Recommendation for kid fishing rod/reel

[Finaddict]

I'd like to buy my grandson a rod/reel for his upcoming 7th  birthday.  He fishes with me off my boat, and we usually catch panfish with worms to keep his interested.  I don't want to get him a mickey mouse type combo, but rather a real fishing setup.  I'm thinking perhaps a rod of about 5 ft and a reel.  Not sure if I want a close face, Zebco-like reel, or an open face spinning reel.  He fishes with one of my spinning reels now, but I usually cast it for him.  He can probably do it for himself soon.  Are closed face reels prone to tangles?  Eventually I want to take him out for bigger fish, but that may require yet another new setup for him.  Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. 

[Jason Barra]

I started my kids off with a spinning reel paired with a 5' ultralight Ugly Stik. It was just easier for them to reel, and cast. For whatever reason they couldn't get the hang of the old Zebco. They started with that setup at 4 and 5 years old and never looked back. You can't beat those Ugly Stiks for the beatings the kids put on them. 😬😅

They are 17 and 18 now and still have those rods. 

[rolmops]

I would definitely go with the Zebco. Not so much because it is a better or worse rod and reel ,but it is a great help in the developing the motor skills of casting and releasing the line at the right time without the complications open face reels. It is probably even better to go out and find a bunch of flat stones, go to a pond and start by teaching the kids how to throw stones so they skip on the water. It teaches eye hand combination skills with instant gratification when the stone skips and the more skips ,the better. once they get the hang of that, they are probably ready for closed reels and very soon afterwards, the open reels as well.

[johnnywalleye]

if he knows how to use a spin reel stay on course.you can buy a combo ugly stick that will last years.it what I did with my grands.

[SusanJames]

If he already has the feel of holding, setting the hook on bites and retrieving a spinning reel it will be an easy transition to casting. I second the 5' ugly stick combo.

[fisherman21]

I ran into the same situation with my little guy. He fell in love with fishing when he was 2 years old. We would go bass fishing a lot and even the better push button rods and reels just weren’t great and didn’t have great backbone for hooksets on larger fish. When he was 3 I bought him a st croix bassx M bait casting rod and paired it with a push button pflueger president reel. The reel has a nice drag for fighting bigger fish and casts well. I spooled it with 10lb braid and will just run a section or 6-10lb fluro leader depending on what we are fishing for. The idea behind this is that he can put a baitcaster on the rod when he is ready. It’s worked for what we do though. He can both bobber fish and cast lures with it.

[Smat64]

We did these zebco under reel. Worked pretty good. Closer to a spinning reel. 

[sherman brown]

10 hours ago, fisherman21 said:

I ran into the same situation with my little guy. He fell in love with fishing when he was 2 years old. We would go bass fishing a lot, and even the better push button rods and reels just weren’t great and didn’t have great backbone for hooksets on larger fish. When he was 3 I bought him a st croix bassx M bait casting rod and paired it with a push button pflueger president reel. The reel has a nice drag for fighting bigger fish and casts well. I spooled it with 10lb braid and will just run a section or 6-10lb fluro leader depending on what we are fishing for. The idea behind this is that he can put a baitcaster on the rod when he is ready. It’s worked for what we do though. He can both bobber fish and cast lures with it.

 

 

Braggard, LOL! Just kidding around. And kudos to you for spending so much time fishing with him. And I loved your picture memories for him.

[Gator]

Whatever you buy him, I hope it will be the first of many!!! His future wife may curse you though...

[sherman brown]

18 minutes ago, Gator said:

Whatever you buy him, I hope it will be the first of many!!! His future wife may curse you though...

 

 

Now that is funny, but it may be true!!

[SusanJames]

That aggressive hookset pic....Booyah!!!!!

[Finaddict]

Thanks for all of your help folks.

[leadcore troller]

Ditto on the Hook Set pic, that is epic

[13owhunter]

Id vote for one of the better quality push button reels with a higher gear ratio.  Most of them are horrendously slow and have terrible drags.  You can get bobbers at walmart that the hook reels into which makes casting a lot safer.  Love those.  We transitioned from barbie rod to cheapo zebco and now to a more serious spincast setup.  Would have been better off going straight to the better one right off the bat.

[sherman brown]

On 1/31/2026 at 8:19 AM, Gator said:

 

 

i was at the pawn shop looking for some spin cast reels and rods for my granddaughters. They had a bunch of them standing up, leaning up against the counter, and it said choice 1.00, and I just bought them all about 10 or 12 rigs. Some looked brand new, and I got 3 of them ready and took them fishing at a friend's pond. That was all the youngest one wanted.

