A spincast reel is the one with the button. The spool is fixed, like a spinning reel’s, but it sits inside a metal nose cone with a hole in the front; a set of pins holds the line, and pressing the thumb button pulls the pins back so the line pays out through the hole on the cast. Let the button go and the pins pop out and stop it. Because the spool never turns, a spincast reel cannot backlash, and because the line is guided through a single hole, it barely twists. That is why it is the reel every child in the country has learned on since the Zebco 33 appeared in 1954, and why almost no adult who fishes seriously uses one. Below: how it works, what it does well and badly against a spinning reel and a baitcaster, who should buy one, and the story of the Tulsa bomb company that invented it.
The Zebco 33 was built by a company that made time bombs for oil wells, and it has outsold every other reel design in America for seventy years.
How it works
Inside the cone is a spool that does not move. Around it sits a spinner head with two or three small pins. In the rest position the pins are out, pinching the line so it cannot leave the spool. Press the button and the pins retract; the weight of the lure pulls line off the end of the spool, over the lip and out through the hole in the cone. Release the button and the pins snap out, stopping the line. Turn the handle and the spinner head rotates, winding the line back on. The drag is usually a star or dial that sets how hard the spool resists a pulling fish; on cheap models it is a few plastic washers, which is the reel’s real weakness.
Spincast vs spinning vs baitcaster
| Spincast | Spinning | Baitcaster | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spool | Fixed, enclosed in a cone | Fixed, open, with a bail | Revolving |
| Release | Thumb button | Open the bail, hold the line with a finger | Thumb bar, thumb on the spool |
| Backlash | Impossible | Impossible | Yes, until tension and brakes are set |
| Line twist | Little | Some, from lures and from reeling against the drag | Little |
| Casting distance | Short | Long | Long, and accurate |
| Line capacity | Small; light line only, 4–12 lb | Large; 2–40 lb by size | Large; 10–65 lb |
| Drag | Weak on most models | Good on any decent reel | Strong |
| Lure weights | 1/16–3/8 oz (2–10 g) | 1/32–1 oz and up by size | 1/4–2 oz and up |
| Learning time | Minutes | An hour | Days |
| Price | $15–60 | $30–300 | $60–400 |
| Best for | Children, panfish, a first reel, bobber fishing | Almost everything in fresh water and inshore salt | Heavy lures, heavy cover, big fish |
The trade is plain: the spincast gives up distance, capacity and drag for foolproof casting. Bass Pro’s reel guides put it the same way and steer anyone fishing for more than panfish to a spinning reel. The reels hub compares all three and the spinning reel sizes page shows the step up; the baitcaster page explains the reel at the far end.
Who should buy one
- A child. Press, cast, release; a six-year-old catches bluegill on the first afternoon, and the enclosed spool survives being dropped in the sand.
- Panfish and bobber fishing. Crappie, bluegill and stocked trout on 6–8 lb line, a bobber and a worm; the reel’s limits never come up.
- A backup or a car rod. A $25 spincast combo in the trunk catches the fish by the picnic site.
- Anyone who hates line twist and bird’s nests and fishes light. The under-spin models, which hang below the rod like a spinning reel with a trigger instead of a bail, are the adult version and cast farther than the classic top-mounted ones.
Who should not: anyone fishing for bass in cover, catfish over a few pounds, or anything in salt water. The drag and the line capacity run out at exactly the fish worth catching. Zebco’s own, better-built models, the 33 Platinum, the Omega and the Bullet, stretch the limits with metal gears and a real drag, and the Bullet casts respectably; they are still spincast reels.
How to use one well
Fill the spool to within 1/8 in (3 mm) of the lip with 6–10 lb monofilament; overfilling jams the pins, underfilling shortens the cast. Hold the button down through the back-cast and let it go as the rod comes forward past vertical, later than feels natural. Wind with the rod tip up so the line goes on under tension. Set the drag by pulling line off by hand: it should slip before the line would break, which on a spincast means setting it lighter than you think. And change the line every season; a spincast reel’s small spool coils the line tightly and old mono comes off in springs.
The Zebco story
R. D. Hull, a Texas watchmaker, had the idea in 1947 after watching a grocery clerk pull string off a fixed spool, and took it to the Zero Hour Bomb Company of Tulsa, Oklahoma, a firm that made time bombs for fracturing oil wells and needed a product for peacetime. The company built his “Standard” reel, first shown on 13 May 1949; Models 11 and 22 followed in 1953 and the Model 33 in 1954, at $19.50. In 1956 the company dropped bombs for reels and shortened its name to Zebco, after, as the company’s own history tells it, a friend of President Eisenhower had a reel sent to the White House and the package triggered a bomb scare. The 33 has been in production ever since, and a new one still costs about what a tank of fuel does. The Oklahoma Historical Society has the dates; Zebco’s history page has the story.
Related
The next step for a child who has caught a hundred bluegill is a small spinning outfit, and the rod and reel combo page names the ones worth buying. The spinning rod page explains what the reel underneath the rod changes.