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Fishing reel

A fishing reel is a hand-cranked reel used in angling to wind and stow fishing line, typically mounted onto a fishing rod, but may also be used on compound bows or crossbows to retrieve tethered arrows when bowfishing.

Modern recreational fishing reels usually have fittings aiding in casting for distance and accuracy, as well as controlling the speed and tension of line retrieval to avoid line snap and hook dislodgement. Fishing reels are traditionally used in angling and competitive casting. They are typically attached near the handle of a fishing rod, though some specialized reels with pressure sensors for immediate retrieval are equipped on downrigger systems which are mounted directly to an ocean-going sport boat's gunwales or transoms and are used for "deep drop" and trolling.

The earliest fishing reel was invented in China at least since the Song dynasty, as shown by detailed illustration of an angler fishing with reel from Chinese paintings and records beginning about 1195 AD, although sporadic textual descriptions of line wheels used for angling had existed since the 3rd century. These early fishing reel designs were likely derived from winches/windlasses and roughly resemble the modern centerpin reels.

Fishing reels first appeared in the Western Hemisphere in England around 1650 AD. An incident is disclosed in an excerpt from author Thomas Barker found in his book, The Art of Angling: wherein are discovered many rare secrets, very necessary to be knowne by all that delight in that recreation: ".... The manner of his Trouling was, with a Hazell Rod of twelve foot long, with a Ring of Wyre in the top of his Rod, for his Line to runne thorow: within two foot of the bottome of the Rod there was a hole made, for to put in a winde, to turne with a barrell, to gather up his Line, and loose at his pleasure; this was his manner of Trouling...."

In the 1760s, London tackle shops were advertising multiplying or gear-retrieved reels. The first popular American fishing reel appeared in the United States around 1820. During the second half of the 20th century, Japanese and Scandinavian reel makers such as Shimano, Daiwa and ABU Garcia, previously all precision engineering manufacturers for biking equipments and watchmaking, began rising to dominate the world market.

Origins in China
In literary records, the earliest evidence of the fishing reel comes from a 3rd-century AD Chinese work entitled Lives of Famous Immortals,   where the term "angling lathe" (釣車) was used. Tang dynasty poet Lu Guimeng (?–881) and his friend Pi Rixiu (834–883), both avid anglers, frequently mentioned "angling lathe" and "angle-fishing wheel" (釣魚輪) in their fishing poems, with Pi even describing a gift reel he received as "an angle-handled wheel [that] is smooth and light" (角柄孤輪細膩輕). Song dynasty poets, such as Huang Tingjian (1045–1105) and Yang Wanli (1127–1206), also made reference to "angling lathe" in lyrics involving lakes and fishing boats. Northern Song scientist Shen Kuo (1031–1095) even once wrote in a travel book that "angling uses wheeled rod, rod uses purple bamboo, the wheel is not to be large, the rod shouldn't be long, but [you] can angle if the line is long" (釣用輪竿，竿用紫竹，輪不欲大，竿不宜長，但絲長則可釣耳).

The earliest known graphical depiction of a fishing reel, according to Joseph Needham, comes from a Southern Song (1127–1279) painting done in 1195 by Ma Yuan (c. 1160–1225) called "Angler on a Wintry Lake". The painting, currently in collection at Tokyo National Museum after the looting of the Old Summer Palace, showing a man sitting on a small sampan boat while casting out his fishing line. Another fishing reel was featured in a painting by Wu Zhen (1280–1354). The book Tianzhu lingqian (Holy Lections from Indian Sources), printed sometime between 1208 and 1224, features two different woodblock print illustrations of fishing reels being used. An Armenian parchment Gospel of the 13th century shows a reel (though not as clearly depicted as the Chinese ones). The Sancai Tuhui, a Chinese encyclopedia published in 1609, features the next known picture of a fishing reel and vividly shows the windlass pulley of the device. These five pictures are the only ones which feature fishing reels before the year 1651.

Development in England
The first English book on fishing is "A Treatise of Fishing with an Angle" in 1496 (its spelling respective to the manner of the date is The Treatyse of Fysshynge with an Angle '). However, the book did not mention a reel. A primitive reel was first cited in the book The Art of Angling by Thomas Barker (fl.1591–1651), first published in 1651. Fishing reels first appeared in England around the 1650s, a time of growing interest in fly fishing.

The fishing industry became commercialized in the 18th century, with rods and tackle being sold at the haberdashers store. After the Great Fire of London in 1666, artisans moved to Redditch, a center of fishing-related products from the 1730s. Onesimus Ustonson established his trading shop in 1761, and his establishment remained a market leader for the next century. He received a Royal Warrant from three successive monarchs, starting with King George IV.

Some have credited Onesimus with the invention of the fishing reel – he was undoubtedly the first to advertise its sale. Early multiplying reels were wide and had a small diameter, and their gears, made of brass, often wore down after extensive use. His earliest advertisement in the form of a trading card dates from 1768 and was entitled To all lovers of angling. A full list of the tackles he sold included artificial flies and 'the best sort of multiplying brass winches both stop and plain.' The commercialization of the industry came at a time of expanded interest in fishing as a recreational hobby for members of the aristocracy.

Modern reel design began in England during the latter part of the 18th century, and the predominant model in use was known as the 'Nottingham reel'. The reel was a wide drum that spooled out freely, and was ideal for allowing the bait to drift along way out with the current.

Tackle design began to improve from the 1880s. The introduction of new woods to the manufacture of fly rods made it possible to cast flies into the wind on silk lines, instead of horse hair. These lines allowed for a much greater casting distance. A negative consequence of this, was that it became easy for the much longer line to get into a tangle. This problem spurred the invention of the regulator to evenly spool the line out and prevent tangling.

Albert Illingworth, 1st Baron Illingworth a textiles magnate, patented the modern form of fixed-spool spinning reel in 1905. When casting Illingworth's reel design, the line was drawn off the leading edge of the spool, but was restrained and rewound by a line pickup, a device which orbits around the stationary spool. Because the line did not have to pull against a rotating spool, much lighter lures could be cast than with conventional reels.

Development in the United States
Geared multiplying reels failed to gain traction in Britain but had more success in the United States, where English models were modified by George W. Snyder (c.1780–1841), a skillful watchmaker and silversmith in Paris, Kentucky, into his own bait-casting reel named the Kentucky Reel, the first American-made design in 1810. Snyder's first reel was made for his own angling use, but afterward, he made reels for members of his club. Without patent or trademark protection, Snyder's Kentucky Reel was quickly copied by many others, including Meek, Milam, Sage, Hardman and Gayle. These artisans were trained in jewelry fabrication and were experienced in cutting gears, constructing small parts, and doing precision work. In time, the Kentucky Reel was mass-produced by the emerging factories located in the Northeast, where they could be produced at a fraction of the cost and time required for hand-built construction. The availability of more affordable fly reels greatly stimulated the sales and popularity of fly fishing equipment. It was soon applied to bait casting reels, resulting in a surge in the popularity of fishing as a pastime among all levels of American society.

The American, Charles F. Orvis, designed and distributed a novel reel and fly design in 1874, described by reel historian Jim Brown as the "benchmark of American reel design," and the first fully modern fly reel. The founding of The Orvis Company helped institutionalize fly fishing by supplying angling equipment via the circulation of his tackle catalogs, distributed to a small but devoted customer list.

Types
Fishing reels can be classified into two design groups: rotary-spool and fixed-spool. Rotary-spool designs are essentially similar to a spinning wheel or windlass, where the spool actively rotates to wind the line around itself. Fixed-spool designs, on the other hand, behave like a spindle and have no rotating motion of the spool, instead using a separate spinning mechanism that revolves around the spool to drag and wrap the line around onto the spool.

Rotary-spool
Rotary-spool reels can be further subdivided into two types: single-action and multiplier. Single-action reels have a synchronous rotating action between the crank handle and the spool (hence the name, "single[-ratio] action"), and quite often the handle is mounted directly on the spool frame (in which case, the spool frame itself becomes the crank). Multiplier reels, on the other hand, have an internal gear train design that amplifies the number of spool turns for every turn of the crank handle, allowing much faster line retrievals. The spool on multiplier reels also spins in the opposite direction to that of single-action spools.

With larger-capacity spools (typically in multiplier reels), there is usually a slider mechanism in front of the spool – known as the line guide — that pushes the line side-to-side in an oscillating motion, which allows the line winding to be more evenly distributed across the spool instead of bunching up at one section.

Centrepin reel
The centrepin reel (or centerpin, center pin, or float reel) is a single-action reel which runs freely enough on its axle ("centrepin"). The centrepin reel is the earliest fishing reel design invented by humans, and is historically and currently used for coarse fishing. Instead of a mechanical drag, the angler's thumb is typically used to control the fish. Fishing in the margins for carp or other heavy fish with relatively light tackle is very popular with a 'pin' and is often used for 'trotting' a method in which a float on the line suspends a bait a certain depth to flow with the current along the waterway. During the 1950s and 1960s, many anglers in England began fishing with a centrepin reel. Despite this, the centrepin is today mostly used by coarse anglers, who remain a small proportion of the general fishing population.

A special class of centrepin reel known as the fly reel, used specifically for fly fishing, is normally operated by manually stripping the line off the reel with one hand, while casting the rod with the other hand. The main purpose of a fly reel is to help cast ultralight fly lures and provide smooth uninterrupted tension (drag) when a fish makes a long run, and counterbalance the weight of the fly rod when casting. When used in fly fishing, the fly reel or fly casting reel has traditionally been rather simple in terms of mechanical construction, and little has changed from the design patented by Charles F. Orvis of Vermont in 1874. Orvis first introduced the idea of using light metals with multiple perforated holes to construct the housing, resulting in a lighter reel that also allowed the spooled fly line to dry more quickly than a conventional, solid-sided design. Early fly reels placed the crank handle on the right side of the reel. Most had no drag mechanism, but were fitted with a click/pawl mechanism intended to keep the reel from overrunning when line was pulled from the spool. To slow a fish, the angler simply applied hand pressure to the rim of the revolving spool (known as "palming the rim"). Later, these click/pawl mechanisms were modified to provide a limited adjustable drag of sorts. Although adequate for smaller fish, these did not possess a wide adjustment range or the power to slow larger fish.

