Hello,

Will probably be purchasing a Spincast Reel for Grandson. First time fishing.  Small Pond fishing.

Will let him try mine first, of course, but my guess is that he would probably have trouble with the typical open-face spinning reels.

I have never used a Spincast reel.

a. For a good quality Spincast reel, perhaps the Zebco Omega ones, can you cast a very lightweight

lure/spinner "well" ?  Thinking of the very small Mepps Aglia of around 1/12 or 1/8 oz.  Rod length probably 6 foot, max.

b. And, for a righthander, do most retrieve with right or left hand for this type of reel ?

Any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Thanks,

B.

Try a zebco 33 classic first. Mainly to save some money, and they are little smaller. I would change out the line also,considering how long the reel had prewound line on it.

If theres a chance of alot of bluegill, tie on 6lb line, it will drastically aid in throwing the mepps you mentioned.

Most of those reels come set up for reeling right handed. A tip to save alot of aggrevation----on the left side of reel, is a screw. Remove it, and put a dab of lock tite on it,and it will keep the handle from coming loose---. All these reels have this issue,even the expensive ones.

Good luck fishing hopefully your grandson will show you how to catchem

pricey for the spincast models, but my dad has 2 daiwa goldcasts and will not use another reel.  they've lasted him quite a while.

I have been VERY impressed with the Zebco Omega.

 

Depending on how old he is and how often he'll be fishing of course, I'd lead him out of spin-cast ASAP. Good for very beginners, but he'll leave it behind quickly. The main problem I've found -even in the better quality ones- is retrieve speed. They just can 't keep up with what most lures require. I have one of the fastest, with a retrieve rate of 24"/turn. But, to get that a large spool is used and it's a big lug of a reel, making the rod feel somewhat top-heavy, esp in younger hands. And it's still pretty slow compared to spinning and most casters nowadays. 

I'd go less expensive bc of this. The 33 will likely function for years, but it is darn slow. And then if you see enough of him, and he likes fishing, get him a spinning reel.

Just my .02.

 

 

7 hours ago, Paul Roberts said:

I'd go less expensive bc of this. The 33 will likely function for years, but it is darn slow. And then if you see enough of him, and he likes fishing, get him a spinning reel.

 

 

 

Just wanted to second Paul's comment.

My recent experience was this:  I bought a spincaster for my 7-year old son when he was 6 and that worked well to get him casting on his own and to learn to be self-sufficient.  I went small, light, and cheap, but in no time I was frustrated with the poor quality of these reels and found he could handle the heavier Zebco 33 pretty quickly.  If he hadn't been so small, the lighter setups would've been unnecessary and the 33 would've been the place to start.  

Our 33 won't win any awards for fit and finish, but it's held up to reasonable weekly use.  

I tried reeling in the 33 during an outing last week, and agree it felt extremely slow.  

Between the ages of 6-7, in one season, he went from using the 33 to casting crankbaits on my spinning rods like a  pro, to burning buzzbaits with one of my baitcasters without a hint of backlash.  If I were to start him at 6 I might start with the 33 - or one of the better reels mentioned by others.  But I found that he picked up spinning and even baitcasting very quickly by that age, and so if you have any plans to move him away from spincasting once he gets comfortable, I would not count on the transition taking very long.