[Culchie]

Could someone give me a quick lesson on what reel ratios are best for the type of presentation you are going to use ?? I want to set up three rod and reel combos. One to fish finesse baits, one for smaller, faster plastic baits, and one for crankbaits. Thanks.

[6_feet_deep]

Originally Posted by Culchie

...One to fish finesse baits, one for smaller, faster plastic baits, and one for crankbaits. Thanks.

Matter of opinion and we know what opinions are like.
The answer to this question depends on what best suits you and your fishing habits...how often you fish, what you fish for, how long you fish, etc...

While I have two, I'm not much on spinning reels so I'll pick a casting rig over a spinning rig anyday. For finesse I would go with a finesse type baitcaster like a TD Sol or the likes there of. I also use those for my cranking...they have a pretty slow GR of 5.8:1 and weigh 7.4oz, but they're strong.

http://www.tackletour.com/reviewdaiwasol.html

I put them on TD Tough & Lights...they have an extremely low reel seat, are sensitive, comfortable in my hand, & light weight. I like to crank and when they're chasing baitfish I need something I can throw for 7 hours without feeling like my hand, arm, & back are going to give out on me. Either way, you want something sensitive & stiff with a fast action for a finesse rod and most people like to use a good medium action rod for cranking...around 6 1/2 or 7 foot. Although, some pros do the opposite and use like a 7 or 7 1/2 foot heavy action rod for simple cranking, but I would miss fish if I used that.

As for fishing plastics, I use a reel with a GR or 6.3:1...I think I get 26" with each handle turn. After the hook set, I want to get them in the boat or to the bank as fast as possible...I also have a 7.1:1 reel which gives me around 30" of line per turn. I use a 6 1/2' & 7' med heavy action graphite rod. I like a heavier/ longer rod for Carolina rigging and flipping jigs, but a shorter / lighter rod for throwing worms and stuff.

Good luck!

[thedude]

basically you're gonna get 3 ranges:
slow, medium (avg?), and fast.
slows are usually under 5.5:1
avg is 5.5-6.5
fast is 6.5+

there are some common ratios: 5.0:1, 6.3:1, 7.0:1 which is what i would consider Slow, med, fast respectively.

a 6.3 is a do-all reel. its fine for just about everything. a slow or fast reel is really only needed to refine specific techniques based on the speed YOU want to fish them. For example - sometimes you throw a spinnerbait on the bottom and slow roll it, sometimes you wake-it just under the surface... use a slow reel for one, a fast for the other and so on.

i like a slow reel for crankbaits, i tend to fish them too fast, a slow reel forces you to slow it down. I like a burner (7.0) for topwater and spinnerbaits when i'm fishing them fast. everything else i use a 6.3.

[Braided Line]

Both guys ( thedude.....6 feet deep) have given you basis, sound information to your question from their perspective.
Your question is just the tip of the ice-berg as there are certainly variables with in that mix, but you have to start somewhere.
What ever you do.....buy the best you can afford.
Good luck on figuring out what rod/reel/line/lure combo is best suited for your style/type of fishing.
Well my combos are mostly round reels I always keep (1)
spinning set-up with a small hopkins spoon tied on. As schoolers always seem to bust just out of range of my bait-casters, the hopkins will cast a mile ( literal translation) and has saved me more than once. That`s my story and I`m sticking to it.

[Skeeter]

Get a 6:1 reel for all of them and forget about it. YOU are the one that controls the speed of the retrieve, not the reel. Just pay attention to what you are doing. That is all that is needed. The biggest advantage of high speed reels is that you can bring in excess line and bad casts quickly. All of todays' modern reels have more than enought wenching power for any size bass. You would be happy with the combo that 6ft. is telling you about. The diawa outfit that he is using is very light. It is expensive, but good equipment.
Skeeter

[Dean McClain]

Skeeter stated the big truth, that you are the one who controls your retrieve speed; if you're allowing your reel to dictate the speed that your lure travels back to you, then you are not concentrating enough! I think that reel manufacturers have tried to lead people into thinking that there is a "generic" cranking speed we all generally use and that we need to buy the retrieve speed that best suits the individual technique. Not if you are fishing at your highest level! The best anglers are, as much as possible, aware at all times of everything their lure is doing, including the speed at which it is traveling. I can pick up another reel with a different retrieve ratio and immediately recognize the different retrieve speed by the way the lure feels and so should anyone with their head in the game.

