I am currently making 10 ice rods with St. Croix carbon blanks. I recently became aware of the strike indicator springs St. Croix sells and got excited about adding them to my rods. I ordered 10 of them direct from St. Croix but when they arrived there were no holders to attach the springs to. It turns out that these tips are proprietary and a U.S. patent has yet to be completed. So ... you can buy the springs but I have no idea how to attach them. The proprietary tips are ingenious and allow the user to slide the spring to adjust the sensitivity. Anyway, it looks good in the store. Anyone have experience with these, suggestions for cobbling a solution, or an overseas contact who might be able to hook me up with 10 of these intriguing tip tops? The first skim of ice is appearing on a few area lakes and I'm getting anxious. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
James

I still use HT "spring bobbers". They aren't adjustable like these you're speaking of, but they're just a slim, flat piece of metal with a metal eyelet on the end for the line to go through. I just wrap them on the end of the rod. I paint this eyelet white, then fluorescent orange.

I wouldn't ice fish perch without them!!! I use them on walleye with lighter jigs, too. A regular bobber doesn't show a bite (especially with ice slush forming in the hole ) when the perch takes the bait as he's moving up the water column towards me-the spring bobber shows this type of bite very well.

Putter

You may have a problem there. Being that this is new, they will likely want to sell as many of their factory built rods as possible first, before putting the product into the market. I've read a lot about this spring bobber. Seems many guys like it. Just like anything else, proponents and opponents. I don't rely to heavily on what I read in magazine reviews or from "pros". These people get paid by the companies that build and/or sell the equipment, so it's pretty rare to hear about a poorly made, designed or overpriced product. I wouldn't mind trying one of the new bobbers out. I love to try new things as much as the next guy. Too bad fishing doesn't have an Unsponsored T&E magazine like the Firearms guys do (Gun Tests). There is a web site that does T&E and seems to be pretty good about it though. Can't think of the name, though. I hate when that happens!!
Ray

It's that Alzheimer's kickin' in, Ray. What do you use for spring bobbers, Ray?? What do you think of them??

Putter

Raymond, you may be talking about tackletour.com They do reviews of alot of different equipment. I am hesitant about their recomendations however. They get the stuff for free from the companies, and I dont think I have ever seen an item recieve a poor review.

Scott Sheets

I've looked at the tip top St. Croix makes.. it looks great! We were mulling over ways to fix the spring, too, at the shop I work at. You should be able to get that grommet St. Croix uses at a local hardware store, and what I thought might work is to take a small single foot fly guide and wrap it upside down on the tip, just below the tube of your rod tip. Put a grommet in it, the spriing in that, and it should work ok... just will add a little bit of weight and a flat spot to your tip. Not so sure about the ultralite SC blank, but this will definitely work for a heavier rod, if you want to use lighter gear on it and still be able to detect the bites.