19 Best Custom Ice Fishing Rods (2023 Updated)

This rod has a soft tip that should detect lite bites well but the flex occurs mostly in the first 6 inches. There is an abrupt transition to the middle 1/3 and the middle third and butt are rather stiff.

This does give power to hooksets but I often catch large fish on my panfish rods so I prefer a noodle that flexes all the way to the butt to absorb more shock.

Love this rod. Replaced a 27″ inch 13 fishing tickle stick and this is twice the rod of the tickle stick. And less than a third of the price. Love the 32″ length ,and I am used to 24-26″ rods, but this rod is sensitive and a good backbone for good hook sets.

My favorite rod in my arsenal and am buying another.

This is a great rod, it has a very sensitive tip light action but enough back bone for larger fish. The Yellow Perch I fish bite extremely light. My friends have to use spring bobbers to see bites that you cannot feel but this rod does not need one.

If you use braid line you can have very good feel on light bites too. The only flaw to this rod is that the “cork” handle is foam with a thing cork wrap on it that is not very durable but for the price and the action it is still great.

Great panfish rod ! Has backbone yet a very sensitive tip . Quality rod value priced , definitely would recommend for panfish.

Was not ultra light at all as described. It is medium action and very stiff. The front bead pulled right off when extending the tip before I even used it. I have a older model that I love but not happy with this one.

i actually bought this rod to go with a spare ultralight reel i had to combine with a feathered sinker i made as a toy for the kittens that were in my neighborhood. i cast out in the yard and like fish they are all over it, After (or if) they get bored i’ll ship it north to to my buds still ice-fishing in Lake Champlain.

Using the Prime 26” med/lite rod with a 2015 Black Betty inline reel with fender, and it’s some of the easiest fishing I’ve ever done. Excellent response to bites, big or small it feels like a fight.

Would highly recommend for crappie, perch or trout fishing. Works great as a jigging rod, would not suggest use as a deadstick as it is to lite. Also works well with my Abu Garcia ABUW5 spinning reel.

This rod is extremely nice for the price. Perfect parabolic bend, no flat spots at all. Have one of each action which are awesome from perch to pike. great bang for buck rod. home run 13.

Took it out for the first time, and with my drag as loose as it could be, the tip completely broke. Almost no pressure at all and it just snapped. Waste of money.

Great rod for the money. Perfect action for perch.

The rod was really cooked! I’m very familiar with rod splines as I have built many rods in my day but this rod is just plain dog leg crooked. If I had seen this rod in person I would not have purchased it.

It is a 6 1/2, 2 piece rod and it arrived in one piece in a 8 ft long tube open at one end and it fell out of the tube when I picked it up from my porch! Not sure if it could have been damaged or bent from falling out of the tube during shipping like it did for me all though I don’t see how that could happen with out breaking it.

There was no packing slip with it. I purchased it for a friend as a gift but didn’t give it to him. Instead I went to Wallmart and bought another ugly stick that was not messed up to give him. If I had a packing slip and a reasonable way to send it back I would.

It looks to me like it could be a factory reject or something. I was very dissatisfied with the purchase.

Bought the rod before the price hike. Really liked it I caught a 30 pound black drum on the beach at Ft Pickens near Pensacola. Have since caught several medium sized reds with it. Ok, great! Great action for 10 pound line.

Then last Friday at Dauphin Island throwing a 2 oz surf weight the rod broke (snapped) above the large first guide on the forward swing of the cast. I was somewhat shocked to say the least. That’s never happened with me and this brand before.

Love me some Ugly Sticks! Anyway, I have 2 more of the same rods. Might consider adding a little more backbone toward the butt of the rod.

I brought 2 of these Combos a while back and they are working great. I’ve used them for both Fresh and Saltwater and the reels seem to hold up just fine provided you do the proper care after fishing.

These are light and you can feel the hits when they strike. The Rod itself is a beast I’ve had both of them get snagged and put them through some really tough bends and neither of them snapped, Uglystix holding true to there name.

These rods are a beast. Only Issue I had with the reel was I fell and landed with the reel hitting a boulder and bent the bail. Thats on me not the company, I was able to bend it back into place and make it work again so they can take some abuse :-).

I deffinetly recommend these combos.

Becoming an ice fisher on a budget isn’t easy. But great deals like this help. Reel seems to function as it should, spins smooth, the rod is in tact. This should be a fun season

I love this combo for ice fishing. I havnt had any issues with it in 2 years of usage. Flexes great, reel doesn’t freeze up or anything like cheaper models. Great buy from Cabela’s.

Rod ok, but it took so long to get here , that ice fishing season is over.

Just received two of these light rods with high quality reels. So glad I purchased them and soon will be using them on a regular basis. Everything about them is good quality eyes are great reels are great good backbone with light fast action tips.

Can’t wait to get walleye on them. Worth every penny in my opinion.

Rod seems ok, but the reel is terrible. No anti reverse, can’t jig with one hand or the spool reverses. You have to hang onto the handle to stop it from reversing. I thought for that price point it would at least have a somewhat decent reel on it.

Within a day of receiving the rod I placed an Inline reel/line/lure on it and placed it in a rod protector. It hadn’t left my home and two days later I pulled it out of its case and the rod broke between the last two eyes.

Today, I sent it back to Fenwick. They will determine Warranty coverage after inspecting it for manufacture’s defects.

Bought this (MODEL # AICE28MLXFS) for the same reason I purchased the Elite Tech–the continuous grip feature. I prefer the full cork handle for the comfort. However, I’m sad to say that when tightening the reel onto the rod foot, the cork components start to miss-align (using Pflueger President XT).

