You might be familiar with the Zebco Rhino, especially if you have kids. Right now, at least online at Bass Pro Shops and Amazon, there are Zebco Rhino spincast combos available to buy. Growing up, I called them push-button reels — if you know, you know.
But that’s all changed, and you might have to reassess what comes to mind when thinking about the Rhino name. After plenty of testing over the past year or so, Zebco completely overhauled the Rhino. The company reimagined the line of fishing gear, but kept the Rhino Tough namesake in its new offerings. I recently was able to try out the brand-new Rhino spinning rod, which is a huge difference compared to that old two-piece E-glass rod you might remember. In fact, Zebco introduced a brand-new Rhino rod and reel combo, plus Rhino mono and braided fishing lines. They were introduced at ICAST this year and will be available in the fall.
Wired2fish went on a recent fishing trip to Florida. It was myself, Quantum’s Sam Zyak, and Wired2fish contributor Nick Petrou fishing in Southeast Florida with Capt. Jonathan Earhart. Earhart was one of the original product testers of the new Zebco Rhino lineup. He’d been fishing the setup for months, along with new gear from Quantum too. We had an absolute blast fishing the river.
The Lift Test
But before I jump into the fishing portion of this review, I have to mention a demonstration put on by Chris Littau, vice president of the Zebco brand. He tied a pair of 15-pound dumbbells to the end of his line. His setup was a new Zebco Rhino combo rigged with heavy, 50-pound braid. I think he also did demonstrations with two 20-pound dumbbells, and maybe a mix of each.
During the demo, he locked down his drag on the Rhino and lifted those dumbbell weights completely off the ground. Clear as day. That’s 30 to 40 pounds of weight deadlifted off the ground by the angler and the rod. That Rhino rod bent like a candy cane but it did not snap. In fact, it didn’t even come close. Littau explained that he’d given this demonstration countless times over the past year and they’ve been torture-testing the rod at Zebco’s Oklahoma facility. It was eye-opening to see what the rod and the spinning reel drag were capable of.
For me, it was a demonstration showing extreme toughness and strength — most freshwater anglers will never have to lift that kind of weight. Even catfish that easily surpass 30 to 50 pounds are not fought that way. Anglers simply won’t have the chance to apply that much drag pressure during a normal fish fight. (Some anglers don’t even have the raw strength to handle that type of pressure!)
But what Littau was pointing out was that Zebco had created a worthy competitor to the behemoth brand that owns the catfish and “indestructible” fishing rod market — the Ugly Stik. Zebco showed with its Rhino spin combo that it created a rod that’s incredibly hard to break, even if committing the inexcusable fishing sin of highsticking. And I know more than a few anglers who care about durability in their gear above all else.
Tech Talk
So how is the Zebco Rhino combo so tough?
“When we brought Rhino back, we didn’t want to simply revisit the past. We wanted to raise the durability standard. From rods and combos to monofilament and braided lines, every product in this lineup was engineered to be tougher, stronger, and more dependable,” Littau said. “This new rod technology, developed over two years of testing and refinement, delivers an unmatched combination of strength and lightweight performance. Rhino is built for anglers who fish hard and expect their gear to do the same.”
What sticks out with the Rhino rod tech is TriAx Core. The way Littau explained it to me was that Zebco’s TriAx Core uses a high-density fiber blank woven in three distinct directions. He said, for comparison, a traditional Ugly Stik rod incorporates a spiral blank with longitudinal fibers.
For Rhino, that means 360-degree structural integrity, preventing the rod from twisting or flattening out when fighting a fish, but still feeling lightweight in your hands. To match, the rod has backbone to handle abuse, plus a break-resistant solid glass rod tip, ArmorOne one-piece stainless steel guides with no inserts, and a non-slip RhinoGrip handle.
The Rhino spinning reel is nothing to sniff at either; first off, the drag handled Littau lifting dumbbells straight off the ground. But it also has AsyxDrive (Zebco’s asymmetrical gearing for torque), five ball bearings, anti-reverse, an oversized bail wire, and HydroShield to block out dirt and moisture.
On-the-Water Field Testing
For my fishing adventure with Capt. Earhart, Sam, and Nick, we fished all over the inshore waters of the Indian River Lagoon near Fort Pierce, Florida. I know the Zebco Rhino combo is built and intended for freshwater anglers, especially catfishermen, but we tested the gear in the salt. That just added another level of environmental harshness we inflicted on the gear.
The highlight of the day was catching loads of speckled trout casting topwaters and subsurface swimmers before a front passed through the area. The trout were fired up over a six-foot flat with the waves rocking and wind blowing. And we were successfully using the Rhino spin gear to catch fish after fish. The combo feels comfortable and light in your hands, and there’s definitely enough sensitivity to work lures. Because we weren’t casting large or heavy lures, the Rhino combo became the popular stick because it was medium-light and launched lures easily.
Although plugging is my favorite style of fishing, we also cast shrimp-tipped jigs underneath mangroves and docks. And that might have been the most effective method. We caught snappers, tripletail, jacks, and even bonefish using this tactic. The drag worked great fighting fish from structure and it was straight-up fun fishing. Earhart told me he’d been fishing the Rhino prototypes for a while and didn’t baby them, but they kept on kicking.
I know the durability and dependability of the new Zebco Rhino screams catfishing, but I can say with authority that it can definitely handle different styles of fishing. It’s so satisfying to see Zebco bring new models and tech to the market, instead of just relying on its traditional past. And you can bet the farm that the Rhino combo is going to retail for a price that is appealing to budget and beginner anglers.
