With the ice fishing season underway in northern Minnesota I had a chance to try out many products the past couple days on Upper Red Lake. One of those products was the Rod Strap from Today's Tackle.
The concept of the rod strap is pretty simple. Hold your rod while you set it down. In the winter this is very common as we can have 2 lines down in the winter here in Minnesota. My usual setup is for a jig rod that I actively fish with my flasher and either a dead stick or a bobber rod which I have set down. It is for the 2nd rod that the rod strap was invented in my opinion.
First Impressions:
Before getting out onto the ice I opened up the rod straps and gave them the once over. The nylon sheathing is quality made and should last a while. They are lightweight, which would be a good thing for the modern ice angler who is perpetually on the move. And finally, the price is very good, $5.50 including shipping for 2 of the straps is a bargain in just about anyone's book.
Thoughts while out on the ice:
The velcro was easy to use and allowed for me to put the strap just about anywhere. My thought was to use it for my bobber rod and that is where I started. The first day I had a hard time getting the strap to stay where I wanted to on my metal poles of my portable. I have a Clam flipover house that is a few years old and the poles are a reasonably small diameter and so the strap wanted to go with gravity, not where I wanted it. I'm pretty sure with the larger diameter poles of the portables of today this wouldn't be an issue, but it was with me. Thankfully i had a small roll of hockey tape with me in the car and placing this on the pole worked great to keep the strap where I wanted it. Removing the ice rod when a fish hit was pretty simple with the pink strip of material and I thought it worked for what is intended.
Final Take:
Advantages:
Inexpensive
Quality made
Allows you to save up valuable floor real estate in your portable house
Lightweight and collapses down for easy packing and transport
For the run and gun fisherman that uses a bucket this would be great
Disadvantages:
Slid on poles of portable
My final take would be this is a pretty good deal, especially for the run and gun angler. I think that I still prefer the rod rocker 2 and found myself going back to that often especially when dead sticking, but among what I have seen on the market I think this is a solid product at a square price.
No related posts.