The Fishing Reel: Types of Fishing Reels
Table of contents for Total Noob Beginners Fishing Guide
- The Fishing Rod: Parts & Terms
- The Fishing Reel: Types of Fishing Reels
- Terminal Tackle: All the Stuff on the Other End Your Rod
- Fishing With Live Bait
- Fishing With Prepared Baits
- Types of Fishing Lures
- Fish Anatomy
- Understanding Fish Senses
- Which Rod and Reel Should I Buy? – Your First Fishing Rod & Reel
- Two Knots You Absolutely Need to Know
- How to Assemble a Spinning Reel and Rod
- How to Load Line on a Spinning Reel
- How to Set the Drag on a Spinning Reel
- How to Cast Your Spinning Rod
- How to Find Fish
- How to Play and Land a Fish
- How to Keep and Clean Your Fish
The next important part of your fishing outfit is your reel. There are two categories of reels; spinning reels and fly reels. Fly reels are for fly fishing, and fly fishing is a different animal altogether. For now, lets stick to spinning reels.
There are 3 types of reels:
Spincast: This type of reel has a closed face. All the important parts are kept inside, under the nose cone. The line comes out of a little hole in the cover. You see a lot outfits designed for children sporting this type of reel, because it is the easiest to use. To use a spincast reel, you press the button on the back of the reel during your forward cast. The line peels out, and you let go of the button the line stops. Its very easy to get the hang of this reel, but you sacrifice some accuracy and distance.
Baitcasting: This is the probably the most difficult to master, because the spool turns when you cast. The spool must be kept under control so as not to turn into a nasty nest of line. It works great with heavier lines and lures, and is considered very accurate. But, because it can take a while to master casting with this type of real, they tend to be used only by experienced anglers.
Spinning: This is the most popular reel, it has an open faced design, it is easier to use than a baitcasting reel and more accurate than a spincast. It’s versatile. It has great line capacity (can put a good amount of line on it) and you can usually buy one with an extra spool, making it easy to change out your line while your on the water. Though it doesn’t perform as well when heavier line (20 pounds +) is required.
There is one more term you are going to run into around reels that you absolutely need to understand, and that is:
Drag: This is the mechanism that allows you to set how much resistance a fish feels when it pulls on the line. The tighter you set the drag, the more resistance the fish feels. You want to set the resistance tight enough that it tires out your fish, but not so tight that the line gets over stressed or breaks.
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March 22nd, 2012 at 5:26 pm
The only reel I’ve ever had or used is a spincast reel. It’s always worked well for me, as I’ve caught numerous fish with this kind of reel.
April 17th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
[...] just a very basic rod with a unadorned spincast reel. Thіѕ type of reel has the line enclosed [...]
April 17th, 2012 at 7:55 pm
[...] necessarily need a kid’s fishing rod, either. What they need is just a very basic rod with a simple spincast reel. This type of reel has the line enclosed in a compartment and releases with the push of a button. [...]
May 5th, 2012 at 2:15 am
I tried a spinning reel few couples of weeks back, drag was set exactly to 25% of the line resistance. But, while fighting fish I realized that i could not reel in, though my reel handle was rotating in 360 degree motion and even Whenever fish resisted it took off the line but simultaneously when i reeled in it did not worked. Actually, the strength of fish drag was more than my reel in. Could you please help how should i overcome these problem?
May 7th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
Hmmm. Unless something is wrong with your reel, it sounds like you need to tighten the drag further. The drag needs to be just loose enough to not break your line when the fish runs, but still allow you to pump the fish in, when it stops running.
To read more about how to play the fish, you can go over this post:
-Nick