Review of the Fenwick NightHawk Ice Combo
Summary: There are many ice fishing combos on the market. The Fenwick NightHawk is one of the best around, especially when you consider the price.
4.3
Recommended
While you can get away ice fishing with a regular rod and reel or even a hand line, it sure helps to have the right tools for the job.
The easiest way to get an ice fishing setup that is ready to go is to just buy an ice fishing combo.There are a lot of ice fishing combos on the market. The Fenwick NightHawk is one of the best around when considering its very reasonable price.
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Fenwick is a fairly well known fishing rod manufacturer. They’ve been around forever and they sell some of the best moderately priced rods you can find. The HMX series in particular stands out as a great group of fishing rods. For their NightHawk Combo, Fenwick attached a Pflueger reel to their rod.
Pflueger is probably even more well known than Fenwick. They have been manufacturing high quality reels, including their famous President line, for many years.
Better than many
A lot of ice fishing combos are frankly junk. You see a lot of cheap short poles paired up with low quality one bearing reels and pushed as ice fishing combinations in retail stores around the country. That’s one of the main reasons I prefer to buy my ice fishing rods and reels separately and do the pairing myself.
I can honestly say that the Fenwick NightHawk Combo is a good setup though. The rod is nice, the reel is nice, and they both fit very well together. I don’t know why these combos are sold at such a reasonable rate, but I am definitely glad about it. I have recommended this set to many people on and off the ice, and I’m happy to review it again here.
A solid ice fishing combo
The rod itself is a sturdy yet somewhat sensitive fiberglass rod with fantastic handles made of dense EVA and cork. The reel seat is fantastic and doesn’t slip or loosen up at all. The eyes are nice and open and made of stainless steel. It also has a lot of backbone even though it retains its action. It’s a durable rod that doesn’t sacrifice feel.
The reel is just as good. It is a 3+1 bearing version reel with an aluminum spool that is well made and solid. It’s also smooth as silk. I haven’t had any line tangles at all in several years of using this reel. The drag is perfect too. No jerkiness and no wear outs. You don’t have to worry about your drag giving up when you’re fighting a nice fish.
I will say that this combo is best for moderate to decent sized fish that are active and biting well. I use my Fenwick NightHawk Combo mostly for fish like trout, walleye, pickerel and good sized perch. I have caught small panfish on it without problem, but I wouldn’t use it for that purposely. That’s because the pole doesn’t have the kind of sensitivity that you would want for light biting or small fish that you get from a pole like the HT Enterprises Ultra Light Rod.
I have been using the 24 inch “ultra light” NightHawk Combo for three years now and I have absolutely no complaints. It is my go to rod for jigging lures like the VMC Tumbler Spoon under the ice. I will continue using this rod in the future.
Update: It is 2022 and I am still using this rod without issue. I landed several fish on it yesterday!
The Fenwick NightHawk Combo is available at Amazon.
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