The sections of the grip will miss-align by about 2-3mm; this is not a lot but when looking at the rod in the store with no rod mounted the grip is perfectly flat and smooth. However, having said all this, it’s still more comfortable than anything else out there.

If one was to strategically grind away portions of the reel foot i’m sure it can resolve this and allow all the rod handle components to come together concentrically. There’s more eyelets on this rod (6) compared to other ice rods.

I have yet to use this rod for ice fishing, but I did notice the eyelets are small; same size as the summer rods. I fish in a heated tent, but those who fish out in the cold may find the small eyelets to clog up with ice a lot faster than rods with large eyelets.

Bro. This reel is complete garbage. The drag on this makes no sound at all and the bearings. Dont even get me started. The reel isn’t smooth at all, it feels like there is sand inside of it. The only thing is the rod.

The rod is the best part of this, sensitive yet durable. Save your self some money and buy the rod separately. Its 9. 99, better than spending 10 bucks on a garbage reel.

I have tried most of the top brands, all fine rods but they break are brittle or the eyes are poorly constructed. I picked up a aetos 3 years ago and couldn’t be happier. So I picked up a Aetos trolling rod last spring and when fishing The St Clair river I hooked into a Sturgeon, after 20 minutes of fighting the line broke but I had that rod doubled over the whole time and was impressed that a sensitive rod had that much Spine and backbone.

The other fishermen out there took noticed as well, like I said TOP of the LINE !.

I bought the rod in a light version. Only problem is there is no lockable reel seat. It uses 4 o ring/rubber bands to hold reel on. Picture doesn’t show that in the add on line. I don’t like that aspect.

Good rod however.

I bought this after trying one a friend had who was out fishing me , on the ice. He was my kids age! i loved the sensitivity, and had to own one. The feeling coming through this rod was amazing. I’ll be adding more next winter.

Pro’s The best ice fishing rod I have ever owned and I was born )1/01/1961 My Dad had me ice fishing at 7 years old That’s 51 years I use it for everything from blue gill and yellow bellies to Walleye and it handles it perfectly Perfect mix of sensitivity and back bone I use 3 lb.

Trilene ice and line preference. is up the the individual But this rod paired with a Daiwa ul7 my brother bought me for Christmas in 1989 is a hard pair to beat for the type fishing I do I highly recommend this rod.

These reels are durable and work smoothly. I take it off the little jig pole and put it on an ultra light rod and use it for trout fishing. The last one I had went 4 years of ice fishing and 4 years of trout fishing, used a lot.

Somehow it turned up missing or it would still be going strong.

broke the second time I used it. Don’t waste your money. Couldn’t get an exange or refund in the store where I bought it.

You can never have to many ice fishing combos. Ive been using Shakespeare products for years and this one stands up to being an affordable yet reliable ice rod and reel.

I have the whole set of these rods I love the action in these rods and the reels are so smooth and never freeze and is also nice to have the folding handle great pric great purchase

Great rod reel combo works great for pan fish ! I would recommend for you pan fisherman

Nice soft tip. Cork handle screws to lock your reel. Never seen that before. Really cool. Really nice feel To it. Can tell it’s a good quality rod. Would be 5 stars but eye guides are really small and freeze up quick unless you’re fishing in a heated hut.

Overall really impressed. Would like to see fenwick adjust eye sizes for extreme cold weather.

I got to use the rod for a about a month when the handle broke off, fenwick isn’t going to replace the rod. It actually happened on two of my technas. Very disappointed in fenwick for not holding up to there warranty.

I won’t be buying anymore fenwicks.

Can feel the quality of the rod in your hand. Very happy with purchase. Bought 36M for walleye/small pike. Awesome ice rod.

IšverstiShow in original languageI bought 2 combos and 2 additional rods this winter. Have caught a lot of different fish, including pickerel and bass up to 4 pounds. no problems. looking forward to putting reels on the other 2 rods.

Last year, I saw a guy using this combo in the medium weight catching flounder off a pier. These combos are great. I just wish the stores local to me carried ice fishing gear. I had to go to NH to find these.

IšverstiShow in original languageGreat energy drink! I feel so great when I drink them, besides all the controversy about the ingredients. I really feel like they do what they say but the ingredients could be better.

I recommend to active people for sure !.

IšverstiShow in original languageI needed a cheap small fishing rod combo to take on a backpacking trip. This will serve my purposes just fine. I can pack it away in a plastic tube so it won’t get broken and I’ll have it when I come across some little fishing holes.

I don’t expect to catch any monsters with it but I’ll get a few hours of fishing fun and if I can put a couple trout in a pan at the end of the day I’ll be a happy camper ( pun Intended) Although I had ordered 3 of them 1 for each man on the trip and 1 of them was defective and I had to order a 4th one and return the bad one.

But no big deal I’m glad I ordered them early. My opinion it’s a good deal for $12. 00. Good luck on the water and happy fishing.

Purchased this pole to use in a Jaw Jacker with the additional jigging attachment for perch fishing. The pole works well in the Jaw Jacker, but, in my opinion, the pole is too stiff to use for hand jigging.

I think a pole with a good “backbone” is necessary for a good hook set using the jaw jacker system, so this pole works great for its intended purpose.

I just caught a bunch of burbot with this rod. It’s great. Excellent quality and I’m not afraid of it breaking in my jaw jacker. I’m glad I spent the extra 10 bucks to get a better quality rod for the jaw jacker.

Very good quality rods. I paired with eagle claw inline reels. I would recommend