we came off the flats Sunday afternoon, the massive clown parade prior with speeding and carelessness really beat the road up good. Cracked length of the road from 3 mile to the flats….1 area they had to plow around a hole that was created to get back. Lots of bleeding cracks and water on ice.

Make sure to check with resorts as things change daily!!!!

I lean away from using braid when hole hopping, it ices really bad. Only exception is when it is beautiful outside where it won’t be freezing so quickly. Otherwise braid for in the shelters and generically for deeper water fishing, no stretch when trying to make those Walters cross-eyed setting the hook, your percentage of good sets greatly increases. 6lb braid for me.

Florocarbon I predominantly use for all applications. Deep water horizon hopping limited stretch and good hook setting percentage, plus I like the fact of no being visible to the fish. I run 6lb on all my tucr precisions and 8lb on commander.

I’ve stayed away from mono in recent years for walleyes. Pairing line and lures with all my tucr rods has opened up many versatile options for me where mono doesn’t make the trip anymore. Only time I will consider it, is panfish shallow water. But that is personal preference, opinion, by no means am I trying to say it doesnt work for others.

Was out on the mud with wheeler, no problem. Chains on rear tires only….most somewhere around 10″ Thursday and after last night and this morning snow, added another 5″, winds were hell today though, blowing all over.

curleytail wrote:

They only read in tenths under 10 feet. But they show graduation marks between the foot numbers on the screen. Just make a mental note of which mark the bottom was by in each hole you’re checking.

I never found the whole numbers to be an issue.

Tucker

???? Exactly

In the boat I am way more concerned about music, but on ice….have a bose speaker in portable, and in wheel house, radio is always on….just don’t crank it to 100. Although we have picked a few Walters up on rattle reels with Charlie Daniels really pickin the fiddle about as high as Sony ever intended and they didn’t care….

Standard operating procedure though, always fairly low just background noise enough to be enjoyed, unless it’s a tough bite, then it’s full on seek and destroy mode…. Good luck

Black diamond Head lamp. Not necessarily in shelter, I have a frabill light bar that works great but for everything after dark other than that, I love my black diamond Head lamp

I agree with Reid, don’t cut the pole, the fabric will stretch. However, and I speak with some experience, my first otter xt pro cabin I installed the fabric too tight and my wind poles we’re always a struggle to put in….it is possible that you installed the fabric a lil too tight making it a bit more difficult to zip doors while the wind poles are in.

I just bought the new x-over Lodge and I made extra sure that I didnt make it as tight as my old one, and I have used it in my garage fully assembled windpoles and all and haven’t had a lick of issue, 100% better than my old otter xt pro lodge.

You may be able to unscrew the fabric mounts on sled and give yourself a lil slack, yes I know you already put holes through fabric, but if in fact it is too tight, it may never stretch as far as it needs to in order to function the way you think it should. Just a thought for you to check, hope it helps!

I was the same way, bigger tackle box, more Plano boxes as I built my arsenal of walleye/panfish weapons. However I found that the jig boxes and utility boxes from Rapala (personal preference but highly recommend) or my fishing buddy uses a mixture of Rapala boxes and clam boxes. These tools have really allowed us to stay organized and find everything quickly while taking up less space.

Plus jigs and spoons are expensive. I love VMC spoons but found that bouncing in Plano boxes the paint takes a beating. Rapala boxes secure every jig/lure and don’t have to worry bout beating the heck out of your investment. They offer smaller sizes that u can grab, throw the box in a breast or bib pocket and roam the ice hole hopping without bringing the kitchen sink with you!

Hope this provides you with an alternative to help keep your organized and efficient while on the ice this year!

Love them. Great 1-2 punch with a deadstick or slab rap when the rattles are too much for less active fish. Uv pink, uv green, uv orange, emerald shiner all solid. Can’t go wrong! #4’s mostly….but #3’s are easily sliding there way into my heart.

Looking forward to the perch episode!

If you bring a camp stove or have a lil pot that you cook on your buddy heater with, boil water before you go to bed. Pour it into a Nalgene water bottle (they won’t melt) and throw that in your sleeping bag. Old winter camping trick, your drinking water won’t freeze and it’ll help keep your feet warm for a few hours. With that said…..

