Difference Between Bait Casting And Spin Casting
Since earliest times people have fished for food using such tools as spears, nets, and crude bone hooks. Today basic fishing equipment for beginners consists of a pole, a line, a hook, and some bait. The pole might be a tapered section of cane or bamboo or a freshly cut willow branch. The line is often plain string or braided fishing line with one end tied directly to the end of the pole and a hook tied to the other end. This simple setup can be used to catch many species of fish, including bullheads, suckers, bluegills, crappies, perch, and even bass and trout.
Experienced anglers—angler is a popular term for a person who fishes for sport with a rod, a reel, a line, and a hook—generally use more sophisticated equipment. This includes rods—fishing poles made of special materials, primarily fiberglass and graphite; different types of reels—metal or plastic spools for fishing line that are turned by a crank handle attached to a rod; and a variety of artificial baits with hooks known as lures. When people fish today, they normally use one of four types of fishing methods: bait-casting, spinning, spin-casting, and fly-fishing. Each of these requires different equipment and different ways of casting a line into the water.
Bait-Casting, Spinning, and Spin-Casting
Bait-casting, spinning, and spin-casting are ways of casting a line over long distances using heavy lures or baits. In these methods, the end of the line is weighted, and the line is reeled in fully before a cast is made. These methods use similar baits and lures but different types of reels and rods.
Reels
A notable difference between bait-casting, spinning, and spin-casting is the type of reel that is used in each.
Bait-Casting Reels.
To get an idea of what a bait-casting reel is and how it works, imagine a spool of thread with a pencil through its center. If you pull the thread, the spool turns, and the thread unwinds. When you stop pulling, the spool spins a little more and stops. This is the way a bait-casting reel works. When you reel in a line with the crank handle, the spool reverses direction and winds up the line. Most bait-casting reels are equipped with a special guide that helps wind the line evenly across the spool.
Spinning Reels.
Spinning reels work quite differently. Imagine a spool of thread that is fixed firmly on the end of a pencil so it cannot turn. Since the spool cannot turn, the thread cannot be pulled off the same way as before. However, it can unwind freely off the end of the spool. This is called spinning because the line seems to spin off the fixed spool. A curved wire bar on a spinning reel, called the bail, revolves around the spool when you turn the crank, and this rewinds the line onto the spool.
Spin-Casting Reels.
A spin-casting reel, often called a “closed-face” reel, is a spinning reel enclosed in a cone-shaped hood or cover. A hole in the hood allows the line to be cast out. On the back of the reel is a thumb-trigger button that controls the line release. The design of spin-casting reels makes them very easy for beginners to use, but the accuracy and distance of a cast is limited.