What Gear Ratio? 2025
BassMaster1234 reply :
What gear ratio is best for a general cranking reel. I have heard the slowest you can find to the fastest and everything in between . I will be mainly throwing lipless cranks and squarebills in 6-10 feet of water. Might occasionally throw a spinnerbait or swimbait or something else. Thanks!
Missourifishin reply :
For your purposes, I'd get something in the mid range like a 6.4:1. A slower reel would be more beneficial for keeping the bait in the strike zone longer for DEEP cranking. But it sounds like you're looking for a more general purpose/shallow crank reel.
jhoffman reply :
If they made a 3.1:1 id buy it, I can burn even the slowest reels.
Mr Swim Jig reply :
I would look for a reel in the 6.3:1 ratio area for lipless cranks and square bill cranks...
papajoe222 reply :
On 5/13/2014 at 7:31 AM, 't-Smalle said:I would look for a reel in the 6.3:1 ratio area for lipless cranks and square bill cranks...
X3 The baits you'll be using aren't hard on the wrist and forearm, so a lower geared reel isn't of the same benefit it would be to fishing deep divers. Pair it up to a rod with some tip to it and plenty of backbone to rip those lipless baits and you'll have yourself a winner.
J Francho reply :
I use everything from a slow 23 IPT reel on up to a fast 33 IPT reel for those types of baits. Something in the middle ranges is probably the most versatile.
iceintheveins reply :
I like a 5 something ratio for all crankbaits for the most part.
Bluebasser86 reply :
I use a 5.1 for a majority of my cranking.
Delaware Valley Tackle reply :
The mechanical advantage offered by a low ratio/IPT reel is nice for deep cranking and a few other high resistance baits but outside of that it boils down to personal preference.
bigbill reply :
Ditto what they above said,,,,,5:1 - 1 ratio. Any 5 ratio will do when I want to chill out and go slower.
The 6:3 spinning reel tires me out. I bought it for burning spinnerbaits but I didn't tell the fish.
aavery2 reply :
While gear ratio is one of the factors that affect IPT the larger part of it is torque, if you are fishing high resistance type baits then a lower gear ratio reel will be of benefit. If you are primarily throwing med and low resistance baits I suggest you focus more on IPT and not worry about gear ratio.
Brian Needham reply :
IPT is all that matters, not gear ratio.
for the baits you listed, mid 20s is the happy medium IMO
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
On 5/14/2014 at 3:59 AM, Brian Needham said:IPT is all that matters, not gear ratio.
for the baits you listed, mid 20s is the happy medium IMO
On 5/13/2014 at 11:21 AM, J Francho said:I use everything from a slow 23 IPT reel on up to a fast 33 IPT reel for those types of baits. Something in the middle ranges is probably the most versatile.
This is the truth. Gear ratio tells you little about how many inches of line the reel retrieves per turn. Gear ratio is a relative term, IPT is a precise measurement.
MichaelJ7 reply :
My crank bait reel is a revo winch 5.2.1
robster80 reply :
right now im using my citica e. havent fished anything deep yet tho
doyle8218 reply :
It's entirely personal preference.
ROCbass reply :
On 5/14/2014 at 10:05 AM, Snakehead Whisperer said:This is the truth. Gear ratio tells you little about how many inches of line the reel retrieves per turn. Gear ratio is a relative term, IPT is a precise measurement.
I get what you're saying about IPT being more informative than gear ratio when discussing how fast a reel picks up line, but I disagree about gear ratio being relative while IPT is precise. If anything, I would argue the opposite. a 5:1 ratio reel means that the spool will always rotate five times for every one rotation of the main gear. IPT, on the other hand, is dependent on the diameter of the line on the spool and therefore could vary significantly from the beginning of the retrieve of a long cast to the end, with IPT increasing throughout the retrieve as more line is added back onto the spool. A reel with a spool that is not filled to capacity will also have a lower IPT than the same reel when it is full of line. Note that this does not apply to spinning reels, because in that case the diameter of the bail is constant, and that is what is moving to pick up the line.
aavery2 reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 6:46 AM, ROCbass said:. Note that this does not apply to spinning reels, because in that case the diameter of the bail is constant, and that is what is moving to pick up the line.
I understand your logic but I am not sure it is correct. If a spinning reel spool is empty and it measure 3" in diameter, then one complete rotation of the bail will lay down 3" of line, when the spool becomes fuller, let's say that it is 4.5 inches in diameter now, one complete rotation of the bail will lay down 4.5" of line. While the bail stays at a fixed point the changing diameter of the spool will change the IPT.
Brian Needham reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 6:46 AM, ROCbass said:I get what you're saying about IPT being more informative than gear ratio when discussing how fast a reel picks up line, but I disagree about gear ratio being relative while IPT is precise. If anything, I would argue the opposite. a 5:1 ratio reel means that the spool will always rotate five times for every one rotation of the main gear. IPT, on the other hand, is dependent on the diameter of the line on the spool and therefore could vary significantly from the beginning of the retrieve of a long cast to the end, with IPT increasing throughout the retrieve as more line is added back onto the spool. A reel with a spool that is not filled to capacity will also have a lower IPT than the same reel when it is full of line. Note that this does not apply to spinning reels, because in that case the diameter of the bail is constant, and that is what is moving to pick up the line.
what we mean is take for instance my lews 6.4: which is 28IPT and my shimano core 7.1:1 which is also 22IPT, but my lews 7.1:1 is 31IPT......so which GEAR RATIO IS BETTER??? Neither, as IPT is what matters when making an informed choice as to what reel to buy.
and that is taking in account the math of half spooled and all that.