Everyone has an opinion, just like everyone has done some bonehead things we probably shouldn’t have done or continue to do. It’s one thing to provide useful advice and it’s a just a little different way to the same goal. For instance in this forum, from different insulation measures for the ice to different sleeping bags.
But in the end, when we leave home to fish and camp we also intend on returning home, so to provide so called “advice” that it’s just fine to sleep in a confined space with a buddy heater running is irresponsible and yes you are wrong (my opinion). If that’s how you do it, great, but that’s how many have perished wether it was in a fish house or not. So instead, let’s not advocate for something that is questionably unsafe! And provide the safest way to accomplish the goals.
Stay warm good luck!

X2 on iowaboy reply, even if you dont have a lot of extra wire to deal with, cut ground, telephone wrap, solder and shrink tube on an additional length to reground to the frame. Contact grease, selftap screw and your ground issue should be solved.

If still concerned about corrosion after that, I’d smear it with RTV gasket maker or silcone to help as an protective agent, then monitor the situation and see how it holds up to the elements/abuse

I love my jiffy propane auger however I’ve been looking to get a strike master 40v. In most temps the propane is a no brainier for all the obvious reasons from a practical and marketing standpoint. However, last 2 years in extreme temps below zero to 30 below, stored in a warm house, warm truck to the lake, insulated wrapped blanket onto the lake to our fishing spot…..drills 3 holes and freezes up, with tank insulator sleeve on. Won’t refire until warmed up in portable.

LOTW poses the same environmental challenges with the additional ice depth, so I understand your thought process moving from electric to a propane in this case. I would strongly suggest you reconsider if you are fishing extreme temps and portable. This is coming from a guy who absolutely loves his propane auger!!!! You may wanna think about keeping the old gasser handy for 4+feet of ice and cold temps, for everything else you should be satisfied with propane or electric.

Again, my honest opinion, I hope you find a solution to your fishing expeditions!!! Good luck on the ice this season!!

I have a propane box on my hardside and I fully insulated the box and put an automotive dome light inside the box. What little heat the bulb gives off inside the insulated box keeps the propane flowing and even if I don’t have it on, the insulated box keeps the bulk of the wind and extremely cold temps at Bay so the heater never quits providing balmy weather conditions inside the house.

Hope that helps!

X2! Determine what type of bite fishes to your strength and plan on acquiring gear to accommodate your strengths, confidence is key…find something you have confidence in regardless of that being a technique, gear etc. Once you start down the TUCR path, there is no turning back….

I used all LED interior an exterior lighting…..then I got a hold of some Xmas rope lighting that I ran around the roof perimeter inside the house which is awesome option when you don’t want all that light filtering down the holes.

Exterior lights are all rigid LED saltwater edition lights….under both wheel wells for ez night time operation and a light bar over the door on V-nose to flood the when entry area and gives off a S-ton of light for ez loading on truck in the dark….

Also put an automotive dome light in propane box….insulated so when hit gets crazy cold propane will not freeze up….and in the dark changing tanks or filling at service stations….you don’t have to hold a flash light or phone in your teeth trying to place tank and hose back together….hope that gives ya some ideas…

I too was at Thorne on Saturday and purchased the new lodge x over. Assembled this weekend and found it much easier than a couple years ago. Major improvement! And they are right when they say they reduced assembly time!!!

Once assembled and compared side by side to my old lodge(3 winter’s of use) it is damn near the same unit, only differences were the rear access door is much smaller, not a full door anymore, half the size, I called it more like a “gopher hole”

And obviously the side entry being different. frame poles and where they attach for that seem to be pretty viable for hard use on the ice. And they were easy to use detaching and re attaching to sled.

Overall I don’t think this is the normal first year sucks type product. Otter took the same house and made it much more convenient for two man fishing and kids who fall into holes and everything else while being kids lol! And merely by adding side access. I agree with zipper failure but in 10yrs of fishing the worst zipper catastrophe I’ve had was the tags snapping off in the cold….(already have the back up tags wired to the zipper, ready for when it happens…nothing works at -20 below!!!! IDC how awesome it is! Lol)

I’m with Will R. I made the switch and I don’t think I’ll be looking back! Good luck on the ice!!

