Ice Fishing Reel

[obifishkenobi]

All this heat has me day dreaming of the cool/cold days of ice fishing.   I generally do not post anything through out the summer, only during the ice fishing season, so it must be a sign.  I won a couple of hundred dollars during the Archery 3-d league season and I have been hanging onto to it until I decided what to spend it on.  I have settled on a new ice fishing reel.  2 of them actually.  One for me and one for my wife.  My question for those of you in the know, What is your opinion of an inline reel?  I have read some good things about them so I thought I'd give one a try.  Eagle Claw makes a highly rated, inexpensive one.   4.5 out of 5 star's that won't break the bank to buy and should it end up down the hole because of in-attention, it won't make me cry.  Pro's and Con's.

In line reals are amazing, you can drop really light jigs without any line coil, which makes for better hook sets. Ice fishing with a flasher or fish finder is like playing a video game, I watch the fish come on to my screen, watching my jig then I adjust my jig depth to match the fish then I dead stick it until I get bit and  set the hook. As far as what reel to buy my first in line reel was the Eagle Claw and it’s hands down better than using any spinning reel, but I now use a couple different models of 13 Fishing in line reels my favorite is the Free Fall Ghost which has a trigger release the when pulled drops really smoothly then stops when released, but it’s pretty pricey at $70, a less expensive option at $35 is the 13 Fishing Descent it does not have the trigger but instead has a button on the side of the reel like the Eagle Claw to stop the fall you turn the reel handle. The reason I would spend the additional $10 for the Descent is that the side of the spool on the Eagle Claw is open and more than once the line has slipped of the spool and rapped around the nut that holds the spool on causing me to lose fish, this does not happen with the 13 fishing reels.