I am looking for advice on an ice fishing blank for jigging lake trout in 250' to 300' of water in Lake Superior . Most people use a hand line with 300' of wire and then pull up hand over hand. The problem is my dad has a hard time seeing the line when pulling up that way. Most ice fishing blanks that I see are more for panfish or walleye, so I expect I will have to find a regular blank and cut it to about 36 to 40 inches. I just am not sure what kind of blank would be the best way to go.

Purchase a good eglass cheap blank and cut the tip section for use as ice rod. I have chopped several SPG845's for this type of application.

Jermey,
This is an excellent blank to use for this application:

[www.thornebros.com]

Use the solid glass pro 72 inch blank. Then trim from the butt to get the length that you need. If you need to carry more weight, cut a bit off the tip to bet a bit more power.
This blank will handle anything that the lake delivers.

When using it for a summer heavy duty tough jigging rod, I will leave it at the full lenght.

When using it for short rod trolling, I will cut it to 48 inches.

If you are open ice fishing, I would use the 40-48 inches.

For shanty fishing I would try to keep it in the 40-48 inch length of possible. If not, just trim it shorter as much as you need.

Take care
Roger

You won't be doing any casting and a rod between you and the laker dragging 300 feet of wire line will deaden any semblace of a struggle. Why not just hand line?
The real problem in the circumstances you describe is line management; getting the line on the reel without kinking it. Back in the day deep trolling the Finger Lakes of New York we would drag Pfluger #4's or Suttons on copper or monel wire and use take-up reels mounted on old spring windup Victrola (record player) turntables. We could feel an occasional tug when we hand lined the fish in.
These antiques are probably too valuable to fish with today, but you could always mount a take up reel on a variable speed 12 volt motor.

I use solid glass Batson saltwater blanks 6' long rated for 12# to 20# line and cut them from the butt to 42".

[www.batsonenterprises.com]

.385"x.105"x72" Black / White 6'0" 1 12-20 LB n/a 0.385 7.0 Moderate n/a Solid glass bottom fishing $10.22

They make very good laker rods and aren't heavy.
If you want to see it in action check out this video (my buddy is landing a 20# class fish late in the video).
We aren't using wire though (braid). I expect they would work well with wire too.

[www.trophy-clips.com]

Regards
Dave

Fishing is Life the rest is just Details

Jeremy - go with the advice of the others here, locate a glass blank and cut it down to 42" or so. You want a powerfull action but not a pool cue... I built a laker rod similar a few years ago for a trip to the Apostle Islands - Chequamegon Bay area. 42" long baitcaster, spiral wrapped. I ran 50lb PowerPro braided and it is a great rod. The big thing is to make sure you make the butt of the rod long enough to handle comfortably. I really think most people fishing Superior now are moving towards braid. Wire was the norm before the almost zero stretch braids came along. Is your dad fishing for the 'fats' in that deep water? My fishing up there has been around Hermit/Basswood islands for the shallower running lakers - down to about 200' only. I would love to take a crack at those deep monsters! Good luck!

Thanks for the advise, I have until next winter to get one built, and will use probably one of the Batson blanks because they are easy to get here.

Not many people use the braided line for the Lake trout in Keweenaw Bay. I was told by one of the tackle store that braided line did not work very well for this type of ice fishing. Braided line works for other ice fishing so maybe people are just used to the handlines with wire. I do know that the wire line is very sensitive with a handline when the lakers are biting very light.

Yes the fish out there are the fats. They seem to inhabit the water over 200' deep.

Try the braid, don't follow every one else. Any reason it does not work for that kind of fishing ??

Bill - willierods.com

Jeremy - the guys fishing fats in 250-300 FOW the Apostle Islands are moving from the old school wire line/hoop setups over to braid and baitcaster/rod equipment. Powerpro in 30-50lb test has virtually zero stretch - you won't lose anything on the hookset compared to wire - and it doesn't freeze up nearly as badly as some will lead you to believe. Try it, I think you'll like it!

Yep - fats will very rarely be under 200' deep. The two other species of Lake Superior lake trout will cover from 30 - 225' or so - so you can mix them in that 200-225 range at times.... Do you guys eat the fats??