Thanks for all the feedback so far! Ive read just keeping a towel handy and wiping the eyelets after the reel in can help as well. I currently run fluro exclusively on all my rods. The 13 snitch is one of my favorite rods but the eyelets are so small that the smallest amount of water freezes up while im hole hopping, same case goes for the ticklestick....
Nothing more frustrating when your icing fish quickly from a school and cant get back down fast enough before they move on due to iced up eyelets....
Thanks again for the discussion. Ill give the lip balm a try this weekend (temps looking to be cold into sunday) and report back on how it worked out.
Tight lines!
I can't think of anything with micro guides that you can use to avoid line freeze up, doesn't hurt to try the products you mentioned. A silicone based spray or lithium grease based spray might work also, except a person would probably have to reapply every so often. Reel Magic sprayed on your line might work also. Non-absorbing water fishing line's might be your answer to deal with less guide freeze up though. I don't like using braid or fused line's for ice fishing, but products like Berkley Nanofil I've heard water doesn't freeze to it as bad as Mono. Try Fluorocarbon also for less guide freeze up or if you don't mind modifying your 13 rod(s), the advice about larger rod tips except I prefer a plain wire tip top guide with no ceramic insert. A ice fishing rod with Titanium guide's or recoil guides where a you can just break off the ice with your fingers or give the guides a flick with your fingers will be my next interest if it come's time to purchase. Frostbite I see has them available on their ice fishing rods, but I'm not going to fund the owner of the company. Lol.
Something else to keep in mind; what kind of line are you using? I happened to switch out my ice rod's reel with my summer reel which is spooled up with 4 pound monofilament. Last couple days its been in the low 30's and I noticed right away my guides were freezing up because summer monofilament line "absorbs" water and doesn't repel it like the winter lines (i.e. Berkely Trilene Micro Ice).
I took a rod building class years ago. I like to monkey around when problems come up like this. My solution is to put on a bigger rod tip guide. Most of the icing problem happens on the tip. If you can't break the ice off with your fingers I stick the rod tip in my mouth to melt it off. I put a bigger fly rod tip on one of my ice rods that had this problem. You can buy a rod brand that starts out with a bigger tip guide like the one I got at Algoma Hardware last year. Not everyone has heated shanties to park their butts in.
