Patent attributes
An ice fishing tip-up incorporates a visual marker rod which operates separately from the tip-up strike indicator. The visual marker rod is pivotal between a storage position parallel to and within the plane of the base and a position generally perpendicular thereto. To separately operate the tip-up strike indicator, a flag stay holds the strike indicator flag prior to a fish strike. The flag stay deviates from the longitudinal axis of a pivoting inner rod, in turn coupled to the spool, by more than ninety degrees, such that the inner rod and flag stay may be positioned to capture and hold a tip-up indicator flag in an orientation generally parallel to the tip-up base. The flag stay, in addition to angle, also incorporates an apparatus to hold the tip-up indicator flag at more than one position along the flag stay, thereby permitting reliable and repetitive setting of different activation forces.