Had a couple of these in the mid-70s until I sold them in 2012. Just picked up a pair of them for nostalgia sake, though I may use them if I get back over to MN or ND for perch fishing.
In winter of '83 I went fishing on Mille Lacs with the manager of Marv Koep's Nisswa Bait and a couple of the employees. We went out to a flat known as "Nine Mile". It was after gamefish season had ended and there were no shacks or cars as far as the eye could see, not unusual for a weekday. These guys fished with hand lines, wrapped on a stick, with a metal spike that they could drive into the ice. Rods with spinning reels weren't even thought of 40yrs ago for ice fishing. Locators for ice fishing weren't even thought of either.
We were on a real good perch bite and limited out on 11" males with big shoulders as well as some females to 14". Those guys could not believe how fast I could fish with that Swish Rod. They had heard of them (mind you that the Madison Lakes is where Swish Rods were king). After they got a real schooling on fishing with these rods, they sold a bunch of them.
Have been back to Nine Mile 6 or 8 times since then and never did any good at all. But, if I ever go back to Mille Lacs, I will def try to see if they are back.
