Dead sticking

Hey folks, This will be my second full season ice fishing. Everyone on here has been super helpful, for that I am so grateful. I started dead sticking a live minnow on a spoon last year. Had good luck with this until one day. I set the rod in the rod holder on the ice and went to pee. Came back and as I approached my holes the rod bent WAY down like it was a big northern or Muskie and then recoiled back up and right down the whole. I look back at this with grin today but I was not ve happy that day. Anyways, when people do this should they have the drag set SUPER loose? How else would this be prevented? Can you only fish these within arms reach? A little guidance would be appreciated, I don't want to loose another outfit this year. Fishinguy76 Spelling by Apple

I use the wooden tip down frames and I simply tie a long boot lace from the frame to the rod.

my brother lost a rod down the hole once. bout five minutes later he caught a crappie that had two lines in his mouth. pulled up the other line and got his rod back!

Yep, these rod holders are the safest way to deadstick. The metal slot will catch the stem of your rod if a big fish pulls hard enough to tip it over. The round base will not fit down an 8" hole. (Can't speak for any holes larger, though) They are almost like a tipdown, just don't produce any slack line. You place your rod in the slot so it balances, set depth, and leave it. Then watch for the rod tip to start dropping, pick it up and set the hook in one smooth motion. They fold flat and you can fit a LOT of them in a 5-gallon pail.

While I agree with most of the posts (I use tip downs extensively and reel in my bait before running off to a tip up flag), I would add something else. I use HT rod holders when the deadstick is several feet away from me. They are inexpensive and almost never lose a rod. They do sometimes tip over on occasion. So I duct tape a weight to the base of mine, and that solved that problem. Have never lost a rod.

For my dead stick I use a slip bobber and either leave the bail open or let out some extra line and close the bail.

Call me crazy but my deadstick rod is a tipup. I can give my full concentration to jigging because I can hear it go off, the fish can run for a second if it needs to, and all my rods are available for the jigging rotation.

My rule of thumb is if I'm gonna walk away or not pay attention for any reason I pull it up. Back when I still ran tip ups I came back to my shanty after getting a flag/checking tip up to find my jigging rod gone a couple times because I hadn't pulled it up. My combos were not cheap either. Learned my lesson. However my buddies dad seems to have this happen to him year after year and he has not learned yet.