A few years ago both my sons were utilizing the therapy pool at the Hospital on a weekly basis, where they receive occupational and speech therapy. During the first few sessions the speech therapist gathered a box of toys to stimulate the speech in each of my children through playing in the pool. There was a fishing pole she had that my oldest son liked to use plus some miscellaneous toys that he would roll in with the fishing pole.

While shopping at K-mart I came across the Rod ‘N Reel Fishing for a good price and thought this would be suitable for the bathtub, the kiddie pool outside and to bring to the Hospital for the therapy sessions. The package contains two fish that require 2 “AA”batteries located underneath. This will require a small screw-driver to remove the screws and take out the compartment.

The description of this Rod ‘N Reel Fishing shows one fish being blue and red, this is the same one we have. The other one consists of two shades of green with the yellow fins. On the tail of our blue and pink one there are white scratches on it or the coloring has chipped off, I am not sure. The mouth to each fish opens easily and each has marble sized clear eyes.

The pole is yellow with the wheel, hook and button to release the pole blue. The silver part of the rod is easy to move and twist being made of plastic and now twisted by my son. The little hook has a metal magnet to easily stay inside the mouth of the fish when the batteries are not inside or taken out for other type of play. The batteries might also be removed when the adult realizes the racket these fish make when they come in contact with the magnet.

The fish wiggles its tail and makes a clanking noise, which is similar to a fish trying to wriggle off of the hook. It would be nice to have two fishing poles since there are two fish and two kids means lots of fighting for the pole. You have to open the mouth to the fish to remove the hook. My son always likes to try to catch his animals and move the pole around so that it does get tangled.

Because the string is still tangled to a degree our wheel is not easy to move, but you would manually do this and press the blue button to let the string down lower into the body of water to nab the catch. My son likes to press the button continuously and try other fish with this pole as well as using other poles to catch the two fish. I have had other strings from poles and a duck game pole stuck with the Rod ‘N Reel Fishing.

The fish are easy to clean with a moist paper towel and are able to be used in water with the batteries inside them. I preferred the pole and fish at the therapy pool or the bathtub since having it outside with the pool and dirt and grass being tossed in among other things it gets messy.

The Rod ‘N Reel Fishing is made by Hilco Corporation with a patent pending. I keep all our fish toys in one area so they can mix and match them. The pole would be the one item that might not withstand the hands of an eager young fisher who might wrap the string around making knots and bending the plastic.

We have had loads of fun using our Rod ‘N Reel Fishing toy. I would suggest this is appropriate from the age of three to about six. While my son was at the therapy pool there were other children there that enjoyed using this as well as the therapist purchasing it based on the experience with my sons. This would work for a girl or a boy for any time of the year in the bathtub or even at the kitchen sink.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 9.99
Type of Toy: Sports
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years