PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an electric reel for fishing, enabling easily gripping a fishing rod and a reel body with one hand, and skillfully operating an operation member to adjust a motor output with the thumb of the hand, and having sufficient grip properties even when a large load is suddenly applied during the operation of the operation member.SOLUTION: An electric reel for fishing includes: a clutch off switching member 18 enabling operating a fishing line wound around a spool while thumbing a clutch ON switching member 19 provided in a position which the thumb of the hand gripping a reel body easily reaches, and enabling switching power transmission from an OFF state to an ON state an operation member 30 continuously increasingly-decreasingly adjusting the output of a drive motor from a stop state to a high output value and a control case 15 storing a control unit controlling drive of the drive motor. The operation member 30 enables a rolling operation in the front/back direction with the cushion part of the thumb of the hand in a state of gripping the reel body together with a fishing rod with one hand, and can continuously increasingly-decreasingly adjust the output of the drive motor in accordance with a rotation operation amount of a rolling operation.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1