Fishing reel

device attached to a fishing rod used in winding and unwinding fishing line

A fishing reel is a device attached to a fishing rod used in winding and unwinding fishing line.

A low-profile bait casting reel
(gear multiplying)

Modern fishing reels are designed to help in casting for distance and accuracy.[1] Reels also retrieve line, usually with a handle. Fishing reels are traditionally used in the recreational sport of angling. They are also used in the sport of competitive casting. Reels are usually attached to a fishing rod by some means. However specialized reels are made to be mounted directly to the boat gunwales or transoms.

The first writing describing a fishing reel is from about 1100 years ago in China.[2] Fishing reels first appeared in England around 1650 AD. By the 1760s, London tackle shops were advertising gear-retrieved reels. An American watchmaker and inventor, George W. Snyder, invented the first gear multiplying reel abut 1810.[3]

References

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  1. Creative Publishing International, Complete Guide to Freshwater Fishing (Minnetonka, MN: Creative Publishing International, 2002), p. 56
  2. Rick Hafele, Nymph Fishing Rivers and Streams: A Biologist's View of Taking Trout Below the Surface (Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2006), p. 1
  3. Frank Mackie Johnson, Forest, Lake and River; the Fishes of New England and Eastern Canada, Vol. II (Boston, University Press Cambridge, 1902), p. 309