I recently purchased the Shakespeare Glacier Ice Rod Combo from Walmart.
The criteria on which I evaluated the rod was durability, sensitivity, and handling while fighting a fish.
I was skeptical at first because I have never fished with the Glacier Ice series of the Shakespeare brand. I was pleasantly surprised by the rods sensitivity level as I was able to detect even the slightest bites and set hooks on fish that were acting spooked.
I chose the 24 inch rod style because it best suits the type of fishing I would mainly be doing here in the Midwest which is primarily fishing farm ponds for bluegills and crappie.
Another thing I was impressed about was the ported aluminum spool that the rod came with. Because it was so light weight the rod really helped transfer sensitivity into the rod handle for me. I believe the entire rod and reel combo weighed 2.23lbs, which is lightweight even for an ice fishing rod.
I would say that overall I would give this Shakespeare Glacier Ice combo a 3 out of 5 star rating. The downfall of the rod is that they only make them up the 24 inches in length in this model and I am a relatively large man that fits longer rods better. Also the short rod doesn't handle well with fish bigger than the average bluegill or crappie size. I hooked into what seemed like a 3lb bass last weekend and the rod didn't have the stiffness to get a good hook set on the bigger fish and it got off.
I would recommend this rod and reel combo to anyone who is looking to start ice fishing for the first time or someone that will occasionally fish a pond on the weekends. I would not recommend to someone that ice fishes all the time or fishes somewhere with larger target fish species. But for $30.48 it's a combo that is hard to beat especially when you can pay even more than that for just a rod alone most times. But it goes without saying, you get what you pay for.
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