I've been playing with ideas on how to make a fishing reel electric so my 2yr old and 5 yr old can have more fun fishing with us - shad and pikeminnow seasons are coming up, and its time for the kids to start "earnin' their keep!"
Here is a reel I'm working with - I have taken the handle off and my son put threads on the shaft of the crank and added two 10mm-32 nuts to it.
Here's the new threaded crank in the reel, and a cordless screwdriver with a 10mm socket to crank the reel.
It works great! Plenty of torque for as big of a fish as I want a 5 year old to handle!
Next step is to get a cheap screwdriver that I can hack apart - I'm going to mount the motor on one side with a handle so the kids can really pull on the fish, and the battery pack will be on the other side of the reel to balance it. The button I'll mount on the rod itself. Or better yet... how can I make it wireless... !
Here's some video of the reel in action!
