By Greg Cook
waterhead.com
October 5, 2011

The fishing reels you use will depend on a variety of factors, including the type of fish you hope to catch, and the type of water you hope to catch them out of. Different fish demand different methods of fishing. And different methods of fishing require different types of reels. Let's take a brief look at fishing reels in general, and the various kinds and their uses.

Anglers have been using fishing reels for over 1,600 years! The earliest known reference to fishing with a reel dates back to the 3rd century A.D. The oldest illustration of a fisherman using a reel is a painting titled "Angler on a Wintry Lake." It was painted by Ma Yuan, a painter who lived during China's Song Dynasty, in the year 1195. The painting depicts a lone figure sitting at one end of a small boat, his fishing rod hung out over the water, a reel clearly visible mounted near the handle. Just as with other essential and beautiful elements of our modern world like printing and fireworks, it seems the fishing reel is the invention of the ancient and clever Chinese culture.

When exactly European fisherman started mounting reels on their fishing poles isn't known, but the earliest references to English fisherman using reels comes from the 17th century, around the year 1650. Records show that, shortly after they first appeared, reels became some of the most sought after items in tackle shops. Even 350 years ago, fishermen knew a good thing when they saw it.

Those earliest reels were probably forms of a windlass, a simple pulley that winds a line around a drum at the turning of a crank. The reel depicted in Ma Yuan's painting appears to be of this type. It is an ingenious invention, and far superior to simply tying a string on the end of a stick--the method apparently favored by Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. But it has been improved upon since, and then some.

The first uniquely American fishing reels were bait casting reels. This type of reel was invented in the 17th century, but the first American casting reels were built in the 1820s by George Snyder. Bait casting reels are mounted above the rod and store their line on a revolving spool. Those early reels were much less complex than their modern counterparts, and typically made of brass or silver, with iron gears.

Today's casting reels are constructed of aluminum or stainless steel, and feature modern elements such as level-winding mechanisms to keep the line from winding over itself unevenly and interfering with casting. Modern casting reels also have much higher gear ratios that their ancestors, allowing for faster line retrieval.

(Gear ratio refers to the number of times the spool of the reel turns for every turn of the handle. For instance, a reel with a 4:1 gear ratio turns its line spool four times for every turn of the handle.)

Casting reels are among the most popular types of fishing reels because they work well with many types of fishing line. Casting reels work well with lines made of multifilament, copolymer, fluorocarbons, and nylon monofilaments. Large versions of casting reels are used by big game fishermen. This reels are so popular in the United States that they are also known as conventional reels.

Another popular type of reel, with a design and mode of operation very different than that of the casting reel, is the fly reel, also called the centrepin reel. As you may have deduced from its name, this reel is primarily used in the sport of fly fishing.

Fly reels are among the simplest types of fishing reels. The fly reel was invented by Charles Orvis in 1874, and its design has remained mostly unchanged since. Fly fishermen operate their reels by pulling line from the spool manually with one hand, and casting the rod with the other hand. The reel is used for line retrieval only in this classic design. Newer fly reels also include built-in drag mechanisms to help slow down hooked fish on a run, but the original fly reels required a fisherman to created drag by manually applying pressure to the rim of the reel with the palm of the hand. This palming of the rim became a trademark skill of fly fishermen, as essential to their sport as casting.

One of the most popular types of fishing reel in use today is the spinning reel. This design is also called the fixed spool reel. It is the type of reel that most amateur fisherman are familiar with, as it has become the default reel for fishing rods purchased in department stores and commercial sporting goods retailers.

Spinning reels appeared in the 1870s, created for use with lightweight artificial lures that did not work well with casting reels. While casting reels are mounted above the rod, spinning reels are typically mounted below the rod. Spinning reels took on their familiar modern design in 1948 with the introduction of the Mitchell 300, the reel which would serve as the model for all spinning reels that came after it.

Spinning reels have a slightly more complex operation than fly reels or casting reels, but this operation is easy to master, and once a fisherman gets the hang of it he is unlikely to consider the spinning reel his favorite reel. A spinning reel has what is known as a ball, a curved lever that must be opened before the line can be cast. Closing the ball prevents the line from unspooling further.

One peculiar skill that must be mastered to properly use a spinning reel is the manual feathering of the line. There is no mechanism on these fishing reels to control the speed of the line after it has been cast, so the fisherman must allow the line to slip between his finger and the rod as it uncoils, pressing down hard or closing the ball to stop the line when the lure has reached its desired position. Because of the need to feather the line, spinning reels work best with a loose, flexible fishing line.

The final of the types fishing reels we will discuss is the spin cast reel. This is one of the most popular fishing reels for beginning fishermen. Like the spinning reel, spin casts are often found mounted on rods sold in sporting goods stores. For many fishermen who came to the sport as children, their very first fishing pole was fixed with a spin cast reel.

Spin cast fishing reels were introduced in 1949 and, as their name suggests, are a variation of the spinning reel. Like the spinning reel, the spin cast reel holds its line on a fixed spool, and works well with lightweight lures and bait. The spool is covered by a protective cone, with an hole at the top through which the line uncoils. Unlike the spinning reel, the spin cast reel is mounted above the rod.

The spin cast also eliminates the need to feather the line with your finger. Spin casts have a button at the bottom of the reel. The button is pressed and released before casting, allowing the line to fly from the spool. The button is pressed a second time to stop the line when the lure has reached the desired destination.

Whatever type of fish you hope to catch, and whatever your level of skill, there are fishing reels for you. They are tools that help us make the most of our time spent participating one of the most enjoyable of all outdoor activities. But regardless of the fish you pursue or the fishing reels you use, take the advice of the old adage: don't fish for fish; fish for fishing.

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