BassWhole! reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 5:53 AM, doyle8218 said:It's entirely personal preference.
This ^. I prefer a 6.something for lipless and square bills.
ROCbass reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 7:03 AM, Brian Needham said:what we mean is take for instance my lews 6.4: which is 28IPT and my shimano core 7.1:1 which is also 22IPT, but my lews 7.1:1 is 31IPT......so which GEAR RATIO IS BETTER??? Neither, as IPT is what matters when making an informed choice as to what reel to buy.
and that is taking in account the math of half spooled and all that.
I understand that; I was merely disagreeing with the assertion that IPT was more precise than gear ratio. In statistical terms, its a question of reliability vs. validity. The reliability of gear ratio as a measure of spool turns per turns of the main gear is at, or as close to, 100% as you can get, because it does not change. That doesn't mean it has good validity for measuring reel speed. Advertised IPT on the other hand, is not as inherently reliable as gear ratio for the reasons I mentioned in my previous post (although i would guess that it still has a reasonably high reliability coefficient), but it's a valid indicator of reel speed, meaning that it is measuring what it's supposed to. As far as which matters more when making an informed reel purchase, that is up to the individual consumer to decide which they value more for a given application, speed or torque. If I want to be at a certain speed, I'll look more closely at IPT. If I want more torque for high-resistance baits, looking at gear ratio will be more useful to me.
ROCbass reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 7:02 AM, aavery2 said:I understand your logic but I am not sure it is correct. If a spinning reel spool is empty and it measure 3" in diameter, then one complete rotation of the bail will lay down 3" of line, when the spool becomes fuller, let's say that it is 4.5 inches in diameter now, one complete rotation of the bail will lay down 4.5" of line. While the bail stays at a fixed point the changing diameter of the spool will change the IPT.
Yes, but wouldn't the thicker spool be cancelled out by the shorter length of line between the bail and the spool?? When I was in high school and asked my calculus teacher when I was going to use this stuff in the real world, if his response was "discussing the IPT of spinning reels on fishing forums," I probably would've paid more attention.
aavery2 reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 8:17 AM, ROCbass said:Yes, but wouldn't the thicker spool be cancelled out by the shorter length of line between the bail and the spool?? When I was in high school and asked my calculus teacher when I was going to use this stuff in the real world, if his response was "discussing the IPT of spinning reels on fishing forums," I probably would've paid more attention.
That's very possible and something I had not considered, makes for an interesting think.
aavery2 reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 8:17 AM, ROCbass said:Yes, but wouldn't the thicker spool be cancelled out by the shorter length of line between the bail and the spool?? When I was in high school and asked my calculus teacher when I was going to use this stuff in the real world, if his response was "discussing the IPT of spinning reels on fishing forums," I probably would've paid more attention.
Ok, so I pondered on this and I came up with this, let me know what you think. If you have a spool mostly empty and the dia. is 1" and you measure from the bail to the line on the spool, and then crank line onto the spool until it is 2" in dia. and measure from the bail to the line on the spool, the difference is not 1" it is exactly half of that, 1/2 inch. So while the distance between the bail and spool gets closer as the spool fills it does not make up the total difference only half. .So my conclusion is what ever the growth in dia. is to the spool as it fills, you gain exactly half of that in IPT.
J Francho reply :
The distance between the bail and the spool has no influence on IPT. IPT = spool circumference x gear ratio, irrespective of reel type. Gear ratio is the constant. Spool circumference increases as line is packed on, and therefore IPT is at it's maximum potential at the point you stop reeling in. Now, while the line size is a constant, larger line has a greater effect on spool circumference during a cast.
Personally, I'm surprised we aren't seeing more shallow, but wider spools. Remember the "long cast" spinning reels of the 90s? Or think of a fully spooled Ambassedeur. A long cast hardly makes a dent in the spool.
…dumb things I think about after a pint of ice cream, lol.
Snakehead Whisperer reply :
On 5/15/2014 at 7:42 AM, ROCbass said:If I want to be at a certain speed, I'll look more closely at IPT. If I want more torque for high-resistance baits, looking at gear ratio will be more useful to me.
I agree with this pretty much. I do take gear ratio into consideration when purchasing a reel, but that's because I'm considering other performance questions besides speed. Different sized gears will yield completely different results compared to other reels of the same ratio, so for most intents and purposes the IPT rating seems to be a better gauge of rate of line retrieved.
Unfortunately my assumption is that when one asks about gear ratio it is in reference to the speed of retrieve and not other factors. The original post in this thread mentioned speed and nothing else other than the type of baits that would potentially be thrown with the reel.
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