I'm just wondering what guides you fellows think about these guides for an ice rod for sunfish and trout. I'm probably going to have a 34" or so blank and i'm thinking about using 3 giudes. Maybe a size 30 LVLG for the lower one a 16 for the middle guide and then a large sf wire fly giude for the last guide and a fly top. I'm hoping the wire guide and tip top might be easier to get the ice off of instead of going ceramic the whole way. Will this work or should i just go LVLGs the whole way? Thanks

For that type of fishing I don't know that ceramics would gain you a lot. You don't retrieve or cast over a long distance so I'm thinking a regular wire or steel guide would be all you'd need and might not ice up as bad or as quickly.

You will like the wire guide/top. I have two factory ice rods with snake guides and they really do help keep the freezing to a minimum.

I've had really good luck with minimal ice buildup with the titanium guides that come on the Berkley "Ice Team" rods, but I can't find a source for them. Here in CO, we sometimes fish for big fish through the ice (like 20 lb+ lakers and 5-10 lb rainbows on the lighter rods), and long protracted fights with a big fish and mono will wear and groove a flyrod snake guide. For smaller trout and panfish, though, they should be fine.