At an advertised 6:1 and filled with line to its proper capacity, a baitcaster should be picking up line at the rate of 26 to 28 inches per each turn of the handle. As skeeter noted, this provides plenty of power with which to winch any bass out of cover, along with the speed to get the job done, because if you don't have enough speed you won't be able to turn a fish's head and keep him coming. No amount of retrieve power will help you if the fish gets you tangled in cover.

The only scenario in which I might want an even faster reel would be on a flipping stick, in order to immediately take up slack on fish that you might jerk out of the water on hookset when they are in very skinny water, or to get my bait back to make another pitch into cover, but this is not a case where one works the lure with reel retrieve. If you can keep all your other reels at about that 6:1 though, you will develop through familiarity even more feel for each lure that you use.

Dean

[Culchie]

Thanks Guys. All my newer reels are 6:2:1. So I should be ok. Just need to get in tune with how I wanna present my lures.

[6_feet_deep]

Originally Posted by Dean McClain

Skeeter stated the big truth, that you are the one who controls your retrieve speed; if you're allowing your reel to dictate the speed that your lure travels back to you, then you are not concentrating enough!...

I mean no disrespect to either Skeeter or Dean and I do agree that you control the rate of your retrieve, BUT there is a reason why most pros have a slower gear ratio reel for certain presentations, especially cranking. They do this, not because they can't concentrate on what they are doing or due to the fact that they aren't skilled at what they do, but because it's a tool for a certain job. You can hammer a finish nail into a piece of wood with a wrench, but it's easier with a hammer. I'm no pro and I'm sure I'm not as focused as I should be on the water so I certainly need all of the help I can get. It's easy for anybody to fish fast and I need help slowing my plugs down to increase my chances of not ripping past fish and to give the best possible action to certain baits I fish with. You can fish certain cranks too fast and the speed may sometimes destroy the action that the bait was designed to give off.

Just my

[Bterrill]

My advice is to go on inches of line retrieved per crank of the handle rather than gear ratio.

For example, spinning reel 5:2:1 is usually much faster than a baitcaster 5:2:1.

[Dean McClain]

Originally Posted by Bterrill

My advice is to go on inches of line retrieved per crank of the handle rather than gear ratio.

For example, spinning reel 5:2:1 is usually much faster than a baitcaster 5:2:1.

I hear you; I think for the purposes of this conversation, we're talking 25 or 26 inchs per crank.

6ft;
I'm the first to say, "To each, his own". As far as "What the Pro's do", or say, or advise, or promote, it is their job to sell product for a manufacturer, and you only have to look at the current rod market to see that the manufacturers would like to sell you an outfit for each technique; heaven forbid that you tie a shakey head on a dropshot rod, or that you cut off a jig and tie on a maximum depth crankbait! I'm fortunate to have had more time on the water than the majority of anglers on the Elite tour, and to have been involved with some aspect of the fishing business since I was a pre-teen, so while I always keep an open mind and an ear to the ground, I'm simply relaying my own experience when it comes to reel choice.

However, I will note that BASS Angler of the Century, Rick Clunn, uses half a dozen identical rods an reels for all of his power fishing, because he considers it inefficient to be constantly changing and going through an adjustment period of perhaps 20 or 30 minutes for each one, so "right tool for the job" is relative. Not only that, but using Clunn's power fishing set-up, where the angler does all the retrieve speed changing, will keep you more in tune with what your lure is doing at all times, because you've changed a variable to a constant in your primary link to every bait you fish. The first step in fishing like a pro, is to concentrate like one, and the more variables you can eliminate, the easier concentrating on what your lure is doing at any and every moment becomes.

Dean