PVC ice fishing rod holders w/ auto hook

[DallanC]

Couple years ago I built a bunch of rod holders out of PVC. They were U shaped instead of the circle design shown below. They worked fine in the U shape, one leg on each side of the hole. Well again I had some spare pvc and I decided to try adding some home brew auto-hooking capability. Normally I hold a rod and jig it, but we do put out other rods in shallower and deeper water from our location to see if fishing is better either way from where we setup. Those poles I wanted to try this type of design on.

That said, here is what I ended up with, I enclosed the loop and added the trigger:





Looking forward to giving them a try this winter!


-DallanC

[Martymcfly73]

Those things are awesome! I would interested to hear how they work.

[k2muskie]

Is this the same setup you used at Starvation and looks like it worked just fine per your report.

[DallanC]

Oh yea! They worked GREAT! I need to make some adjustments to the overall design over the summer for next year, primarily to adjust to different length poles. The shorter the pole the more of an angle the trip wire sat at to hold it which made it less sensitive. But, for the minor $$$ it cost to build, it was WELL worth it. They are fun to watch go off expecially if you fish multiple poles. We had fish hooked in the side of the head as they bumped or swatted at the lures which shows they went off at the right times. Some pictures I actually remembered to take from the Starvation trip:

-DallanC

[k2muskie]

Well there you go always nice when something one makes works and best of all catches fish. Nothing better than that.

[DallanC]

Gotta say after using these a dozen times or so since I made them, they work FANTASTIC. I've always wondered if dead-stick was better or worse than jigging, but it seems the deadstick poles in a rig like this out produce the other hand held poles. I have a couple ideas for a even better release but as is, they work really really good.


-DallanC

[Huntoholic]

How did you do the release? If it is something you don't want out I understand.

[DallanC]

[DallanC]

Close up's of the release trigger. The angle where the tip catches is the most critical. Start with longer wire and trim it back as you fine tune it for hair trigger.

Click on the thumb nails to see larger images.









-DallanC

[Huntoholic]

Thanks for the information!