How To Use A Fishing Reel

I'm now going to show you how to use a fishing reel. Now, this type of fishing reel, we call a "spinning reel" and it would also be called a "fixed spool reel". It's the commonest kind of reel used for fishing around the world and it's very easy to use.

I'm going to show you how we use it. If I briefly show you the main different parts to it, as you can see here we have a spool with the line on it. This line is filled nearly to the brim of the spool, which enables us to cast more effectively.

You can see the line is constrained by, what we call here, a bail arm. We've got a handle with which we reel the line and we've also got an adjustable drag system, which enables us to adjust the tension on the spool, so that fish can take line off the reel. So, it's a very good reel and it's a very easy reel to use when you've mastered the cast, which is actually very straight forward and I'll show you that now.

This is a spinning lure, which we would use for Pike fishing. The way we would cast it, generally we would hold the rod, with two fingers either side of the reel and our thumb up here on the top of the cork handle. This finger here is going to be the important one, when it comes to the actual casting.

So, what I'm going to do is wind the lure up, so that it's about 3 feet below the rod tip. Then what I need to do is get my finger around the line, so the finger is holding the line. I then, this is the bail arm, which I move the bail arm over.

Now, the line is free to leave the spool. So then, we need to go into the casting action. We've got this imaginary spot out in the lake where we think the fish might be laid or the river or the sea or wherever it is where we're fishing.

So, we move the rod slightly backwards, we're going to use the springiness of the rod, we're going to spring the line forwards, just as we do, we're going to release the tension from our finger. So we go, flick and release and the lure goes out into the water. When then need to put the bail arm back over and then we start to wind.

So, now I'm winding in using the handle and here you can see this reel, for convenience, actually has two parts to the handle, some reels are equally as good, just have the one. So, move the line around so that it's close to your finger, get a hold of it with the end of your finger to control it, move the bail arm over, tilt the rod back and depending on whether your going for a long cast or a short cast, you would put more or less effort into the cast. So flick it forwards, let go of the line as you do.

These types of reels, you don't actually have to move the bail arm over, you can just start to wind. So then, I'm just starting to wind and I'm bringing the line back as the lure comes back towards me, hoping to get a bite. So that was a brief introduction to how to use a fishing reel. .