I use dobyns rods and so does my good fishing buddy, we love’em!!! I use the champion Xtreme series but my buddy has a couple fury’s and I’ve used those as well and I think the Xtreme series is equally comparable to a gloomis. Fury rods are more economical, and you still get a great feel, plenty of power and a great rod! Actually the fury series is a set of rods I recommended to my buddy as he was/is in the same market for a good quality rod that is more economical on price. Their customer service is really good too, I’ve broken 2 rods, (being dumb) and they sent me 2 new ones, nor problem. Paid deductible and they were shipping the same day….

Hope that helps in your decision. Good luck!!!

When buying half a beef or a whole pig and having it butchered one thing to keep in mind that you are charged by the total hanging weight of the animal, not the finished in the freezer cuts. Plus there are additional charges for packaging. It is cheaper to go to a market like theilens in pierz (my favorite) and order what you want….pounds of burger, steaks, roasts etc….

For example….It is cheaper to purchase the entire Chuck roll and have it cut into the size roasts you would like that buying a quarter beef and and getting more burger and such that you may or may not want and only a limited amount of another cut you absolutely love. Plus they package at no charge and you are not paying for bone and fat that eventually is trimmed off when making the cuts….

Just food for thought.

I understand now…sorry lol.
In that case I know guys who use both the okuma Coldwater reels and diawa accudepth and they like them both, there is a place out east where you can send them every year and for a minimal fee will repair or go through the whole guts of the reels they are amazingly brand new every year.

Personally I love the Shimano tekota but they are on the higher side of the price spectrum, however they are unbelievable smooth drag and that’s what I base my decision on.

I would take both options your looking at and evaluate the drags smoothness on each and which one you like better is gonna be your choice because they are so close to the same choice you won’t be disappointed….hope this helps!!!

Tight lines

Calibration, calibration, calibration!!!!
Line counters can get out of tune from casting a great deal….the key to line counter reels are that they are calibrated from the time you spool your line on otherwise you will continually be wrong on all your running depths when trolling…..which leads me to question why you are seeking a line counter for casting applications???? The biggest advantage of a line counter is to precisely know how far back to run your baits to achieve the desired depth to run while trolling, there would be little to no benefit to seek a line counter for casting….the curve at which the crank will run on a single retrieve is subject to how far it will cast anyways which is a lot less than that of a trolling application.

I sprayed all mine with chain lube….. everything seems to be working well….but you have to re apply after a couple outings….WD-40 doesn’t work the best tried it and in extreme cold it freezes up too. Not strong enough. Buddy uses a fine artists brush and either does straight diesel fuel or diesel 911 the oily nature and the properties don’t freeze up in extreme temps and repels water….

Mine has done the same. I use a 11lb tank on a longer hose. I have found that you need to make sure the regulator on the hose is somewhat warm, I carry mine under my coat on the ride to where I am fishing. Also any flake of snow or dust that gets to the orphesicies will inhibit the lighting of the flame. Any wind or breeze will not allow it to light properly. Online there are many different screens you can build to help with this issue. Mine is real finicky like that….and I have had mine 3 years. hope that helps.

here is a link to the one I build for my heater. Works awesome and this last ice trip last week, I never had the same issues ive been having for past couple seasons. Good luck

If your looking for good quality rods on a budget may I suggest JR’s tackle. Before I upgraded my fleet of rods to TUCR I had JR’s and they served me very well!!! For a rod on a budget they have some of the highest quality in my opinion. Their blanks we’re the same exact blank as the rods used and sold as Perch Patrol rods and the same blanks Jason Mitchell stamped his name on before he switched to Clam outdoors. Take a look at them and don’t count them out on how they can round out your fleet of ice slaying sticks! Good luck this season!

I use an 8″ chipper and I have one of those jiffy blade sharpeners. I feel that it works pretty good, puts an edge back on the blade and keeps me from spending another 40 bucks Everytime it goes dull.

It keeps the pitch of the blade and if you use in conjunction with a fine metal file, you can really tune them up good. I hate throwing blades away when there is that much steel left on them…. So in my opinion, it works good and I’ve never had a problem otherwise