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So you are ready to purchase your first baitcasting reel and you cannot figure out what the gear rat...
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Baitcasting Fishing Reel Gear Ratio
So you are ready to purchase your first baitcasting reel and you cannot figure out what the gearratio means. Don't feel alone, there are many fishermen who have used these great reels and neverhave figured what the gear ratio means or does. Hopefully I will answer that question for you in thisguide.
We have baitcasting reels like the Diawa Steez 7.1:1 and 6.3:1, the Shimano Core with a 6.2:1 andthe Pflueger President baitcaster boasting a 6.4:1. So what do all those numbers mean? Let me giveyou the simple explanation and then let you know what difference it makes.
We will use the Daiwa Steez 6.3:1 asthe example reel. What this numbermeans is that the Steez has a 6.3 to 1gear ratio. In other words, every fullturn of the handle crank results in theline spool rotating 6.3 times. If you canimagine a ten speed bike with the row of gears on the back tire and when you switch gears thepeddling either gets harder or easier that is simply switching the gear ratio. The larger the gear theless you have to peddle to make the back tire go around one full turn. The baitcasting reel works onthe same principle except you don't get to change the gearing on an individual reel instead you needto change the reel if you want fast or slower retrieves.
So what difference does this make? It all boils down to how much line do I take in on each turn ofthe reel handle. The two factors that determine that are gear ratio and the size of the line spool. Thelarger spool the more line that comes in on each crank of the handle. Basically this means that I canfish more territory with more casts if I use a 6.3 or better gear ratio than I can if I use under that,say on a reel like the Daiwa Sol 4.9 baitcasting reel. Someone has said that he can get 25 to 30 morecasts in a day by using a 6.2:1 reel over a 5:1 or lower. That just might mean more fish in the boat.
There are times when you will want aslower reel retrieve, such as when youare using a crankbait or a slowermotion bait, the slower retrieve willgive more life like action. But forthrowing a buzz-bait or wakingspinner bait the faster the better. Infact a 7.1 works great for this.Remember it is much easier to slowdown a faster reel than it is the speedup a slower one. Another reason for afaster reel would be to take up slackline quicker resulting in more hookedfish. When a fish runs to the boat after being hooked a fast retrieve can keep up with it keeping yourline tight.