At one time, multiplier fly reels were widely available. These reels had a geared line retrieve of 2:1 or 3:1 that allowed faster retrieval of the fly line. However, their additional weight, complexity and expense did not justify the advantage of faster line retrieval in the eyes of many anglers. As a result, today they are rarely used, and have largely been replaced by large-arbor designs with large diameter spools for faster line retrieval.

Automatic fly reels use a coiled spring mechanism that pulls the line into the reel with the flick of a lever. Automatic reels tend to be heavy for their size, and have limited line capacity. Automatic fly reels peaked in popularity during the 1960s, and since that time they have been outsold many times over by manual fly reels.

Modern fly reels typically have more sophisticated disc-type drag systems made of composite materials that feature increased adjustment range, consistency, and resistance to high temperatures from drag friction. Most of these fly reels also feature large-arbor spools designed to reduce line memory, maintain consistent drag and assist the quick retrieval of slack line in the event a hooked fish makes a sudden run towards the angler. Most modern fly reels are ambidextrous, allowing the angler to place the crank handle of the reel on either the right or the left side as desired.

Saltwater fly reels are designed specifically for use in an ocean environment. Saltwater fly reels are normally large-arbor designs, having a much larger diameter spool than most freshwater fly reels. These large arbor reels provide an improved retrieve ratio and considerably more line and backing capacity, optimizing the design for the long runs of powerful ocean game fish. To prevent corrosion, saltwater fly reels often use aerospace aluminum frames and spools, electroplated and/or stainless steel components, with sealed and waterproof bearing and drive mechanisms.

Fly reels are normally manual, single-action designs. Rotating a handle on the side of the reel rotates the spool which retrieves the line, usually at a 1:1 ratio (i.e., one complete revolution of the handle equals one revolution of the spool). Fly reels are one of the simplest reels and have far fewer parts than a spinning reel. The larger the fish the more important the reel becomes. On the outside of the reel there are two levels of knobs these are the spool release and the drag adjustment.
 * Fly reel operation

Fly-reel drag systems have two purposes. One, they prevent spool overrun when stripping line from the reel while casting, and two, to tire out running fish by exerting pressure on the line that runs in the opposite direction. There are four main drag systems that are used with the fly reel. These are the ratchet-and-pawl, caliper drags, disc drags, and center-line drags. The ratchet-and-pawl drag clicks automatically while the spool is spinning. The caliper drag causes the calipers to brush up against the reel spool. A disc drag is when pressure is applied on the plates which then applies pressure on the spool. Center-line drags also known as the best kind of drag because the pressure is directly on the spool close to the axis of rotation.
 * Fly reel drag systems

Sidecast reel
The sidecast reel takes elements of the design of the centrepin reel, but adds a bracket that allows the reel to be rotated 90° for casting and then returned to the original position to retrieve line. In the casting position, the spool face is perpendicular to the rod and the axle is parallel, and the line is free to slide off the side of the spool like on a spinning reel. The advantage of such design is that the reel is direct-driven, and during casting the line release is as smooth as that of a spinning reel, but it does require an extra hand movement to start reeling.

Sidecast reels are popular with anglers in Australia for all forms of freshwater and saltwater fishing. Most common is their use for surf fishing (beachcasting), or off the rocks, often with a larger diameter spool (6 - 7 in) and paired with a 12 – surfcasting rod. The most famous brand of sidecast reels is Alvey Reels, a Brisbane-based fishing tackle manufacturer established in 1920.

Conventional reel
The conventional reel, also known as the trolling reel (due to its popularity in recreational boat trolling) or "drum reel" (due to its often drum-like cylindrical shape), is the most classical design of multiplier reels. It can be mounted (more often) above or below the rod handle, with the spool axis being perpendicular to the rod. In such a setup the line does not go over the end of the spool like it does with a spinning reel. Most modern conventional reels have a line guide that slides left and right when cranking to ensure a more even wrapping of the line onto the spool.

There are two types of trolling reels depending on the drag system design, namely the star drag reels and lever drag reels. Star drag reels are like most baitcasters, because they have a star-shaped drag control knob used to apply drag as well as a little lever to put them into free spool. The lever drag reel uses a drag lever to perform both functions as it can apply drag and put the reel into free spool. With either type, care must be taken to prevent backlash while they are in free spool. Keeping a thumb on the spool is one way to prevent a free spool backlash. Some smaller sizes of conventional reels can be cast, but large conventional reels are not meant for casting; the larger they are the more difficult they become to cast. Conventional reels are for really big fish and are usually used offshore. As a tool for Deep-sea fishing, they are mostly designed for trolling but can also be used for drift fishing, butterfly jigging and "deep drop" fishing. They are usually mounted on short, often very stiff rods called "boat" rods.

Baitcasting reel
The baitcasting reel or baitcaster is a multiplying reel like modified from the conventional reel, but with a lighter spool and a higher, more forwardly positioned line guide to facilitate farther and smoother casting, hence the name. The baitcasting reel is always mounted above the rod handle (of what is known as a "casting rod"), hence its other name given to it in New Zealand and Australia, the overhead reel. The line is stored on a bearing-supported, more freely revolving spool that is geared so that a single revolution of the crank handle results in multiple (usually 4× or more) revolutions of the spool. The baitcasting reel design will operate well with a wide variety of fishing lines ranging from braided multifilament, heat-fused "Superlines", copolymer, fluorocarbon and nylon monofilaments (see Fishing line). Most baitcasting reels can also easily be palmed or thumbed to increase the drag, set the hook, or to accurately halt the lure at a given point in the cast.

The baitcasting reel dates from at least the mid-17th century, but came into wide use by amateur anglers during the 1870s. Early baitcasting reels were often constructed with brass or iron gears, with casings and spools made of brass, German silver or hard rubber. Featuring multiplying gears ranging from 2:1 to 4:1, these early reels had no drag mechanism, and anglers used their thumb on the spool to provide resistance to runs by a fish. As early as the 1870s, some models used bearings to mount the spool; as the free-spinning spool tended to cause backlash with strong pulls on the line, manufacturers soon incorporated a clicking pawl mechanism. This "clicker" mechanism was never intended as a drag, but used solely to keep the spool from overrunning, much like a fly reel. Baitcasting reel users soon discovered that the clicking noise of the pawls provided valuable audible warning that a fish had taken the live bait, allowing the rod and reel to be left in a rod holder while awaiting a strike by a fish.

Most fishing reels are suspended from the bottom side of the rod, since this position doesn't require wrist strength to overcome gravity while enabling the angler to cast and retrieve without changing hands. The baitcasting reel's unusual mounting position atop the rod is an accident of history. Baitcasting reels were originally designed to be cast when positioned atop the rod, then rotated upside-down to operate the crank handle while playing a fish or retrieving line. However, in practice most anglers preferred to keep the reel atop the rod for both cast and retrieve by simply transferring the rod to the left hand for the retrieve, then reverse-winding the crank handle. Because of this preference, mounting the crank handle on the right side of a bait casting reel (with standard clockwise crank handle rotation) has become customary, though models with left-hand retrieve have gained in popularity in recent years thanks to user familiarity with the spinning reel.

Many of today's baitcasting reels are constructed using aluminium alloy, stainless steel and/or synthetic composite materials such as fiberglass-reinforced plastic or carbon fiber, they call for a rod that has a trigger finger hook located in the handle area. They typically include a level-wind mechanism to prevent the line from being trapped under itself on the spool during rewind and interfering with subsequent casts. Many are also fitted with anti-reverse handles and drags designed to slow runs by large and powerful game fish. Because the baitcasting reel uses the weight and momentum of the lure to pull the line from the rotating spool, it normally requires lures weighing 1/4 oz. or more to cast a significant distance. Recent developments have seen baitcasting reels with gear ratios as high as 7.1/1. Higher gear ratios allow much faster retrieval of line, but sacrifice some amount of strength in exchange, since the additional gear teeth required reduces torque as well as the strength of the gear train. This could be a factor when fighting a large and powerful fish.

Two variations of the revolving spool bait casting reel are the conventional surf fishing reel and the big game reel. These are very large and robust fishing reels, designed and built for heavy saltwater species such as tuna, marlin, sailfish and sharks. Surf fishing reels are normally mounted to long, two-handed rods; these reels frequently omit level-wind and braking mechanisms to achieve extremely long casting distances. Big game reels are not designed for casting, but are instead used for trolling or fishing set baits and lures; they are ideal for fighting large and heavy fish off a pier or boat. These reels normally use sophisticated star or lever drags to play out huge saltwater gamefish. To cast a baitcasting rod and reel, the reel is turned on its side, the "free spool" feature engaged, and the thumb placed on the spool to hold the lure in position. The cast is performed by snapping the rod backward to the 2 o'clock position, then casting it forward in a smooth motion, allowing the lure to pull the line from the reel. The thumb is used to contact the line, moderating the revolutions of the spool and braking the lure when it reaches the desired aiming point. Though modern centrifugal and/or magnetic braking systems help to control backlash, using a bait casting reel still requires practice and a certain amount of finesse on the part of the fisherman for best results.
 * Baitcasting Reel Operation

While spincasting and spinning reels are easier to operate because fishing line leaves the spool freely during a cast, baitcasting reels have the potential to overrun: a casting issue in which the reel's spool does not spin at a rate equal to the speed of fishing line leaving the reel. Professional fishermen, however, prefer baitcasters because baitcasting reels allow anglers more control over their casts. Since a baitcaster's spool spins along with the fishing line leaving the reel, a simple flick of the thumb can stop a cast early or slow a lure while it is still in the air. This grants anglers such as bass fishermen more accuracy in their casts. Furthermore, a baitcaster's design allows a fisherman to make casts at a faster rate, even with heavier baits.
 * Advantages of Baitcasting Reels

 * Disadvantages Of Baitcasting Reels
 * Effective use of baitcasting reels requires prior experience and a developed skill set, thus it is unsuitable for beginners.
 * There are higher risks of getting backlashes during the cast without proper techniques.
 * One must know about spool tension adjustment for different spool sizes.
 * Unsuitable for light lures.
 * More costly than spinning reels.

