We are on our second president spincast reel and it still has issues. Already contacted pflueger again and am waiting to haer back.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a replacement for my daughter that won't bind or not pick up line. Preferably one of the smaller profile types under $40. I see bps has their extreme spincast. Suggestions?

Under $40? I dunno. It's a crapshoot at that price point. A Zebco 33 is where I would start; they make the small version now. But the Omega Pro Z02 is what you really want. Buy once, cry once.

I used a BPS extreme spincast reel all last year. I was pretty happy with it initially, but by the end of the season it was pretty beat. What happened, and I think is a problem with all spincast reels, was that the line started to wear grooves around the line pick up pin and it was no longer smooth. The small nics/grooves in the metal then wear on the line and damage it as you reel in causing the line to get chewed up. I was wondering if I might have caused some of the problems by throwing baits that were too large for a spincast reel, I used it for everything. But I think it is just part of the design on them that the line will eventually wear into the reel and then it is pretty much just junk. 

Under $40? I dunno. It's a crapshoot at that price point. A Zebco 33 is where I would start; they make the small version now. But the Omega Pro Z02 is what you really want. Buy once, cry once.

Another vote for the omega pro. My wife uses one,pulled in a lot of hawks works well.

slightly more than your $40 (they are around $55), but the Daiwa goldcast is hard to beat.  My dad had his first one for about 15 years and just got his second one about 2 years ago.  he fishes them pretty hard and hasn't had the first issue with either of them.

I have one of the 'highest end' Zebco Omega reels, I think it was either a Z02 or Z03... whichever was top of their line a few months back. It is silver and I got it for about $60 through Amazon. At BPS, the guy told me it had been replaced with one that is now black color and has one handle instead of two. It's about $80. Then, they came out with a Zebco Authentic Platinum 33 and I got it on sale for $29 about a month ago. It is silver and has two handles. Most importantly, it has 4:1 retrieve ratio but the first one I mentioned has only 3.4:1. I much prefer the faster retrieve and prefer the double handle. I think that there is a difference between the Platinum 33 and the Authentic Platinum 33. Might be the retrieve ratio, not sure.

 

I bought these for my gf but I will use them sometimes when I want to throw something a mile or I'm fishing for small bass or crappie.

Step up to the Zebco Omega.

We are on our second president spincast reel and it still has issues. Already contacted pflueger again and am waiting to haer back.

In the meantime, I'm looking for a replacement for my daughter that won't bind or not pick up line. Preferably one of the smaller profile types under $40. I see bps has their extreme spincast. Suggestions?

Suggestion: Purchase a good quality reel, don't purchase junk.

I think I'll spend the extra and go for the Omega. I'm sending the one I have back to pflueger and maybe swapping for something else entirely. Hopefully the zebco is good to go and my daughter will enjoy it without the hassle the president gave us.

Less than $40. I would try the Zebco line of reels. A couple years ago I found an old Browning Silaflex rod for $4.50 and it needed was a skip and screw to hold a reel on it. For less than $10 I had a new rod. I teamed it up with a Zebco 404 reel and that particular year that combo was the only rod and reel I caught anything on.

My 5 year old is using a spinning reel already.  We already gave up on a Shakespeare UL combo.  I suggest that if your daughter can figure out how to open and close the bail and put the line under he finger, that you try that.

 

Also, make sure the cover is tight.  Usually the cover holds the guts in.  If it's a little loose, the one I have does weird things.  I don't remember my Zebco 202, when I was a child, being so finicky.

 

The spinning reel he was using was a Abu Garcia Cardinal STX10.

The way I see it, if you buy someone you're trying to get into fishing gear that is nice enough to work with minimal problems they're more likely to stay interested. I made the mistake of going cheap with my wife's first combo. It got constant knots and she'd get frustrated and give up, which ultimately would cut down on my fishing time. I popped for the Quantum Energy PT and St. Croix Avid Pearl she always liked at Cabela's and those problems went away and she enjoys her hassle free fishing trips much more now.