A fishing reel supports at a front wall of a reel body, a spool, a rotary frame which has first and second arms, and a bail arm which is supported between the arms in a manner permitting it to be turned over between a position where the rotary frame rotates to wind a fishing line onto the spool and a position where the line is released. A control means is provided to turn over the bail arm from the line winding to the line releasing position, the control means having a control member positioned in proximity to an arm roller at the bail arm which retains the line at the line winding position, so that when an angler catches by his finger the line retained by the arm roller, he can operate the control member in association with the line catching action.