After hitting 8 different stores in the last few days, everyone should take a hard look at the new Bro Rods from Frabill before you buy.  In many cases, the inserts in the eyes of the rods are missing! One, two and in some cases three are not in place.  Its too bad, because a  lot of the actions are really nice.

This is the time of the year I go around the state and represent some of the leaders in the ice fishing industry and hit as many stores in a whirlwind tour.

Kicked it all off this Saturday at Bass Pro Shops in Auburn Hills and Gander Mountain up the road in Taylor.  What can you say about BPS, they have almost everything  you could want for ice fishing.  I was really impressed with the selection that Gander Mountain had.  For a smaller store, they have quite a bit, including that hard to find Ken Spoon, a Michigan favorite for catching perch.

…cork handles on your ice rods.  This is the time of the year to put those ice reels back onto the ice rods.  That’s if you take them off in the first place.  I do, and those I don’t use for spring panfishing or fishing for perch out on the lake, get stored away in their little purple Crown Royal sacks for storage each spring.

For years and years, I would take the black electric tape off my reels and rods each spring.  The bad thing is when you do, you tend to see little chunks of the cork handle come off stuck to the tape.  Not a good thing with years of use planned down the road.

Wish I could take credit for this, and in fact I am not entirely sure where I heard this from in the first place.  The trick is to put a single wrap of masking tape over the cork where you place your reel.  Not over the whole handle, but just where you place your reel.

Its an easy thing to do, before applying the masking tape put the reel in your hand and grip the handle where it is most comfortable for  you.  Take a mental picture, and then put the wrap of making tape on and then using electric tape, attach the reel to the rod.  The masking tape becomes a permanent fixture and you only remove the black tape at the end of the year.  Any electric tape wil work, but over the years I have found that it is worth the extra buck or so to use 3M electric tape.  It seems to adhere the best to the handles without coming loose.

The pics are of my sight fishing rods, which the first two tournaments on the schedule this year are on very clear lakes. I spooled them up with Power Pro 5 lb Moss Wednesday night, then attached my Cardinals and Daiwa’s to yesterday.  No fuss, no mess with using the braid while sight fishing.

There seems to be a debate these days about the advantages tungsten ice jigs give anglers.  Some feel that the fast rate of drop through the water column is prone to spooking fish, while others use the extra weight to keep their lines straight.  The latter group are the tightliners who study tendencies and tell tale signs of fish activity.

What tungsten gives you is a small but heavy jig which means quite a few things to the angler offering the presentation.  Take a jig made of lead and one of similar size made of tungsten, and you fish heavier than the same profile of a lead based jig. Here lies the tungsten advantage.  Anglers can telegraph movement to the jig through less aggressive motion created by the wrist and rod.  The jig will react quicker than it’s lead counterpart. This subtle motion created and transferred to the jig is often more productive and easier to create than those made with lead jigs.

For those who counter with the rate of descent factor, simply downsize the jig made of tungsten. Mated with the proper test line, the smaller jigs will still give the angler the advantage of a “tight” line.  You gain your slower rate of drop through the water column, but the key is you still get to fish heavy.

Tungsten also allows you to punch through weedbeds to get to where the fish are.  Where a smaller lead jig has a tendency to get hung up on the tall growth, a tungsten jig with the faster rate of fall has a better chance of getting down to where you need to be.  Because of the speed built up, it tends to bounce or slide off of the foliage.

I will be working this Saturday at the Bass Pro Shops in Auburn Hills as part of their special weekend to kick off the ice season. Saturday, from 10 to 4, Great Lakes Crossing.  Other folks from the tour will be at the Perrysburg location the same day.

If you have bit of the competitive bug, or just love ice fishing, Michigan is the right place for you.

Long time host of Michigan’s site on the old Super Trap Attack Series, Knutson’s Recreational Sales of Brooklyn, Michigan will be hosting the only satillite event on this year’s NAIFC circuit of ice fishing events.  The tournament will be held on Devil’s Lake right off of US-223.  While most events on the circuit require a 200 dollar entry fee, the cost for the Devil’s Lake event is only $120.

Knutson’s has gone the extra step in guranteeing a $10,000 payout for the first place team, regardless of sign-ups.  The rest of the events pay out $7,500 based on a full field of 150 teams.  There will be numerous other prizes of cash and equipment given out in Michigan as well as the 1st place 10 grand.  For sign up information, follow this link at Knutson’s Live Bait website:

http://www.knutsonlivebait.com/midwest_open_tournament.html

For a full schedule for the NAIFC,  here is a list of the events, more information can be found at the tournament website,  www.naifc.com.