Fixed-spool
Fixed spool reels can have either an "open" design, where the spool is exposed to the outside; or an "enclosed" design, where the spool is concealed under an enclosure with a front hole that allows passage of the line. There is typically an internal axle that imparts a slight reciprocating motion to the spool, which allows the line to be wrapped in a more evenly distributed fashion.

Spinning reel
Spinning reels, also called fixed spool reels or "egg beaters", are open-design fixed-spool reels that were in use in North America as early as the 1870s. They were originally developed to allow the use of artificial flies, or other lures for trout or salmon, that were too light in weight to be easily cast by conventional or baitcasting reels. Spinning reels are normally mounted below the rod; this positioning conforms to gravity, requiring no wrist strength to maintain the reel in position. For right-handed persons, the spinning rod is held and cast by the strong right hand, leaving the left hand free to operate the crank handle mounted on the left side of the reel. Invention of the spinning reel solved the problem of backlash, since the reel had no rotating spool capable of overrunning and tangling the line.

The name of Holden Illingworth, a textiles magnate, was first associated with the modern form of fixed-spool spinning reel. When casting the Illingworth reel, line was drawn off the leading edge of the spool, but was restrained and rewound by a line pickup, a device which orbits around the stationary spool. Because the line did not have to pull against a rotating spool, much lighter lures could be cast than with conventional reels. In 1948, the Mitchell Reel Company of Cluses, France introduced the Mitchell 300, a spinning reel with a design that oriented the face of the fixed spool forward in a permanently fixed position below the fishing rod. The Mitchell reel was soon offered in a range of sizes for all fresh and saltwater fishing. A manual line pickup was used to retrieve the cast line, which eventually developed into a wire bail design that automatically recaptured the line upon cranking the retrieve handle. An anti-reverse lever prevented the crank handle from rotating while a fish was pulling line from the spool, and this pull can be altered with adjustable drag systems which allow the spool to rotate, but not the handle. With the use of light lines testing from two to six pounds, modern postwar spinning reels were capable of casting lures as light as 1/8 oz, and sometimes lighter.

With all fixed-spool reels, the line is released in coils or loops from the leading edge of the non-rotating spool. To shorten or stop the outward cast of a lure or bait, the angler uses a finger or thumb placed in contact with the line and/or the leading edge of the spool to retard or stop the flight of the lure. Because of the design's tendency to twist and untwist the line as it is cast and retrieved, most spinning reels operate best with fairly limp and flexible fishing lines.

Though spinning reels do not suffer from backlash, line can occasionally be trapped underneath itself on the spool or even detach from the reel in loose loops of line. Some of these issues can be traced to overfilling the spool with line, while others are due to the way in which the line is wound onto the spool by the rotating bail or pickup. Various oscillating spool mechanisms have been introduced over the years in an effort to solve this problem. Spinning reels also tend to have more issues with twisting of the fishing line. Line twist in spinning reels can occur from the spin of an attached lure, the action of the wire bail against the line when engaged by the crank handle, or even retrieval of line that is under load (spinning reel users normally pump the rod up and down, then retrieve the slack line to avoid line twist and stress on internal components). To minimize line twist, many anglers who use a spinning reel manually reposition the bail after each cast with the pickup nearest the rod to minimize line twist.

Fixed spool reels are cast by grasping the line with the forefinger against the rod handle, opening the bale arm and then using a backward swing of the rod followed by a forward cast while releasing the line with the forefinger. The point of release should be trialled to find optimum angle for your casting. The forefinger is then placed in contact with the departing line and the leading edge of the spool to slow or stop the outward cast. On the retrieve, one hand operates the crank handle, while the large rotating wire cage or bail (either manually or trigger-operated) serves as the line pickup, restoring the line to its original position on the spool.
 * Fixed spool reel operation

Spinning reels were originally developed to better cast light-weight lures and baits. Today, spinning reels continue to be an excellent alternative to baitcasters, reels which have difficulty casting lighter lures. Furthermore, because spinning reels do not suffer from backlash, spinning reels are easier and more convenient to use for some fishermen.
 * Fixed spool advantages

Spincast reel
Spincast reels are fixed-spool reels with the spool and line pickup mechanisms enclosed within a cylindrical or cylindroconoidal cover, which has a hole at the front to transmit the line. The first commercial spincast reels were introduced by the Denison-Johnson Reel Company and the Zero Hour Bomb Company (ZEBCO) in 1949. Spincast reels avoid the problem of backlash found in baitcast designs, while reducing line twist and snare complaints sometimes encountered with traditional spinning reel designs. Just as with the spinning reel, the line is thrown from a fixed spool and can therefore be used with relatively light lures and baits. However, the spincast reel eliminates the large wire bail and line roller of the spinning reel in favor of one or two simple pickup pins and a metal cup to wind the line on the spool. Traditionally mounted above the rod, the spincast reel is also fitted with an external nose cone that encloses and protects the fixed spool. Spincast reels may also be described as closed face reels.

With a fixed spool, spincast reels can cast lighter lures than bait cast reels, although friction of the nose cone guide and spool cup against the uncoiling line reduces casting distance compared to spinning reels. Spincast reel design requires the use of narrow spools with less line capacity than either baitcasting or spinning reels of equivalent size, and cannot be made significantly larger in diameter without making the reel too tall and unwieldy. These limitations severely restrict the use of spin cast reels in situations such as fishing at depth, when casting long distances, or where fish can be expected to make long runs. Like other types of reels, spin cast reels are frequently fitted with both anti-reverse mechanisms and friction drags, and some also have level-wind (oscillating spool) mechanisms. Most spin cast reels operate best with limp monofilament lines, though at least one spin cast reel manufacturer installs a thermally fused "superline" into one of its models as standard equipment. During the 1950s and into the mid-1960s, they were widely used and very popular, though the spinning reel has since eclipsed them in popularity in North America. They remain a favorite fishing tool for catfish fishing and also for young beginners in general.

Pressing a button on the rear of the reel disengages the line pickup, and the button is then released during the forward cast to allow the line to fly off the spool. The button is pressed again to stop the lure at the position desired. Upon cranking the handle, the pickup pin immediately re-engages the line and spools it onto the reel.
 * Spincast reel Operation

Underspin reel
Underspin reels or triggerspin reels are variants of spincast reels that is designed for mounting underneath a standard spinning rod. The reel foot is now located on top of the reel (like a spinning reel), and the line release button is replaced by a front lever. With the reel's weight suspended beneath the rod, underspin reels are generally more comfortable to cast and hold for long periods, and the ability to use all standard spinning rods greatly increases its versatility compared to traditional spin cast reels.

When the line release lever/trigger is lifted up by the forefinger (usually the index finger of the rod-holding hand), the line catch inside the reel disengages and retracts, and the line is free to slide off the fixed spool. In some modern designs (e.g. the Pflueger "President" reel), keeping the lever fully pulled up will however protrude the whole spool forward and pinch the line against the enclosure interior, thus halting the line release. During line retrieval, the mechanism inside the reel will engage the line catch again, which protrudes out to "grab" the line and wrap it around the spool. When necessary, the lever can be activated once again to stop the lure at a given point in the retrieval.
 * Underspin Reel Operation

Reel mechanisms
Direct-drive reels have the spool and handle directly coupled. When the angler is reeling in a fish, there's user operation, but when the line is going out, and the fish is taking the bait and the reel handles are visible moving likewise to the line unwinding. With a fast-running fish, this may have consequences for the angler's knuckles. Traditional fly reels are direct-drive.
 * Direct-drive reel

In anti-reverse reels, a mechanism allows line to pay out while the handle remains stationary. Depending on the drag setting, line may also pay out, as with a running fish, while the angler reels in. Baitcasting reels and many modern saltwater fly reels are examples of this design. The mechanism works either with a 'dog' or 'pawl' design that engages into a cog wheel attached to the handle shaft. The latest design is Instant Anti-Reverse, or IAR. This system incorporates a one-way clutch bearing or centrifugal force fly wheel on the handle shaft to restrict handle movement to forward motion only.
 * Anti-reverse reel

Drag mechanisms
Drag systems are a mechanical means of applying variable pressure to the line spool or drive mechanism to act as a friction brake against outgoing spool rotation. Under normal load, the friction holds the spool and the gears in synchrony, allowing the user to reel in the line; if the tension along the fishing line exceeds the drag setting, the braking friction is overcome and the spool will reverse-rotate with resistance until the line tension drops back below the drag setting. Some designs also have an internal spring clicker that generates warning noises to remind the user whenever the line tension exceeds the drag setting. Such mechanism serves to cap off the maximum line tension and prevents it from overloading and breaking when landing a strong or vigorously fighting fish. In combination with rod flexing and adequate angling techniques, the angler can catch fish much larger than the on-paper breaking strength of the line by "walking" and gradually tiring out the fish.

The mechanics of drag systems usually consist of a number of frictional discs (drag washers) arranged in a coaxial stack on the spool shaft, or in some cases, on the drive shaft. There is generally a screw or lever mechanism that presses perpendicularly against the washers, which creates friction especially when each washer slides against adjacent ones – the higher the pressure, the greater the resistance. Drag washers are commonly made of materials such as felt, Teflon, carbon fiber or other reinforced plastics, and usually have metallic (usually steel) washers stacked intermittently to help distribute shear stress more evenly. Since large fish can generate a lot of pulling power, reels with higher available drag forces for higher-test lines will generate greater heat, and therefore use stronger and more heat-resistant materials, often with coated with specialty oil or grease to prevent burning and unwanted locking between adjacent washers. A good drag system one that is durable and generates precise, consistent and smooth (with no jerkiness) resistance.

