Zebco 33J/ZAS602M Spincast Fishing Rod and Reel Combo

What I have found interesting are people who are saying that this product is not very good. I think the first thing to understand is that this is a 20 buck setup....so let's be real. You are not buying a hundred dollar reel and 100 buck pole. So don't expect it to be a high end unit. Second, from what I understand, is that this is not the same as the Zebco 33 from 25-50 years ago, it's a much lower cost item in terms of product quality. Does this make it a "bad"? No, it just means it is a low end unit. Third....not to be mean, but this is coming off an assembly line, and the pole you get may not be set up quite right, so take some time to adjust it as necessary. I noticed a few things from messing around with it and fishing with it now for the past month while using it almost every night fishing in the ocean. If you notice that it's snagging, or that the button is not working quite right, etc. ..... most of the time that seems to be the adjustment of the spring. You *can* fix this fairly easily by taking the cap off, and spinning the lock on top around 1 thread or 2 until it behaves correctly. Unfortunately, I can understand the frustration since it doesn't come with disassembly instructions, so unless you look around on the Internet, you won't know this.Now, for my review: I received mine and it was perfect out of the box. I've thrown with it for about 2-3 hours every night for the last 30 days. If you have the spring correct, it won't tangle. I must have thrown 1000 lines out now with it and it's great. The obvious thing when using it versus a higher end reel is that it is not as smooth, but for light tackle and the smaller fish you tend to use this for, it is fine. Very flexible, throws great. I would advise cleaning it with fresh water after every use to keep junk off of it (in my case there is a lot of salt that dries on the line (I think), and washing it each night has made it behave very well. The gears inside probably could use some oiling every once in a while. I have two kids using it as well (11 and 9), and they also have had no problems with it. I'm using the Cajun Red Line that comes with it, and it works fine, although I would advise you be careful with this line as it seems to be quite slippery, and use a good knot to hold your hook (no granny knots).

Bought a couple of these and used them over the past summer for Channel Cats and Largemouth Bass. They come spooled with 10lb red Cajun monofilament line, which I had never tried but which worked fine (surprisingly thin and strong). The reels have nice features -- decent drag, clicking bait-alert setting, reasonable retrieve speed, and the component quality seems good. Overall, a great value for an all-around rod/reel combo.One problem I've experienced while doing a lot of repetitive casting -- the rear reel cover (that holds the casting thumb-button) had a tendency to twist a bit and after several casts would work itself loose and come off. Had to get in the habit of checking it right before casting. Make no mistake, this is not the rod/reel to use for precision casting and/or a lot of cranking.Others have reported miss-spooling and tangling. I avoid that by resting my left hand on the rod about 6-8 inches in front of the reel, letting the line go between my thumb and forefinger as it is retrieved. Learned to do this as a kid, and it keeps junk out of the reel, as well as keeping the retrieved line always under a bit of tension, which helps prevent miss-spooling and tangling.If you're looking for a good all-around rod/reel combo, it's hard to beat the Zebco 33 at this price.

I am by no means a pro, but I have been fishing on and off since I was a child (25+ years). I bought Zebco brand because that's what my dad and I would always use when I was younger and never had any problems with them. In fact, I still use one of their old spinning rods/reels to this day (NEVER any problems with it). I'm not sure if quality has gone downhill with this company or if they just had a bad "batch". I see other reviewers on here experienced similar issues as me though.I purchased 2 of these poles and logged about 1 weekends worth of fishing on each before they broke. Both had the EXACT same problem where all of a sudden they would just stop reeling in. I would cast it out, get it reeled back in part way, and then it just spins freely but doesn't retrieve the line. After popping off the cap I noticed that BOTH of them were getting the line spun just above the spooling area, where some sort of spring mechanism for the button is located. Once this happened, the reel would spin and spin without retrieving, but you also could not pull any line out either as it was now jammed all inside the button/spring mechanism.I did manage to finally take all the string off and cut as much of the line out of the spring mechanism area as I could with an exacto knife. I restrung the reel with some Berkley line, but it just never felt the same. It felt as though it was on full drag and didn't cast as well as it previously did.I think I will try returning this to Zebco to fix rather than Amazon, as if it is actually just a bad batch, I will likely just end up with another bad replacement. I have not completely given up on Zebco just yet, but if Zebco repairs or replaces this reel with another that has the same issues, I'll take my business elsewhere.

I took it to the river on a weekend, when i tried to toss, the trigger did not respond as expected and got a real entanglement because the reel is closed and you can not see what happened until you open it (yes, you can open it, but it is kind of hard). After an hour of disentanglement i tried a few more tosses, and this time i was really careful to avoid jams in the reel. It worked but killed all the fun, you spend more time trying to not tangle the line than concentrating on your fishing.The rod is light and flexible, i had no problem with it, took a 1.5 lb fish without breaking. Two of my friends bought the same rod, we all three had problems with the reel and 1 rod got the tip broken when the hook jammed in a rock and he tried to release it by pulling.I do not recommend it for casual fishers or pros, unless you put some other reel on it, It is ok for fishing in a pool.