I have both, and Frabill, Clam, and even some Shakespeare ugly sticks passes the eye test when you hold the rods next to each other. I break most of my expensive rods anyway so if it were up to me, I would pick the Frabill as long as the reel was good, I feel a good reel goes a longer ways than a well made rod on ice.
The above is my recommendation to most anglers looking for just a combo to get them through most species on most days. The trend in ice fishing is to follow soft water bass fishing where pro anglers have a rod for every presentation, for these types of angles, I call up Jason Mitchell, St. Croix, and sometimes just stick with American Made (more $$) and go with Thorne Bros. All great rods all for specific presentations and if you have the $$ to spend why not, but if you fishing on a budget, the difference between a $30 combo and a $100 combo is not significant enough to break your budget.
The owner of Thorne Bros summed it up best last off season when he told me that the Chinese are getting better and better at matching our American made products and will one day be able to make the same quality rods at a cheaper price. (This confirms the trends we have seen in Jason Mitchell and St.Croix going to China recently).
Hope this helps.