Spinning reels
Spinning reels have two types of drag design: front or rear. All spinning reels come with front drag, but rear drag, also called "bait runner" or "baitfeeder", is an additional feature.

Front drags are basically a screw knob mounted to the front end of the spool, which exerts direct graduated axial pressure on the drag washers on the main pinion. To adjust these, the user needs to reach around the front to turn and tighten/loosen the spool. Front drags are mechanically simpler and usually more consistent in performance and capable of higher drag forces.

Rear drags, on the other hand, have an adjustment screw on the back of the reel along with a separate lever to activate its use. It automatically flips off whenever the fisherman touches the spool-crank and the front drag then steps in at that moment and incorporates its setting into the fight. Manufacturers seldom issue over ten pounds of drag from the rear but are said to be more complicated mechanically and usually not as precise or smooth as front drags since the drag itself is often part of the drive shaft and not the spool. They are for the first moments of the encounter when the fish has the bait in its mouth and is running with it without the hook set yet. The rear drag stops when the fisherman turns his spool-crank to engage the culprit on the run, and sets the hook.

Casting reels
Conventional overhead, trolling or baitcasting type reels usually use one of two types of drags: star or lever. The most common and simplest mechanically is the so-called 'star drag' because the adjustor wheel looks like a star with rounded points. Star drags work by screw action to increase or decrease the pressure on the washer stack which is usually located on the main driving gear. Reels with star drags generally have a separate lever which allows the reel to go into "freespool" by disengaging the spool from the drive train completely and allowing it to spin freely with little resistance. The freespool position is used for casting, letting line out and/or allowing live bait to move freely.

Lever drags work through cam action to increase or decrease pressure on the drag washers located on the spool itself. Most lever drags offer preset drag positions for strike (reduced drag to avoid tearing the hook out of the fish), full (used once the hook is set) and freespool (see above). Lever drags are simpler and faster to adjust during the fight. And, since they use the spool for the washer stack rather than the drive gear, the washers can be larger, offering more resistance and smoother action. The disadvantage is that in freespool, there can be residual and unwanted resistance since the drag mechanism may not be completely out of the picture without resorting to more complex mechanics.

Setting the drag
Proper drag setting depends on fishing conditions, line test (break strength) and the size and type of fish being targeted. Often it is a matter of "feel" and knowing the setup to get the drag right.

With spinning reels, closed-face reels and conventional reels with star drags, a good starting point is to set the drag to about one-third to one-half the breaking strength of the line. For example, if the line is rated at 20 lbf test, a drag setting that requires 7 – of force on the line to move the spool would be appropriate. This is only a rule of thumb. For lever drag reels with a strike position, most anglers start by setting the drag at the strike position to one-third the break strength of the line. This usually allows the full position to still be safely under the line rating while providing flexibility during the fight. Depending on the conditions, some anglers may leave their reels in freespool then setting the anti-reverse or engaging the drag on hookup.

Braking mechanisms
When casting, the terminal tackles flying through the air will decelerate due to air resistance, causing the line release out of the reel (which is mainly driven by the forward momentum of the terminal tackles) to slow down exponentially. This is particularly apparent when casting lightweight and/or poorly aerodynamic baits/lures, or when casting against the wind. If the angler is using a multipler reel, its rotary spool often still has sufficient rotational momentum to keep itself spinning with a far more gradual deceleration. This deceleration mismatch between the line release and the spool rotation causes the lagging line to inertially "float" off the spool in loose loops before it can exit the reel. Some of these floating loops eventually get large enough to be pulled into the narrow spaces between the spool and the reel chassis – a phenomenon known as a spool overrun or a backlash, which often snares the loops into a very messy tangle (colloquially called a "bird's nest" or "birdie") that is notoriously difficult to untangle. Such backlashing is unique to multiplier reels, particularly baitcasters, and is not present with fixed-spool reels such as a spinning reel.

To deal with backlashing, most modern baitcasting reels have a so-called "cast control" that serves to reduce the incidence of spool overrun at the cost of sacrificing casting distances. Each time a different lure weight is attached, the cast control must be adjusted to calibrate for the difference in lure momentum and deceleration. The users are also required to learn the skill of "feathering the spool" with their thumb to apply direct tactile friction on the spool surface to slow down or even stop it from spinning.

Spool tension
Spool tension is an adjustable screw knob that is coaxial to the reel spool. When tightened, the knob exerts axial pressure on the spool gear and generates a consistent frictional resistance when the spool is free-spinning.

Centrifugal braking
Centrifugal braking uses a series of spring-loaded "blocks" on the spool, which can move radially outwards under centrifugal force when the spool is spinning rapidly. These blocks each have a rubber piece that can rub against the reel chassis, creating additional friction that slows down the spool until the blocks retract back under spring tension. Some reels, such as the Shimano SVS Infinity, have designs that allow each centrifugal blocks to be locked and temporarily disabled.

Magnetic braking
Magnetic braking incorporates the principles of Lenz's law to create a contactless resistance to the spool spinning. The reel chassis (usually on the side opposite to the crank handle) has a circularly arranged array of magnets creating a magnetic field. When the spool rotates, the metallic frame cuts through the field lines and experiences an electromagnetic resistance, which changes with the spool speed but persists as long as the spool is still moving.

Electronic braking
Electronic braking uses an electronic circuit to monitor the speed of spool rotation and apply pre-calculated resistance via an internal actuator. The most famous is the Shimano Curado DC ("Digital Control") series, first introduced in 2003 and having remained the only electronically braked fishing reel in the world for two decades until early 2023, when two similar products, the Daiwa IMZ Limitbreaker and the KastKing iReel IFC ("Intelligent Frequency Control"), were announced respectively.

Line guide mechanisms
Line guides are unique to multiplier reels, as more evenly wound lines on the spool would allow the reel to function more smoothly and prevent unwanted "overspill" of line at either end of the spool. The vast majority of line guides are a simple ring or short cylinder with a 2 - 3 mm internal diameter, which slides horizontally along a spiral-groove shaft. The side-to-side motion of the line guide continuously pushes and realigns the line onto different section of the spool, thus allowing a more even distribution of winding.

While line guides are crucial to reel operation during retrieval, during casting it becomes more of a hinderance because the line will have to go through its narrow internal channel to leave the reel. This creates additional drag from friction (especially when the line kinks against the back rim of the guide) or when loose line loops whips against the line guide. This exacerbates backlashing as the narrow line guide channel often limits how fast the line can leave the reel, and is particularly a problem when the line guide stops near the side of the reel when the reel gears are disengaged during casting. There are design modifications on line guides aimed to minimize resistance against line release, most of which involve having a conical or funnel-shaped line guide that reduce the kinking angle between the line and the guide frame, which only partially resolves the drag issue. Another less-successful modification involves having an open-and-shut "gate" as a line guide, which unfortunately can catch and trap the line between the gaps of the shutter.

In 2011, the famous Japanese fishing tackle brand Daiwa introduced its famous TWS (T-Wing System) design, which have a T-shaped/inverted trianguloid line guide that has a broad top section that presents a much wider channel for line exit, while during retrieval the top bar tilts back and down to push the line into the much narrower bottom section. The TWS has become a celebrated success for Daiwa, and remained a patented trademark that was largely unchallenged for years.

Another notable 21st century line guide design, patented by the Shenzhen/New York City-based Chinese-American brand KastKing in 2023, is named the "Axis Eye" or "willowleaf guide". It has a silicon nitride-coated, rounded rectangle frame with a slightly serpentine shaped top profile, which can horizontally rotate 90° to alternate between a wide and a narrow cross-sectional width. During casting, the line guide is rotated to a transverse orientation, which presents a 17.6 mm-wide line channel, allowing the line to exit with minimal drag; during retrieval, the line guide is rotated to a longitudinal orientation, which narrows the line channel down to less than 3 mm.

Notable brands

 * Japan
 * Shimano
 * Daiwa
 * United States

 * Pure Fishing
 * ABU Garcia
 * Penn Reels
 * Pflueger
 * Shakespeare Fishing Tackle
 * Orvis
 * Scientific Anglers

 * Australia
 * Alvey Reels

title: Fishing reel


text:
Fishing line

A fishing line is any flexible, high-tensile cord used in angling to tether and pull in fish, in conjunction with at least one hook. Fishing lines are usually pulled by and stored in a reel, but can also be retrieved by hand, with a fixed attachment to the end of a rod, or via a motorized trolling outrigger.

Fishing lines generally resemble a long, ultra-thin rope, with important attributes including length, thickness, material and build. Other factors relevant to certain fishing practice include breaking strength, knot strength, UV resistance, castability, limpness, stretch, memory, abrasion resistance and visibility. Traditional fishing lines are made of silk, while most modern lines are made from synthetic polymers such as nylon, polyethylene or polyvinylidene fluoride ("fluorocarbon") and may come in monofilament or braided (multifilament) forms.

Terminology
Fishing with a hook-and-line setup is called angling. Fish are caught when one are drawn by the bait/lure dressed on the hook into swallowing it in whole, causing in the hook (usually barbed) piercing the soft tissues and anchoring into the mouthparts, gullet or gill, resulting in the fish becoming firmly tethered to the line. Another more primitive method is to use a straight gorge, which is buried longitudinally in the bait such that it would be swallowed end first, and the tension along the line would fix it cross-wise in the fish's stomach or gullet and so the capture would be assured. Once the fish is hooked, the line can then pull it towards the angler and eventually fetch it out of the water (known as "landing" the fish). Heavier fish can be difficult to retrieve by only dragging the line (as it might overwhelm and snap the line) and might need to be landed via additionally using a hand net (a.k.a. landing net) or a hooked pole called a gaff.

Trolling is a technique where one or more lines, each with at least one hooked fishing lure at the end, is dragged through the water, which mimick schooling forage fish. Trolling from a moving boat is used in both big-game and commercial fishing as a method of catching large open-water species such as tuna and marlin (which are instinctively drawn to schoolers), and can also be used when angling in freshwater as a way to catch salmon, northern pike, muskellunge and walleye. The technique allows anglers to cover a large body of water in a short time without having to cast and retrieve lures constantly.

