Im sure a couple of you die hard fishermen have had the same problem... sorry about the focus it was taken with a cell phone.

ya its ice.

When braided line was new (and white), I went to Fairfield one morning when the air temp was around 23 deg. I made a couple of cast with rattle trap (we were just learning what we could use braid on at that time), when I noticed that I couldn't turn the reel anymore! I looked down at my reel and the line had what looked like "Ice BBs" on it and had literally clogged my reel/spool up with ice! I dipped in the water and shook it off, put it down and started using a rig with mono on it and only had to get the ice out of the rod eyes (like yours).

footnote: Someone must've let them know because the lines we buy now-a-days don't seem to ice up like the old stuff!