Re: Guides for a winter steelhead rod
Posted by:
roger wilson
(---.hsd1.mn.comcast.net)
Date: November 11, 2018 01:08PM
Mark,
If I am going to use a rod during icing conditions, I go with my rod that has size 8 - pac bay minima running guides with a size 8 pac bay minima tip.
Since there are no rings in the guides, you can just put the rod down to the reel seat into the water and melt off any ice that might form.
For hard core ice fishermen that go out and fish open ice when it is -30 to -40F, I go no smaller than size 10 pac bay minima running guides and tip top.
These are extreme cases for fishing during extreme conditions.
By the way, you can keep a bottle of olive oil in the boat and use a rag that you douse with olive oil to wipe down your guides and tip top every few casts and it really helps to retard the formation of ice.
You can also keep a bottle of windshield deicer with you when you fish and douse a rag into the fluid and wet down the guides and tip with the windshield deicer and it also does a good job to reduce the formation of ice on the rod guides.
Some folks carry a spray can of wd-40 in the boat and spray down the guides and tip top with wd-40 and it also retards the formation of ice.
You can also keep a bottle of shark liver oil with you. Then, put some of this oil on the guides and tip from time to time. The oil will both retard the formation of ice, as well as act as a fish attractant.
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Years ago our family went west to Montana to visit our oldest son in college. While there, he had set up a bombardier tour of Yellowstone park. I believe that the actual temperature when we started the tour was -47F. But, WOW, what a wonderful way to see the park. With the heavy snow, the vehicles were allowed to go off road to allow visitors to see areas of the park that are closed to vehicles in the summer time. But, the point of this message was the deicing that was used by the vehicle. Since these vehicles were built in the 40s, there was virtually no defrosting of the windows in the rear of the vehicle. By each seat was a bottle of pure antifreeze. When the windows would frost up too much, the driver had instructed us to take some of the anti freeze, pour it into the cup and then pour out the anti freeze along the top edge of the window and let is run down the window onto the floor - melting the ice as it ran down the window. Actually, although a bit messy, it was 100% effective. Even though the vehicle was filled with folks breathing all of the time, the anti freeze would keep the windows ice free for 15-30 minutes. Then the process would be repeated.
Good luck
