Young child question. Not fly fishing.

[HeavyWater]

Last year my daughter and I fished for panfish and bass and she used a spinning rod with the enclosed reel and button set up. She was 4. Now she is 5. Can a 5 year old fish with a conventional spinning reel? The enclosed reel is a pain to re-thread if things break. ? Just curious if anyone here has experience teaching 5-6 year olds to fish spinning tackle. She does take some casts with my fly rod. But what spinning set up is best for a 5 year old?
I know this is not specifically fly fishing related. Moderators can delete if this is the wrong place. I just thought members of this forum may have the best knowledge. Thanks.

 

[RLeep2]

Like almost anything, it can be done if you're patient enough to maintain her open face reel to minimize and undo snarls and bird's nests. Just as a point of view though, after you undo a couple bird's nests from her spinning reel, you may look back fondly on the pain of re-threading her line on a spin cast reel as the good old days...

 

[hooker-of-men]

I have doubts that an open-faced reel is going to lead to you spending less time untangling bird's nests. There's just a lot more to go wrong.

I started my son at 3/4 on a Dock Demon, and then upgraded to a Zebco 33 combo at 5/6. There are occasional snags, but he is understandably less than proficient. Once you get to know the closed-face system, it isn't that hard to wrestle.

Also, I've found re-lining or stripping out a ton of the factory line and then reeling in to re-spool it can help. Don't trust that the factory setup is in any way functional with this junk.

 

[JerryC]

Since I only have spinning reels, I started my nephew out with an open face spinning reel when he was 5. It took him a couple of years to get the hang of it. In fact, he caught his first trout on a fly rod, when I handed him mine while I untangled a "birds nest" he had created with his spinning reel. The fly was dragging in the current and a nice rainbow grabbed it. I took him to Canada with me when he was 10. He had a blast. Last year, I took my niece who's going to be 4 in a couple of weeks, "fishing" she had one of those kid's rods with a large plastic fish on the end of the line. Her mom and dad weren't sure if she was ready to handle a live fish.
Here's a couple of pictures from last October. They live in Vermont.

There's a 7' 6" 5 wgt fly rod waiting for her when her dad gets around to teaching her how to fly fish. Plus a 5'10" ultralight spinning rod and UL reel when they think she's ready for fly fish.

 

[PennKev]

The enclosed reel is a pain to re-thread if things break. ?

When you rig up, add a leader that is weaker than the line spooled on the reel, so that if you get a break-off, there will be no chance of the line breaking close to the reel.

Otherwise, I'd say that a young child may be able to handle a regular spinning reel, but it depends on their level of proficiency with fishing gear in general. I do think that most closed face reels, particularly those on kids themed or ultra-cheap combos, are pure junk and more hassle than they are worth. While it's understandable to not want to set young kids up with pricey gear, the rule should be that if you wouldn't use it yourself, neither should they.

 

[troutbert]

When I was a kid we fished with long bamboo poles with the line wound around the pole. No reel.

Big bobber, hook, worm. That worked well. Young kids can handle that.

The next step was a closed faced Zebco spinning reel. I think for age 5 that is a better choice than an open-faced spinning reel. The mechanics of that are more difficult than the push button reel.

 

[lycoflyfisher]

Honestly, depending on the type of water you are fishing a cane pole/ tenkara/ fly rod with no line out may be the simplest method for kids. Just "cast" out and pull fish in. I think closes bait casters are an excellent choice for kids followed by the trigger style closed face reels then open faced spinning reels. You can get a big mess easily with spinning reels. The zebco 33 is an excellent choice for kids if casting is necessary until they are ready for a spinning rod and can cast multiple times without creating a mess.

 

[Sconnie]

Started on closed spin gear but, as above, I am really considering the tenkara / cane pole alternative for my 3 and 5 y/o. Two kids is a tangle management issue. Thinking of just wacking a couple unsuspecting ash or hickory’s saplings and tying on a 10 ft “fly line” and a leader. If the point is to gettm going on fish, anything to keep the fly/ lure/ bait in the water for more time is the goal ( imho)

 

[discomidge]

I got my then 5yo son kind of something like this last year at my local shop after he hooked a nice susky smallie on a ridiculous kid’s rod. Man that was hilarious, but we landed it. The dudes at the shop said this kind of reel was a good way to get kids ready for a real spinning reel. And he was aces with it from the jump.

 

[tomgamber]

Let em enjoy the Zebco 404 for a while. Then outfish the kid with what you think the next step is and thats when and what they'll want to do too.

 

[HeavyWater]

Thanks everyone.