Review of the Frabill Stick Tip-Up
Summary: These aren't the best tip ups in the world, but for the price they would be very tough to beat.
4.3
Recommended
Frabill is obviously a well known name in ice fishing. They make a whole range of products for hard water including tip ups. The Frabill Stick Tip-Up is what we could call their economy line of wooden tip ups that are some of the least expensive you can find anywhere.
In general, tip ups are great ice fishing tools that allow you to cover a big area. You can also try different baits and present the baits at different depths until you key in on what the fish want in a particular situation. In many cases you will catch more fish on your tip ups than you will on stand up gear like spinning rods and reels.
Where I live and usually fish, we are allowed to set five tip ups. That is on top of a couple of regular ice fishing rods. Most times I take full advantage of this and set as many lines as possible. The more lines you have in the water, the better chance you have at catching fish. Having a mess of small cheap tip ups is great for covering a lot of water and trying out different baits. Especially if you are in a group of multiple anglers.
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Frabill Stick Tip Ups
The Frabill Stick Tip-Up is made from three pieces of wood and several pieces of metal. The wood pieces are basically like sticks. Hence the name. Then there are the metal wing nuts that can be tightened and loosened. When not in use, you fold the sticks up and it’s all one long skinny unit. When you’re ready to fish, you loosen the wing nuts and unfold the tip up. You also have a plastic flag on a long flat piece of metal. You put that under a metal holder, and then when a fish takes the bait the flag springs up and lets you know. It works like any other.
When you catch a fish on a tip up you normally pull them in by hand. Since you hand line the fish, the actual tip up has nothing to do with whether or not you get the fish in. If you use a good tip up line and sharp, strong hooks then you’ll usually get your fish. The tip up just holds the line and lets you know when you have a bite.
Summary
The main things to look at with tip ups are weight, durability and price. These tip ups don’t weigh much at all. They can last a long time, but they can also break down in some circumstances. I’ve seen the metal that holds the flag bend. But that can be bent back. It just makes it tougher to store. The wood can also break down after a long while if they’re kept wet. But the price can’t be beat.
The Frabill Stick Tip Up is a decent enough tip up that is easy to pack away and carry with you as you move from one place to the next. At the end of the day it’s just a cheap holder so you can get your bait set up and spread around the water. So for that it does it’s job well.
There are better tip ups available, even from the same company. The best example might be the Frabill 1664 Classic Tip-Up. Of course better tip ups cost more money. And they’re usually a bit heavier and bulkier too. So there are arguments for carrying inexpensive tip ups like the Frabill Stick Tip-Up. Especially if you set a lot of them when you’re out on the ice.
The Frabill Stick Tip-Up is available at Amazon.
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