The official rules for all the events are as follows:

NAIFC Tournament Series Official Rules

….better known as the NAIFC is getting ready to kick off its second season on the hardwater.  Love the sound of that….HARDWATER….ice….winter….is there a better time of the year in Michigan? Ok, I digress, but still pumped up!!!

After fishing 7 years on the previous Ice Team Series of Super Trap Attacks, missing last year due to unforseen problems, then too much fishing on Saginaw Bay chasing walleyes, I am set to do it again. I have a good partner who brings with him a ton of experience, and there are 7 different tournaments in which to enter!  You can visit www.naifc.org for more details.  We plan on fishing Michigan over on Devil’s Lake, and Illinois and Wisconsin. 

Each tourney has a 200 dollar entry fee, you have a meeting for rules on Saturday and get to business on Sunday morning.  Most of the tournies are dual species, a combination of either two (bluegill, perch or crappie).  Bluegill and sunnies are counted as the same, as well as their related relatives.  No Rock Bass though.  A total of 16 fish are weighed in, and if all goes well, you take home a chunk of 25 grand!

For more information go to www.naifc.com

Here are some additional pics of the jigs from my order that I received.

One of the things I really like to do on this blog is to take Michigan made products and bring them to the forefront for everyone to see. Actually, the same goes for the favorite mom and pop tackle shops, good people, good service and fair prices deserve patronage. In the case of Kodiak Lures, it works out into a combination.  Michigan products, and with a slight twist, mom and son website.

I had the opportunity to speak with Jeff Gerstler this past week, who along with his mother Janet, own and operate Kodiak Lures out of Tecumseh, Michigan.  At one time, his father who has passed away, owned the small sports shop just east of town in Clinton, on US-12.  Over 25 years ago, I can remember running into the shop from across the street where Ida was participating in the Clinton Invitation Track Meet. I don’t the coaches ever caught on!

The Gerstler’s have been operating their website for two years now, and although they have a few retail ventures, they plan on keeping the majority of their business on the Internet.  Its more of a cost thing Jeff explained, to keep the costs down for the anglers and deliver at a fair price.  Although their lures range from open water to ice fishing, it is the season with ice almost upon us, so lets stay with that theme.  There are several ice lures available for only 69 cents each on the website.

I placed an order for a BUNCH of jigs late Tuesday night after getting my computer back from having the hard drive replaced.  This morning I knew that the order has already been shipped by simply signing back into the website, typing in my order confirmation code and seeing the latest update on the shipment.  I like that, because as I gear up for the tournament season on the NAIFC circuit, I don’t like little hic-ups to pop up as  I check things off my lists of things to do.

The website offers several unique paint jobs in its winter lineup.  Some of the lure bodies are similar to some old winter standbys, and then you have some truly unique styles.  I loaded up with either three or four jigs from the “Chubby” series of jigs in sizes 10 and 12. Not to mention that there are some tungsten jigs available in size 12 with metallic copper, gold and silver.  I love Tungsten jigs for the way they fish heavy but keep a small profile in the water, so I picked up more of those.

There are several spoons in the ice lineup that look promising as well.  One unique one of a type I had never seen before is the Pegasus.  At only .8th of an inch this spoon should be a perch and crappie magnet dressed with a small willow blade on each side of the body. Its one of the top sellers on the website so I am thinking other people have come to the same conclusion.

The Gerstler’s are also involved in helping to promote the sport of ice fishing.  While on the phone I was told about them being involved in helping out with a one of, if not the biggest kid’s ice fishing clinic held in the states.  I thought that’s a good thing, its always wise in helping promote a sport to get the kids involved.  You get the kids inspired and the next thing you know, the parents are walking out onto the ice and drilling holes too.  Then I saw that same day on the phone exactly how involved Kodiak was with the clinic.  These were pics were taken from one of the ice fishing forums that I visit, under the headline of “Have you ever seen $1,400 worth of Jigs?”

From the website, they have sold jigs to the New England area to literally the other side of the world by shipping orders all the way to Australia.  Orders are increasing in states as the ice sets in on the lakes, and it won’t be long now before their numbers increase here in Michigan after getting calls from friends up north that they are walking out and getting their lines wet.

To wrap this up, the jigs I ordered arrived yesterday in the mail.  It took me two days to finalize this piece.  Granted they were only being shipped from Tecumseh to Ida, but that is still only two days after placing the order on the website.  They were ordered Tuesday night, shipped Wednesday morning, and arrived Thursday afternoon…that is pretty good service!