Longline fishing and trotlining are commercial fishing technique that uses many secondary lines with baited hooks hanging perpendicularly from a single main line.

Snagging is a fishing technique where a large, sharp grappling hook is used to pierce the fish externally in the body instead of inside the fish's mouth, and is therefore not the same as angling. Generally, a large open-gaped treble hook with a heavy sinker is cast into a river containing a large amount of fish (such as salmon) and is quickly jerked and reeled in, which gives the snag hook a gaff-like "clawing" motion that can spear its sharp points past the scales and skin and deep into the body. Modern technologies such as underwater cameras are sometimes used to help improve the timing of snagging. Due to the mutilating nature of this technique (where the fish are typically too deeply injured to be released alive), snagging is frequently deemed an unethical and illegal method, and some snagging practitioners have added procedures to disguise the snagging practice, such as adding baits or jerking the line using a fishing rod, to make it look like angling.

Sections
Traditionally, only a single thread of line is used to connect the hook with the rod and reel. However, most modern angling setups use at least two sections of line (typically the mainline and the leader) joined with a bend knot (such as the famously named fisherman's knot). Occasionally a swivel might be used to join the lines and reduce the bait/lure spinning due to the inherent line twisting from a fixed-spool reel.

A typical modern angling setup can include the following line sections:
 * Backing is the rearmost section of the fishing line and typically used only to "pad up" the spool of the fishing reel, in order to prevent unwanted slippage between the mainline and the (usually metallic and well polished) spool surface, increase the effective radius of the spooled line and hence the retrieval speed (i.e. inches per turn), and to shorten the "jump" distance during line release in spinning reels. The backing can also act as a line reserve in case a powerful fish that manages to overpower the drag mechanism of the reel and stretch out the entire length of the mainline.

 * Mainline is the main section of the fishing line, and the portion that primarily interacts with the rod, line guides and reel. This is the section that handles most of the tensile stress when retrieving the line.

 * Leader is the frontmost section of the fishing line that is attached to the hook/lure, and the portion that most likely will be in actual physical contact with the fish. Many larger, feistier target fish warrants a strong mainline, which might make it too thick to thread through the eye of the hook, thus necessitating a thinner line to "lead" into the hook (hence the name). Leader lines usually use high-specific strength material with clear colors and water-like refractive indices (thus harder for the fish to spot it) such as polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF, commonly called "fluorocarbon"), or even stainless steel/titanium wires to reduce breakage due to abrasion damage or fish biting. The leader line can also serve as a sacrificial device, as having a leader rated at a designated breaking strength less than that of the rod and mainline helps to cap the transferred stress and protect those more costly gears/tackles from overloading and breaking (similar to how a fuse protects a circuitry), which will minimize loss and cost of repairs/replacements if the fish manages to overpower the angler's gear setup.

 * Tippet or trace is used occasionally in fly fishing, and serves as a secondary leader that thread to the much smaller and delicate fly hooks.

Early lines
Leonard Mascall, in his book from 1596 titled "A Booke of fishing with Hooke and Line, and of all other instruments thereunto belonging". followed in many ways after Dame Juliana Berners, has an excerpt establishing silk worms in the area of England at that time:

..."In May, take the stone flye or Caddis worme, and the bobbe worme vnder the Cowtorde: also ye may take the silke worme, and the baite that breedeth on a Fearne leafe." ...

And another excerpt explaining compiling a silk leader-line for a catgut fly-line.

"...whippe it so faire as yee shall see good, then next your hooke at the bought put throw your silke or haire in going round about the hooke three times, then plucke first your silke or haire..."

So back then there was silk and horse hair used for angling.

As written in 1667 by Samuel Pepys, the fishing lines in his time were made from catgut. Later, silk fishing lines were used around 1724.

Modern lines
Modern fishing lines intended for spinning, spin cast, or bait casting reels are almost entirely made from artificial substances, including nylon (typically 610 or 612), polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF, also called fluorocarbon), polyethylene, Dacron and UHMWPE (Honeywell's Spectra or Dyneema). The most common type is monofilament, made of a single strand. Fishermen often use monofilament because of its buoyant characteristics and its ability to stretch under load. The line stretch has advantages, such as damping the force when setting the hook and when fighting strong fish. On very far distances the damping may become a disadvantage. Recently, other alternatives to standard nylon monofilament lines have been introduced made of copolymers or fluorocarbon, or a combination of the two materials. Fluorocarbon fishing line is made of the fluoropolymer PVDF and it is valued for its refractive index, which is similar to that of water, making it less visible to fish. Fluorocarbon is also a denser material, and therefore, is not nearly as buoyant as monofilament. Anglers often utilize fluorocarbon when they need their baits to stay closer to the bottom without the use of heavy sinkers. There are also braided fishing lines, cofilament and thermally fused lines, also known as "superlines" for their small diameter, lack of stretch, and great strength relative to standard nylon monofilament lines. Braided, thermally fused, and chemically fused varieties of "superlines" are now readily available.

Specialty lines
Fly lines consist of a tough braided or monofilament core, wrapped in a thick waterproof plastic sheath, often of polyvinyl chloride (PVC). In the case of floating fly lines, the PVC sheath is usually embedded with many "microballoons", or air bubbles, and may also be impregnated with silicone or other lubricants to give buoyancy and reduce wear. In order to fill up the reel spool and ensure an adequate reserve in case of a run by a powerful fish, fly lines are usually attached to a secondary line at the butt section, called backing. Fly line backing is usually composed of braided dacron or gelspun monofilaments. All fly lines are equipped with a leader of monofilament or fluorocarbon fishing line, usually (but not always) tapered in diameter, and referred to by the "X-size" (0X, 2X, 4X, etc.) of its final tip section, or tippet. Tippet size is usually between 0X and 8X, where 0X is the thickest diameter, and 8X is the thinnest. There are exceptions to this, and tippet sizes do exist outside of the 0X–8X parameter.

Tenkara lines are special lines used for the fixed-line fishing method of tenkara. Traditionally these are furled lines the same length as the tenkara rod. Although original to Japan, these lines are similar to the British tradition of furled leader. They consist of several strands being twisted together in decreasing numbers toward the tip of the line, thus creating a taper that allows the line to cast the fly. It serves the same purpose as the fly-line, to propel a fly forward. They may be tied of various materials, but most commonly are made of monofilament.

Wire lines are frequently used as leaders to prevent the fishing line from being severed by toothy fish. Usually braided from several metal strands, wire lines may be made of stainless steel, titanium, or a combination of metal alloys coated with plastic.

Stainless-steel line leaders provide:
 * bite protection – it is extremely hard for fish to cut the steel wire, regardless of jaw and teeth strength and sharpness,
 * abrasion resistance – sharp rocks and objects can damage other lines, while steel wire can cut through most of the materials,
 * single-wire (single-strand) leaders are not as flexible as multi-strand steel wire, but are extremely strong and tough,
 * multi-strand steel wire leaders are very flexible, but are somewhat more abrasive and more damage-prone than single-strand wires.

Titanium fishing leaders are actually titanium–nickel alloys that have several very important features:
 * titanium leader lines are very flexible, regardless of whether they are single- or multi-strand lines/wires,
 * these lines are very elastic – they can stretch up to 10% without permanent damage to the line itself – perfect for hook setting,
 * these lines are knottable just as nylon monofilament lines,
 * surface is rather hard and abrasion-resistant – great for fishing toothy fish,
 * titanium wire is corrosion-resistant and can last for a long time, even surpassing stainless-steel wires,
 * due to the strength and elasticity, titanium wires are almost entirely kink-proof.

Copper, monel and lead-core fishing lines are used as heavy trolling main lines, usually followed with fluorocarbon line near the lure or bait with fishing swivel between the lines. Due to their high density, these fishing lines sink rapidly in water and require less line for achieving desired trolling depth. On the other hand, these lines are relatively thick for desired strength, especially when compared with braided fishing lines and often require reels with larger spools.

Environmental impact
Discarded monofilament fishing line takes up to 600 years to decompose. There have been several types of biodegradable fishing lines developed to minimize the impact on the environment.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Fishing line


text:
Date

Date or dates may refer to:

 * Date (fruit), the fruit of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera)

Social activity

 * Dating, a form of courtship involving social activity, with the aim of assessing a potential partner
 * Group dating
 * Play date, an appointment for children to get together for a few hours
 * Meeting, when two or more people come together

Chronology

 * Calendar date, a day on a calendar
 * Date (metadata), a representation term to specify a calendar date
 * DATE command, a system time command for displaying the current date
 * Chronological dating, attributing to an object or event a date in the past
 * Radiometric dating, dating materials such as rocks in which trace radioactive impurities were incorporated when they were formed

Music

 * Date (band), a Swedish dansband
 * "Date" (song), a 2009 song from Mr. Houston
 * Date Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records

Film and television

 * "Date", an episode of the British sitcom Miranda
 * Dates (TV series), a British romantic drama series
 * "Dates" (Only Fools and Horses), a 1988 episode of the BBC sitcom
 * "The Date" (The Amazing World of Gumball), an episode of the British-American animated series The Amazing World of Gumball

Places

 * Date, Fukushima, Japan
 * Date District, Fukushima, Japan
 * Date, Hokkaido, Japan
 * Date, South Dakota, United States
 * Dateland, Arizona, United States

Other uses

 * Date (surname), a family name in Japan and elsewhere, including a list of people with the name
 * Date clan, a Japanese samurai kin group
 * Design Automation and Test in Europe, a yearly conference on electronic design automation

title: Date


text:
Sinker

Sinker may refer to:

People:
 * George Sinker (1900–1986), MA, Bishop of Nagpur and Provost of Birmingham Cathedral
 * John Sinker (1874–1936), MA, an Anglican priest and author

Other uses:
 * Sinker (fishing), a weight used in fishing
 * Sinker (baseball), a type of baseball pitch
 * Sinker (mining), a person who is employed to sink new shafts
 * Sinker, a character in Beyond the Black Stump, an Australian comic strip
 * Sinker nail, commonly used in wood-frame construction
 * Sinker root, an enlarged, somewhat straight to tapering plant root that grows vertically downward

title: Sinker


text:
Sunfish

Sunfish or sun-fish may refer to:

Fish

 * Centrarchidae, or sunfishes, a family of freshwater fish
 * Lepomis, the genus of true sunfish
 * Molidae, the family of ocean sunfishes
 * Mola (fish), or sunfish
 * Ocean sunfish, Mola mola
 * Basking shark, Cetorhinus maximus, common names include sun-fish
 * Opah, a family of saltwater fish family Lampridae commonly known as sunfish

Arts and entertainment

 * The Sunfish, 2014 Danish film Klumpfisken
 * Sunfish (musical), 2013

Places

 * Sunfish, Kentucky, U.S.
 * Sunfish Pond, in Worthington State Forest, New Jersey, U.S.
 * Sunfish Township, Pike County, Ohio, U.S.