 

The oldest one still fishes with me, but the 3rd time I took her fishing in TN at another farm pond, my nephew had permission to fish, her reel got tangled under the spool, and after getting it going i gave her a spinning rig and have never looked back. But even now, if she gets a tangle bigger than she is, Grandpa goes to work on it, LOL

 

[leadcore troller]

my oldest son had been hounding me to get him another rod for christmas 3 yrs ago. I got him one of those spiderman pushbutton sets, He's 40 yrs old, well we had a good laugh. long story short, he's caught stripers, bluefish, and all kinds  of saltwater fish on it. He spooled it with 30 lb braid, we made a trip to the niagra river in november and hammered 15 to 20 lb lakers on it, if i wasnt there i would never of believed it. That rod and reel is indestructable.

[sherman brown]

On 2/1/2026 at 7:59 PM, leadcore troller said:

my oldest son had been hounding me to get him another rod for christmas 3 yrs ago. I got him one of those spiderman pushbutton sets, He's 40 yrs old, well we had a good laugh. long story short, he's caught stripers, bluefish, and all kinds  of saltwater fish on it. He spooled it with 30 lb braid, we made a trip to the niagra river in november and hammered 15 to 20 lb lakers on it, if i wasnt there i would never of believed it. That rod and reel is indestructable.

 

And just why do you expect us to believe it????????????, LOL just kidding. If you get enough braid on your reel, even though it's a lower-case reel, it will surprise you.

 

I had bought some of the Shimano bait runner 200 reels. when i wen t to FL i spooled it with 40# braid then used it for fishing the Intracoastal around the FT Pierce bridge for black drum and redfish, and it brought in some hard-fighting fish. When I would hook a good fish off the side of the boat, it spent most of the fight under the boat with the end of my rod about 1 to 1.5 feet under the water, and I did upgrade to the 300, and they are all in working condition. But a couple of them could use a cleaning and new lube.

 

AND I LOVED YOUR STORY!!

[leadcore troller]

most surprising part was the rod never broke and it was bent like a pretzle from the reel seat.

[TyeeTanic]

I be tempted to move him to a spinning reel as soon as possible ... my kids were about 6 to 8 years old when they started using spinners.

Maybe if you can swing both ... a cheap Zebco ... just to build his confidence, but when you see fit, toss it for the spinning reel, don't let him

use the zebco as a crutch.  He'll thank you later.

[sherman brown]

On 1/28/2026 at 9:00 PM, Finaddict said:

I'd like to buy my grandson a rod/reel for his upcoming 7th  birthday.  He fishes with me off my boat, and we usually catch panfish with worms to keep his interested.  I don't want to get him a mickey mouse type combo, but rather a real fishing setup.  I'm thinking perhaps a rod of about 5 ft and a reel.  Not sure if I want a close face, Zebco-like reel, or an open face spinning reel.  He fishes with one of my spinning reels now, but I usually cast it for him.  He can probably do it for himself soon.  Are closed face reels prone to tangles?  Eventually I want to take him out for bigger fish, but that may require yet another new setup for him.  Any recommendations are greatly appreciated. 

Just in case you've decided to go with a closed-faced spin cast reel just wanted you to know I have 4 brand new small Zebco 33 reels that were never used, but they have been out in my pole barn and are very dirty on the outside and probably need new line as it's been on the reels for a long time.

 

But you can have them for 10.00 each, but if you buy 2 or more, I will ship for free. I'm not trying to make anything off of them, but want something out of brand new 33 reels and for the trouble of going down to my pole barn and digging them out, finding a shipping box, and making a trip to the post office to ship them at my cost.

[Finaddict]

Thank you for the offer, but I already bought a combo.

[sherman brown]

1 hour ago, Finaddict said:

Thank you for the offer, but I already bought a combo.

I really don't care if I sell them or not, but I offer them when I think someone is interested in a spin cast reel, and the Zebco 33 has been around for so many years, it's a long-selling reel and is and has been a great spin caster. When I was a kid, it was a dream to get the 33, but we didn't have much money, so I bought the 202 with the money I made picking beans for 60 cents a bushel.

[Followed The Waves]

I started around the age of 2 with a Mitchell 300 open-faced spinning reel and I think I did fine.