Anyone ever try and mount a handle on the beaver dam tipups, like they have on the frabills or the ht polars. I was thinking you could just drill a hole in the spool and soldier on a nail. any better options?
Ice Fishing
beaver dam handles
Gobbler has the right idea, but make sure you cut the notch around 10-11:00 and not at 6-7:00. One of mine is at 7:30 and more than once a larger shiner has gotten the line out of the eye and plummeted to the bottom with no flag to alert me. I do like the loose nail idea in addition to that, though.
They make a little wood handle to reel those up. Just throw it in your pocket and good to go. I have one, but I don't use it all that much to be honest. Its usually not a big deal to just put my finger on the bottom of the spool and turn it. But I have it if I want to use it, like if its cold and I want to put my hand in a glove.
If you do that your minnow can swim and wrap the line around the handle, then the fish cant take any line out. The same thing can happen if the fish takes the line back under the spool before the brass line guide can swing around. It’s a bad idea and you will pay the price sooner or later.