Ships

 * Sunfish (sailboat), a sailing dinghy
 * HMS Sunfish, the name of several ships of the Royal Navy
 * USS Sunfish, the name of several ships of the United States Navy

title: Sunfish


text:
Bass (fish)

Bass (: bass) is a generic common name shared by many species of ray-finned fish from the large clade Percomorpha, mainly belonging to the orders Perciformes and Moroniformes, encompassing both freshwater and marine species. The word bass comes from Middle English bars, meaning "perch", despite that none of the commonly referred bass species belong to the perch family Percidae.

Types

 * The black basses, such as the Choctaw bass (Micropterus haiaka), Guadalupe bass (M. treculii), largemouth bass (M. salmoides), smallmouth bass (M. dolomieu), and spotted bass (M. punctulatus), belong to the genus Micropterus of the sunfish family Centrarchidae.
 * The temperate basses, such as the European seabass (Dicentrarchus labrax), striped bass (Morone saxatilis) and white bass (M. chrysops), belong to the two extant genera Dicentrarchus and Morone of the family Moronidae.
 * The Asian seabasses, such as the Japanese seabass (Lateolabrax japonicus) and Blackfin seabass (L. latus), belong to the genus Lateolabrax of the family Lateolabracidae.

Other species known as bass
Many species are also known as basses, including:
 * The Australian bass, Macquaria novemaculeata, is a member of the temperate perch family Percichthyidae.
 * The black sea bass, Centropristis striata, is a member of the sea bass and sea grouper family Serranidae.
 * The Chilean sea bass, Dissostichus eleginoides, also known as the Patagonian toothfish, is a member of the cod icefish family Nototheniidae.
 * The giant sea bass Stereolepis gigas, also known as the black sea bass, is a member of the wreckfish family Polyprionidae.
 * The "lanternbellies" or "temperate ocean-basses", Acropomatidae.
 * The "butterfly peacock bass", Cichla ocellaris, is a member of the cichlid family, Cichlidae and a prized game fish along with its relatives in the genus Cichla.

Fishing
Largemouth, smallmouth, and spotted bass are the most popular game fish in North America.

It is also very popular in South Africa. In the country, largemouth bass are often found in lakes, rivers, creeks, and dams.

When fishing, lures (Bass worms), live bait, spinner baits, jig bait or crank bait will work well. Lures that mimic baitfish, worms, crayfish, frogs, and mice are all effective.

title: Bass (fish)


text:
Micropterus

Micropterus is a genus of North American freshwater fish collectively known as the black bass, belonging to the sunfish family Centrarchidae of order Perciformes. They are sometimes erroneously called "black trout", but the name trout more correctly refers to certain members of the salmonid family.

The black bass are widely distributed east of the Rocky Mountains, from the Hudson Bay basin in Canada to northeastern Mexico. Several species, notably the largemouth and smallmouth bass, have been very widely introduced throughout the world, and are now considered cosmopolitan. All black bass species are highly sought-after game fish and well known as strong fighters when hooked, and bass fishing is an extremely popular outdoor sport throughout their native range. Their meat is eaten, being quite edible and firm, although they are not regarded as commercial food fish.

All Micropterus species have a dull-green base coloring with dark patterns on the sides. Most reach a maximum overall length of 40 - 60 cm, but some strains of the largemouth bass have been reported to grow to almost a full meter (just over 3 feet) in length. In spawning seasons, the male builds a "bed" (nest) in which a female is induced to deposit her eggs, then he externally fertilizes them. The male continues to guard the eggs and fry until they disperse from the nest.

Various species have been introduced into freshwater bodies in Japan, where they have been declared nuisance fish, and subjected to numerous attempts at eradicating them from local ecosystems.

Species
Currently, 13 recognized species are placed in this genus:

 * Micropterus cahabae W. H. Baker, Blanton & C. E. Johnston, 2013 (Cahaba bass)
 * Micropterus cataractae J. D. Williams & G. H. Burgess, 1999 (shoal bass)
 * Micropterus chattahoochae W. H. Baker, Blanton & C. E. Johnston, 2013 (Chattahoochee bass)
 * Micropterus coosae C. L. Hubbs & R. M. Bailey, 1940 (redeye bass)
 * Micropterus dolomieu Lacépède, 1802 (smallmouth bass) Smallmouth bass.png
 * Micropterus salmoides (Lacépède, 1802) (Florida bass)
 * Micropterus henshalli C. L. Hubbs & R. M. Bailey, 1940 (Alabama bass)
 * Micropterus notius R. M. Bailey & C. L. Hubbs, 1949 (Suwannee bass) Micropterus notius (white background).jpg
 * Micropterus punctulatus Rafinesque, 1819 (spotted bass)
 * Micropterus nigricans ( Cuvier, 1828) (largemouth bass) Largemouth bass - DPLA - (white background).jpg
 * Micropterus tallapoosae W. H. Baker, Blanton & C. E. Johnston, 2013 (Tallapoosa bass)
 * Micropterus treculii (Vaillant & Bocourt, 1874) (Guadalupe bass)
 * Micropterus warriorensis W. H. Baker, Blanton & C. E. Johnston, 2013 (warrior bass)

A 14th species, the Choctaw bass Micropterus haiaka, has been proposed, but this does not yet appear to have been widely accepted. A further two species, the Altamaha bass and Bartram's bass, are as yet undescribed and have been included under the redeye bass.

A genomic analysis in 2022 described new species and found that the binomials, M. salmoides and M. floridanus as used above are misapplied to the largemouth bass and the Florida bass, this study found that M. salmoides is the valid binomial for the Florida bass, while M. floridanus, is its junior synonym. They also found that the oldest available binomial for the largemouth bass is M. nigricans.

title: Micropterus


text:
Spotted bass

The spotted bass (Micropterus punctulatus), also called spotty, or spots in various fishing communities, is a species of North American freshwater fish belonging to the sunfish family (Centrarchidae) of the order Perciformes. It is noted for the rows of dark spots below the lateral line, which give it its common name. One of the black basses, it is native to the Mississippi River basin and across the Gulf states, from central Texas through the Florida panhandle. Its native range extends into the western Mid-Atlantic states and it has been introduced into western North Carolina and Virginia. It has also been introduced to southern Africa, where it has become established in some isolated waters as an invasive species.

Spotted bass can reach an overall length of almost 64 cm, and can weigh up to 5.2 kg. It can live to an age of at least seven years. Preferring cool and warm mountain streams and reservoirs with rocky bottoms, the spotted bass feeds on insects, crustaceans, frogs, annelid worms and smaller fish. It is often mistaken for the similar and more common largemouth bass. A convenient way to distinguish between a largemouth and a spotted bass is by the size of the mouth. A spotted bass will resemble a largemouth bass in coloration but will have a smaller mouth.

In 2010, the scientific community officially recognized a separate subspecies of spotted bass, native to the Tallapoosa and Coosa Rivers and their lakes. This species is commonly known as the Alabama spotted bass (M. henshalli) and known locally as the "Coosa spotted bass", not to be confused with the redeye Coosa bass found in northeast Georgia. The Alabama spotted bass is highly prized as a gamefish and average size is much larger than the more common Kentucky spotted bass. The current record spotted bass, caught in Pine Flat Lake, California, weighed 10.27 lb.

Etymology
Micropterus means small fin, and punctulatus means dotted.

Description
Many anglers who catch a spotted bass mistake it for a largemouth bass due to the coloration, although there are subtle differences. The spotted bass, like all black basses except the largemouth, has scales on the base portion of the second dorsal fin, its first and second dorsal fin are clearly connected, and its upper jaw bone does not extend back to or beyond the rear edge of the eyes.

The spotted bass is also often confused with a smallmouth bass (or "smally" for short), but it lacks the vertical bars that are present on the sides of a smallmouth's body. The spotted bass also has small black spots below the lateral line unlike either the large or smallmouth bass. Juveniles often resemble the young smallmouth bass in having a broad band of orange at the base of the tail, followed by a broad black band and white edge. The spotted bass is known to hybridize with the smallmouth, which sometimes makes identification difficult. Spotted bass can be found in deeper water than smallmouth bass, at depths up to 100 ft.

Distribution and habitat
Spotted bass seems to segregated by habitat type from closely related species such as the largemouth and smallmouth basses. They tend to be found in areas with more water current than the largemouth, and usually inhabit areas that are too warm, turbid and sluggish for smallmouth bass. They usually occur around aquatic vegetation, submerged logs, and rock or riprap walls in small to large flowing streams, rivers, and reservoirs. Spotted bass are distributed throughout the Ohio River basin as well as the central and lower Mississippi River basin. The species may be found in Gulf Coast states from Texas east to Florida. Spotted bass are native to portions of East Texas, particularly in the Sabine, Neches and Cypress Rivers.

Diet
Spotted bass usually feed on small fishes, crayfish and aquatic insects. The young begin with copepods and other small crustaceans and soon begin to eat insects. The spotted bass' diet falls in between the largemouth and smallmouth bass. It isn't nearly as predatory as the largemouth and only consumes about half the amount of the fish. Like all bass the spotted bass feeds by opening its mouth and creating a negative pressure that sucks in the prey.

