Types of Fishing Reels

The reel section of a fishing tackle shop is genuinely overwhelming if you don’t already know what you’re looking at. There are half a dozen fundamentally different reel designs, each built around a different set of tradeoffs, and the packaging rarely explains the actual differences in any useful way. After using most of these in different contexts over the years, here’s how I actually think about which reel type fits which situation.

Spincast Reels

Spincast reels are the closed-face reels — the ones with a covered nose cone and a push-button on the back. The button holds the line, you press and hold it, cast, and release the button to let line fly. Zero chance of backlash, almost zero learning curve.

They’re the right tool for one specific job: putting a kid on a fish for the first time. That’s not a knock — it’s genuinely the best option for that situation. The problem is durability and performance. The internal mechanism is compact and not built for sustained abuse, the drag systems are basic, and anything over about 10 lb test starts feeling awkward. A Zebco 33 or 202 will catch plenty of fish, but most anglers move past spincast reels once they develop any technique at all.

Spinning Reels

Spinning reels are the most useful all-around reel for the majority of freshwater and light saltwater fishing. The spool is fixed, the bail opens to release line on the cast and closes when you start reeling, and there’s nothing to crash or backlash. They cast light lures better than any other reel type because there’s no spool weight to overcome — even a 1/16 oz jig will sail on a properly matched spinning setup.

I use spinning for anything under about 17 lb braid or 12 lb mono. Trout, walleye, bass with lighter presentations, inshore saltwater — spinning handles all of it. The limitation is heavy-cover bass fishing or anything requiring precise casting into a tight window, where baitcasting gives you more control. But for most situations most anglers face, a good spinning setup covers it.

For saltwater, look specifically for sealed bearings and a sealed drag. Salt finds its way into everything unsealed, and a reel with corroded bearings is a bad time. Shimano Stradic, Penn Battle, and Daiwa BG are the mid-range saltwater spinning standards for good reason.

Baitcasting Reels

Baitcasting reels have a revolving spool that spins during the cast, and that’s where both the advantage and the complication come from. Because the spool revolves, you can control cast distance and placement with thumb pressure — experienced anglers can drop a lure into a coffee-cup-sized gap from 40 feet. That accuracy is the reason bass anglers overwhelmingly use baitcasters for most applications.

The complication is backlash: if the spool spins faster than line is leaving it, the excess line piles up and you end up with a bird’s nest that can take ten minutes to pick out. Modern baitcasters have magnetic and centrifugal braking systems that help a lot, and the learning curve is shorter than it used to be. But it’s still a reel that requires actual practice to use well. Spend an afternoon in the backyard with a practice plug before taking a baitcaster to the water for the first time.

Once you get past the learning curve, baitcasters handle heavy lines and lures better than equivalent-size spinning reels, and the higher gear ratios (7:1 and up) on modern baitcasters are genuinely useful for burning lures back fast. For bass in heavy cover, flipping jigs into docks, or using big swimbaits — baitcasting is the right tool.

Conventional Reels

Conventional reels are the big-game offshore standard. Same revolving spool concept as baitcasting but scaled up dramatically — high line capacity, lever drag systems that can be adjusted mid-fight with precision, and the torque to pump large fish up from depth. A conventional reel in the 50-wide class holds 500+ yards of 80 lb braid and can apply 30+ lbs of drag pressure.

These are for tuna, marlin, wahoo, deep bottom fishing, shark fishing from the beach. They’re heavy, they’re specialized, and they’re overkill for anything in freshwater or inshore. If you’re chartering an offshore boat, you’ll use conventional gear. If you’re mostly doing inshore or freshwater fishing, you won’t need one.

Fly Reels

Fly reels are fundamentally different from every other reel type in that the reel itself is mostly a line storage device — the actual casting is done by the fly line’s weight, not the lure’s weight, and the rod does the work. The reel counterbalances the rod and holds the backing and fly line. It needs a smooth, reliable drag for when a fish runs, but its role in the actual cast is minimal.

Fly reel sizing is matched directly to rod weight — a 5-weight rod takes a 5-weight reel. The drag system matters most when you’re targeting larger fish like steelhead, salmon, or saltwater species where a hard run on the reel is a real possibility. For trout fishing on smaller water, even a basic click-and-pawl drag is adequate. Machined aluminum is the material of choice for quality fly reels — it handles the wear of repeated use and holds up in cold, wet conditions.

Centerpin Reels

Centerpin reels are the most specialized reel on this list, used almost exclusively for drift fishing in rivers — steelhead and salmon runs primarily. The reel spins freely on a center pin with virtually no friction, which allows line to feed out at the exact speed of the current. That perfect drift, with the float and bait traveling at the same speed as the water, is what centerpin fishing is built around.

There is no drag system — control comes entirely from the angler’s palm on the spool rim. Learning to fight a big steelhead while manually managing a free-spinning spool is a real skill that takes time to develop. Centerpins are not a beginner reel, and they’re not useful outside of this specific fishing style. But for drift fishing on moving water, nothing else produces the same quality of natural bait presentation.

Matching the Reel to the Situation

The short version: spinning for most freshwater and inshore applications, baitcasting when you need accuracy with heavier presentations, conventional for offshore and big game, fly for fly fishing, centerpin for river drift fishing. Spincast if you’re teaching a kid who’s six years old and you want the afternoon to be fun rather than frustrating.

Reel quality scales with price in fairly direct proportion. A $40 spinning reel and a $200 spinning reel both catch fish, but the $200 reel has a smoother drag, more durable components, and better corrosion resistance. Buy the best reel you can justify for how much you fish. A reel that gets used twice a year doesn’t need to be a Shimano Stella, but a reel that goes out fifty days a season is worth investing in.