ice rods for jigging lakers

Well I’m kind of caught in a bind here. My old rod, the ht pl 34 H was (and is a great rod) until they changed the reel seat which now cracks horribly while used even just jigging. The blank itself is still a good one and I’ve thought about trying to add a better reel seat to it. Hoping there is something better.

So I bought the Genz Predator 42″. The rod is nice, IF YOU CAN GET A HOOK SET! I’m not sure if it’s the combination of length and rod, or one of the two but I can’t hardly get any good hook sets with this rod. Am thinking of cutting it down to one of the lower guides and see how it does.

On recommendation I bought a thorne bro’s 38″. It’s a nice rod but even weaker in the trip section which has me worried. Again getting a good hook set. Kind of curious just what these blanks are, understanding we can’t get them from anyone else, be neat to know regardless.

So is there anything else out there that’ll work? I don’t want a pool cue bait caster which seems to be so common for laker jigging. The fish are not hitting all that hard very often, and jigging with a bait caster doesnt feel right after a full day or 2 of jigging, just not comfortable like a spinning rod imho. I need something with a progressive taper I’d call it, a nice bend throughout but enough stiffness in the tip to stickem.

Hey AKDAN

I picked up a nice ice rod at cabelas 2 years ago that is by far the best jigging rod I have used!

Its a PL-34 HT
Polar Lites 34″ heavy I geared that up with a abu 300U and I use stren super braid 8#

If your fishing out in the cold without a shelter you may want to go with a ice line, since the super braid tend to pick up water and then sticks to your spool! but if your fishing out of a shack! you cant beat the stuff!

At first glance you wouldn’t think it had as much backbone as it does, but this thing has great backbone and moderate give so you get the hook-set you are looking to get and after the fish is hooked up there is some give in the rod to help keep your line tight when them trout or walleyes start in on there head shakes! I’ve used these rods on trout and use them all the time on walleye!

I’m not saying you cant find something better!

I’m kinda hard on my equipment but i haven’t broke these yet! and that is saying something!

I hope this might help you out!

good luck fishing!

thegun,

You’re right the ht pl34H is or should I saw WAS a sweet rod. The blank is still the same. The reel seat has changed to a screw down type. The top part that screws down to hold the reel on cracks and will quite rapidly break just while jigging, let alone with a fish on, a big dissapointment.

I talked to a rep at HT and got the typical answer, “we’ll have to look into that”. I do have a distributer looking for a couple of the older rods with the regular spinning reel seat for me, this has been a couple weeks now with no response. I’ve half contemplated ripping the current reel seat off and replacing it with the one I want. It sure beats spending almost 100 bucks on a rod after shipping if you know what I mean!!!

Was having the exact issues as you with the laker rods…I had a thorne 42″ graphite baitcaster that just didn’t have enough backbone at the tip..Took it in to see what they could do…They cut off about an inch and a half, what a difference. I couldn’t believe it…I also ended up buying a 46″ custom made rod that I just picked up. No report yet but next week I will have one…I have the new one set up for a spinning reel. One other in our group used this same setup last year and didn’t loose a single hooked fish..I also have a pool cue broken off old baitcaster lightning rod that I fall back on when all else fails..

Check out the 36″ Berkley lightning ice rod for bait casters. Cabela’s are closing them out for 14.99(last years models).

ttt, still looking. Got a catalog from jansnetcraft coming, might ahve to learn to how build my own!

AkDan – You might want to look at Mudhole.com as well. They have a great selection and a lot of rodbuilding how to’s. The one problem is once you start building rods you can’t stop.

akdan,
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