Reproduction and life cycle
The spotted bass can live approximately six years. Spawning occurs from April to May in habitat similar to that used by smallmouth. The males build their nest in gravel or other substrate, then entices a female to deposit her eggs. The males guard the eggs until they disperse. Several spotted and smallmouth bass hybrids have been collected recently in area reservoirs suggesting there is occasionally competition between the two species for spawning habitat.

Importance to humans
The spotted bass is a popular game fish that is fished regularly. In this context spotted bass is a good food fish for human consumption.

Invasive species
The spotted bass was introduced to the Thee River, Olifants‐Doring River system, Western Cape Province, South Africa as game fish before 2007, and is now rated as an invasive species. The population was successfully eradicated in 2014, where gillnets and hand nets were used to remove the majority of the stock, while individuals were also caught by spearguns, seine nets and backpack electrofishing. The spotted bass was held responsible for a decline in abundance of native fiery redfin (Pseudobarbus phlegethon Barnard, 1938) and Cape galaxias (Galaxias zebratus Castelnau, 1861).

title: Spotted bass


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Subject and object (philosophy)

The distinction between subject and object is a basic idea of philosophy. A simple common differentiation for subject and object is: an observer versus a thing that is observed. In certain cases involving personhood, subjects and objects can be considered interchangeable where each label is applied only from one or the other point of view. Subjects and objects are related to the philosophical distinction between subjectivity and objectivity: the existence of knowledge, ideas, or information either dependent upon a subject (subjectivity) or independent from any subject (objectivity).
 * A subject is a being that exercises agency, undergoes conscious experiences, is situated in relation to other things that exist outside itself; thus, a subject is any individual, person, or observer
 * An object is any of the things observed or experienced by a subject, which may even include other beings (thus, from their own points of view: other subjects)

Etymology
In English the word object is derived from the Latin objectus (p.p. of obicere) with the meaning "to throw, or put before or against", from ob-, "against", and the root jacere, "to throw". Some other related English words include objectify (to reify), objective (a future reference), and objection (an expression of protest). Subject uses the same root, but with the prefix sub-, meaning "under".

Broadly construed, the word object names a maximally general category, whose members are eligible for being referred to, quantified over and thought of. Terms similar to the broad notion of object include thing, being, entity, item, existent, term, unit, and individual.

In ordinary language, one is inclined to call only a material object "object". In certain contexts, it may be socially inappropriate to apply the word object to animate beings, especially to human beings, while the words entity and being are more acceptable.

Some authors use object in contrast to property; that is to say, an object is an entity that is not a property. Objects differ from properties in that objects cannot be referred to by predicates. Some philosophers include abstract objects as counting as objects, while others do not. Terms similar to such usage of object include substance, individual, and particular.

There are two definitions of object. The first definition holds that an object is an entity that fails to experience and that is not conscious. The second definition holds that an object is an entity experienced. The second definition differs from the first one in that the second definition allows for a subject to be an object at the same time.

One approach to defining an object is in terms of its properties and relations. Descriptions of all bodies, minds, and persons must be in terms of their properties and relations. For example, it seems that the only way to describe an apple is by describing its properties and how it is related to other things, such as its shape, size, composition, color, temperature, etc., while its relations may include "on the table", "in the room" and "being bigger than other apples". Metaphysical frameworks also differ in whether they consider objects existing independently of their properties and, if so, in what way. The notion of an object must address two problems: the change problems and the problems of substances. Two leading theories about objecthood are substance theory, wherein substances (objects) are distinct from their properties, and bundle theory, wherein objects are no more than bundles of their properties.

Cartesian dualism
The formal separation between subject and object in the Western world corresponds to the dualistic framework, in the early modern philosophy of René Descartes, between thought and extension (in common language, mind and matter). Descartes believed that thought (subjectivity) was the essence of the mind, and that extension (the occupation of space) was the essence of matter. For modern philosophers like Descartes, consciousness is a state of cognition experienced by the subject—whose existence can never be doubted as its ability to doubt (and think) proves that it exists. On the other hand, he argues that the object(s) which a subject perceives may not have real or full existence or value, independent of that observing subject.

Substance theory
An attribute of an object is called a property if it can be experienced (e.g. its color, size, weight, smell, taste, and location). Objects manifest themselves through their properties. These manifestations seem to change in a regular and unified way, suggesting that something underlies the properties. The change problem asks what that underlying thing is. According to substance theory, the answer is a substance, that which stands for the change.

According to substance theory, because substances are only experienced through their properties a substance itself is never directly experienced. The problem of substance asks on what basis can one conclude the existence of a substance that cannot be seen or scientifically verified. According to David Hume's bundle theory, the answer is none; thus an object is merely its properties.

German idealism
Subject as a key-term in thinking about human consciousness began its career with the German idealists, in response to David Hume's radical skepticism. The idealists' starting point is Hume's conclusion that there is nothing to the self over and above a big, fleeting bundle of perceptions. The next step was to ask how this undifferentiated bundle comes to be experienced as a unity – as a single subject. Hume had offered the following proposal:

 * "...the imagination must by long custom acquire the same method of thinking, and run along the parts of space and time in conceiving its objects.

Kant, Hegel and their successors sought to flesh out the process by which the subject is constituted out of the flow of sense impressions. Hegel, for example, stated in his Preface to the Phenomenology of Spirit that a subject is constituted by "the process of reflectively mediating itself with itself."

Hegel begins his definition of the subject at a standpoint derived from Aristotelian physics: "the unmoved which is also self-moving" (Preface, para. 22). That is, what is not moved by an outside force, but which propels itself, has a prima facie case for subjectivity. Hegel's next step, however, is to identify this power to move, this unrest that is the subject, as pure negativity. Subjective self-motion, for Hegel, comes not from any pure or simple kernel of authentic individuality, but rather, it is

 * "...the bifurcation of the simple; it is the doubling which sets up opposition, and then again the negation of this indifferent diversity and of its anti-thesis" (Preface, para. 18).

The Hegelian subject's modus operandi is therefore cutting, splitting and introducing distinctions by injecting negation into the flow of sense-perceptions. Subjectivity is thus a kind of structural effect – what happens when Nature is diffused, refracted around a field of negativity and the "unity of the subject" for Hegel, is in fact a second-order effect, a "negation of negation". The subject experiences itself as a unity only by purposively negating the very diversity it itself had produced. The Hegelian subject may therefore be characterized either as "self-restoring sameness" or else as "reflection in otherness within itself" (Preface, para. 18).

American pragmatism
Charles S. Peirce of the late-modern American philosophical school of pragmatism, defines the broad notion of an object as anything that we can think or talk about. In a general sense it is any entity: the pyramids, gods, Socrates, the nearest star system, the number 7|seven, a disbelief in predestination, or the fear of cats.

Mahayana Buddhism
In the Mūlamadhyamakakārikā, the Indian philosopher Nagarjuna seizes upon the dichotomy between objects as collections of properties or as separate from those properties to demonstrate that both assertions fall apart under analysis. By uncovering this paradox he then provides a solution (pratītyasamutpāda – "dependent origination") that lies at the very root of Buddhist praxis. Although Pratītyasamutpāda is normally limited to caused objects, Nagarjuna extends his argument to objects in general by differentiating two distinct ideas – dependent designation and dependent origination. He proposes that all objects are dependent upon designation, and therefore any discussion regarding the nature of objects can only be made in light of the context. The validity of objects can only be established within those conventions that assert them.

Contemporary philosophy
In Continental philosophy, the subject is a central term in debates over the nature of the self. In analytic philosophy of the Anglo-American tradition, the subject is also central in debates over the nature of subjective experience.

Continental philosophy
The thinking of Karl Marx and Sigmund Freud provided a point of departure for questioning the notion of a unitary, autonomous Subject, which for many thinkers in the Continental tradition is seen as the foundation of the liberal theory of the social contract. These thinkers opened up the way for the deconstruction of the subject as a core-concept of metaphysics.

Freud's explorations of the unconscious mind added up to a wholesale indictment of Enlightenment notions of subjectivity.

Among the most radical re-thinkers of human self-consciousness was Martin Heidegger, whose concept of Dasein or "Being-there" displaces traditional notions of the personal subject altogether. With Heidegger, phenomenology tries to go beyond the classical dichotomy between subject and object, because they are linked by an inseparable and original relationship, in the sense that there can be no world without a subject, nor the subject without world.

Jacques Lacan, inspired by Heidegger and Ferdinand de Saussure, built on Freud's psychoanalytic model of the subject, in which the split subject is constituted by a double bind: alienated from jouissance when they leave the Real, enters into the Imaginary (during the mirror stage), and separates from the Other when they come into the realm of language, difference, and demand in the Symbolic or the Name of the Father.

Thinkers such as structural Marxist Louis Althusser and poststructuralist Michel Foucault theorize the subject as a social construction, the so-called "poststructuralist subject". According to Althusser, the "subject" is an ideological construction (more exactly, constructed by the "Ideological State Apparatuses"). One's subjectivity exists, "always-already" and is constituted through the process of interpellation. Ideology inaugurates one into being a subject, and every ideology is intended to maintain and glorify its idealized subject, as well as the metaphysical category of the subject itself (see antihumanism).

According to Foucault, it is the "effect" of power and "disciplines" (see Discipline and Punish: construction of the subject (subjectivation or subjectification, assujettissement) as student, soldier, "criminal", etc.)). Foucault believed it was possible to transform oneself; he used the word ethopoiein from the word ethos to describe the process. Subjectification was a central concept in Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari's work as well.

Analytic philosophy
Bertrand Russell updated the classical terminology with a term, the fact; "Everything that there is in the world I call a fact." Russell uses the term "fact" in two distinct senses. In 1918, facts are distinct from objects. "I want you to realize that when I speak of a fact I do not mean a particular existing thing, such as Socrates or the rain or the sun. Socrates himself does not render any statement true or false. You might be inclined to suppose that all by himself he would give truth to the statement ‘Socrates existed’, but as a matter of fact that is a mistake." But in 1919, he identified facts with objects. "I mean by ‘fact’ anything complex. If the world contains no simples, then whatever it contains is a fact; if it contains any simples, then facts are whatever it contains except simples... That Socrates was Greek, that he married Xantippe [sic], that he died of drinking the hemlock, are facts that all have something in common, namely, that they are ‘about’ Socrates, who is accordingly said to be a constituent of each of them."

Facts, or objects, are opposed to beliefs, which are "subjective" and may be errors on the part of the subject, the knower who is their source and who is certain of himself and little else. All doubt implies the possibility of error and therefore admits the distinction between subjectivity and objectivity. The knower is limited in ability to tell fact from belief, false from true objects and engages in reality testing, an activity that will result in more or less certainty regarding the reality of the object. According to Russell, "we need a description of the fact which would make a given belief true" where "Truth is a property of beliefs." Knowledge is "true beliefs".

In contemporary analytic philosophy, the issue of subject—and more specifically the "point of view" of the subject, or "subjectivity"—has received attention as one of the major intractable problems in philosophy of mind (a related issue being the mind–body problem). In the essay "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?", Thomas Nagel famously argued that explaining subjective experience—the "what it is like" to be something—is currently beyond the reach of scientific inquiry, because scientific understanding by definition requires an objective perspective, which, according to Nagel, is diametrically opposed to the subjective first-person point of view. Furthermore, one cannot have a definition of objectivity without being connected to subjectivity in the first place since they are mutual and interlocked.

In Nagel's book The View from Nowhere, he asks: "What kind of fact is it that I am Thomas Nagel?". Subjects have a perspective but each subject has a unique perspective and this seems to be a fact in Nagel's view from nowhere (i.e. the birds-eye view of the objective description in the universe). The Indian view of "Brahman" suggests that the ultimate and fundamental subject is existence itself, through which each of us as it were "looks out" as an aspect of a frozen and timeless everything, experienced subjectively due to our separated sensory and memory apparatuses. These additional features of subjective experience are often referred to as qualia (see Frank Cameron Jackson and Mary's room).

Physics
Limiting discussions of objecthood to the realm of physical objects may simplify them. However, defining physical objects in terms of fundamental particles (e.g. quarks) leaves open the question of what is the nature of a fundamental particle and thus asks what categories of being can be used to explain physical objects.

Semantics
Symbols represent objects; how they do so, the map–territory relation, is the basic problem of semantics.

title: Subject and object (philosophy)


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Talk:Cognitive bias

Incorrect redirect
bias

Wiki Education assignment: Research Process and Methodology - SP24 - Sect 201 - Thu
— Assignment last updated by Sj4452 (talk) 01:24, 21 April 2024 (UTC)

Self-published encyclopedia
@Irath2024 In response to your post on my Talk page after I undid your addition of a reference to a self-published book. "Does [the book being self-published] provide you the right to remove it anyway?" Yes it does. "Great books are self-published and this is the case of this one. I have read it and it is." Wikipedia isn't a book review site: you want Goodreads. Maybe the book is a well-written or maybe not. A positive online review from an unknown person does not make something part of established knowledge; we look to peer review and to reputable publishers to establish that. For all we know, you could be the author of the book. Take a look at the guidelines at WP:QUESTIONABLE for more about Wikipedia's policy on sourcing. Cheers, MartinPoulter (talk) 12:57, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

 * Established knowledge? It is up to the readers to establish knowledge by having access to maximum references, not you. They are enough smart to select one reference or another. With a view like yours, Arxive would have closed long time ago, yet thanks to it many domains have progressed so fast by opening for free so many publications.
 * Regards, Irath2024 (talk) 13:32, 17 May 2024 (UTC)
 * The software platform that Wikipedia runs on, MediaWiki, is available for free. You can download it or find a hosting service, then run your own online encyclopaedia without Wikipedia's requirement for reliable sourcing or its prohibition on original research. If you're going to stay here, please learn what this community is trying to do, through the introductory links which have been shared on your Talk page and here. This is another friendly warning that if you're here to tell us our policies are wrong and that you want to ignore them, you'll be wasting your time and the community's. MartinPoulter (talk) 18:53, 17 May 2024 (UTC)

Cognitive bias in article
There appears to be a cognitive bias to me in the first statement made in this article. It claims cognitive bias is a systematic deviation from norm, when on the contrary it is often the norm to be cognitively biased and most people are shown to be irrational in a lot of cases. https://eujap.uniri.hr/rationality-in-mental-disorders-too-little-or-too-much/ https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S136466132100125X

I'd therefore put it that cognitive bias is not a deviation from norm as the norm is to have cognitive bias and is not a deviation from rationality as people that are more irrational are the ones more prone to having cognitive bias, rather than people strongly suggested to have enhanced rationality. I have put this here as I am not sure how to amend the article, if indeed it even needs to be amended. My thoughts may be considered to be original thought and therefore Wikipedia biased against including this in articles. aspaa (talk) 07:58, 19 July 2024 (UTC)

title: Talk:Cognitive bias


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Hake

Hake is the common name for fish in the Merlucciidae family of the northern and southern oceans and the Phycidae family of the northern oceans. Hake is a commercially important fish in the same taxonomic order, Gadiformes, as cod and haddock.

Description
Hakes are medium-to-large fish averaging from 0.5 to 3.6 kg in weight, with specimens as large as 27 kg. The fish can grow up to 1 m in length with a lifespan of as long as 14 years.

Hake may be found in the Atlantic Ocean and Pacific Ocean in waters from 200 to 350 m deep. The fish stay in deep water during the day and come to shallower depths during the night. An undiscerning predator, hake feed on prey found near or on the bottom of the sea. Male and female hake are very similar in appearance.

After spawning, the hake eggs float on the surface of the sea where the larvae develop. After a certain period of time, the baby hake then migrate to the bottom of the sea, preferring depths of less than 200 m.

Merlucciidae
A total of 13 hake species are known in the family Merlucciidae:

 * Argentine hake (Merluccius hubbsi), found off Argentina
 * Benguela hake (Merluccius poli), found off South Africa
 * Deep-water hake (Merluccius paradoxus) found in the southern Atlantic Ocean
 * European hake (Merluccius merluccius), found off the Atlantic coast of Europe and western North Africa, in the Mediterranean Sea, and in the Black Sea
 * Gayi hake (Merluccius gayi), found in the North Pacific Ocean
 * North Pacific hake (Merluccius productus), found in the North Pacific
 * Offshore hake (Merluccius albidus), found off the United States
 * Panama hake (Merluccius angustimanus), found in the Eastern Pacific
 * Senegalese hake (Merluccius senegalensis), found off the Atlantic coast of western North Africa
 * Shallow-water hake (Merluccius capensis), found in the southern Atlantic Ocean
 * Silver hake (Merluccius bilinearis), found in the Northwest Atlantic Ocean
 * Southern hake (Merluccius australis), found off Chile and off New Zealand

Commercial use
Not all hake species are viewed as commercially important, but the deep-water and shallow-water hakes are known to grow rapidly and make up the majority of harvested species. Indicators of quality in hake products for human consumption include white flesh free of signs of browning, dryness, or grayness, and with a fresh, seawater smell. Hake is sold as frozen, fillets or steaks, fresh, smoked, or salted.

Fisheries
The main catching method of deep-water hake is primarily trawling, and shallow-water hake is mostly caught by inshore trawl and longlining. Hake are mostly found in the Southwest Atlantic (Argentina and Uruguay), Southeast Pacific (Chile and Peru), Southeast Atlantic (Namibia and South Africa), Southwest Pacific (New Zealand), and Mediterranean and Black Sea (Italy, Portugal, Spain, Greece and France).

Over-exploitation
Due to over-fishing, Argentine hake catches have declined drastically. About 80% of adult hake has apparently disappeared from Argentine waters. Argentine hake is not expected to disappear, but the stock may be so low that it is no longer economical for commercial fishing. In addition, this adversely affects Argentine employment, because of many jobs in the fishing industries. Conversely, Argentine hake prices rose due to hake scarcity, reducing exports and affecting the economy.

In Chile, seafood exports, especially Chilean hake, have decreased dramatically. Hake export has decreased by almost 19 percent. The main cause of this decline is the February 2010 Chile earthquake and tsunami. These disasters destroyed most processing plants, especially manufacturing companies that produce fish meal and frozen fillets.

European hake catches are well below historical levels because of hake depletion in the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Various factors might have caused this decline, including a too-high Total Annual Catch, unsustainable fishing, ecological problems, juvenile catches, or non-registered catches.

Namibia is the only country that has increased its hake quota, from 130,000 t in 2009 to 145,000 t in 2010. Furthermore, the Namibian Ministry of Fisheries adheres to strict rules regarding the catch of hake. For example, the closed seasons for hake lasts approximately two months, in September and October, depending on the level of stock. This rule has been applied to ensure the regrowth of the hake population. Supplemental restrictions forbid trawling for Hake in waters less than 200 m deep (to avoid damaging non-target species habitat) and to minimize by-catch.

Human introduction to non-native areas
Frank Forrester's Fishermens' Guide in 1885 mentions a hake that was transplanted from the coast of Ireland to Cape Cod on the coast of Massachusetts in the United States. It is uncertain which species it was, but the Fishermens' Guide stated:"This is an Irish salt water fish, similar in appearance to the tom cod. In Galway bay, and other sea inlets of Ireland, the hake is exceedingly abundant, and is taken in great numbers. It is also found in England and France. Since the Irish immigration to America, the hake has followed in the wake of their masters, as it is now found in New York bay, in the waters around Boston, and off Cape Cod. Here it is called the stock fish, and the Bostonians call them poor Johns. It is a singular fact that until within a few years this fish was never seen in America. It does not grow as large here as in Europe, though here they are from ten to eighteen inches [250 to 460 mm] in length.... The general color of this fish is a reddish brown, with some golden tints—the sides being of a pink silvery luster."

title: Hake