How Do I Know What's The Best Gear Ratio For What Baits?

[levih725]

I don't know what gear ratios to use for my crank baits or a weightless fluke or anythign

[ABW]

26-28 ipt which translates to a 6.x:1 ratio for those techniques.

 

Edit: Assuming you mean for a baitcaster?

[Matthew2000]

Here is what I go by.

Bait casters

Deep to mid cranks and large swimbaits, A-rigs 5:4:1

Spinnerbaits, squarebills, bladed jigs, carolina rigs, soft body swimbaits 6:4:1

Texas rigs,spooks,buzzbaits,jigs, rage rig 7:1:1

Frogs, punching 7:5:1 or higher

Spinning you're not going to need near as fast of a gear ratio because you don't want to winch the fish in as fast as possible.

Weightless plastics and wacky rig 5:2:1 or 5:6:1 really the same thing.

Dropshot something with a six or higher in front, this is because I often dropshot near brush piles and need a little extra strength to get those fish away from the wood.

[Catch and Grease]

I wouldn't worry about it to much... Around 26-28 IPT is pretty universal.

I generally like a faster reel for everything that doesn't come through the water like an umbrella lol

[EvanT123]

I would use what you have.

[sprint61]

I wouldn't worry about it to much... Around 26-28 IPT is pretty universal.

I generally like a faster reel for everything that doesn't come through the water like an umbrella lol

This

[Dwight Hottle]

Nontechnical answer iis anything hard to retrieve use a slower ratio. Easy to retrieve baits use a fast or faster ratio.

[Darren.]

Welcome aboard! Dwight and C&G have good answers for you.

[Long Mike]

The ratio of the reel is almost immaterial under normal fishing conditions.  It all boils down to how fast you crank it.  In instances when I am fishing in areas where the bass could wrap itself up in branches, stumps, etc., I'll try to use a 7+ ratio, just to ****** them out ASAP.

[SoFlaBassAddict]

Use what you're comfortable with. More and more people seem to be gravitating towards using faster reels for most baits now. There are plenty of times when I'll intentionally use a lower gear ratio reel to force myself to slow down.

[BrianinMD]

My thoughts are if fishing a bait which the rod is used to impart action, fastest ratio possible especially if there is heavy cover/weeds around. Others a 6.x:1, except for deep cranks which I drop to a 5.x:1.

[WIGuide]

That really boils down to personal preference. For some it's easier to focus on slowing down with a faster reel and for others it's easier to slow down. Personally I don't have much of an issue slowing down so I use almost all 7.1:1 ratio reels. 

[Montanaro]

I took my 30 ipt 7 to 1 ratio reel on the lake last weekend. I was simply cranking my crankbaits too fast and slowing down to an effective speed was fatiguing. Also I tried a moderate/deep diving crank and it didn't have the power to pull it like my 5 to 1 does. (Both tatulas)

[Robert Riley]

Gear ratio is proportional to inches per turn. So lower ratios will stay in the strike zone longer; higher ratios are obviously faster, so you'll want that for plastics, topwaters, anything where you need to reel in slack line very quickly. Kind of like a car, lower gears will have more power, so high resistance baits, like swimbaits or crankbaits call for a lower ratio. 

 

Generally:

7:1 plastics, jigs, topwaters

6:1 squarebills, spinnerbaits (personally swimbaits)

5:1 cranks, swimbaits

[Bruce424]

Just get a 6.?:1 gear ratio and you'll be okay. Just reel faster or slower.

[Ozark_Basser]

Dont get too hung up on gear ratios. Although for deep diving cranks, the lower gear ratios are better in my opinion.

[Redlinerobert]

I use the ratio of the length of my arm to the distance of the fishing rod to decide which to use. 

[matuka]

Like others have said, don't get too hung up on it. It gets too cumbersome to set up your tackle according to gear ratios. Lots of pros are professing higher gear ratios for lots of techniques. They also get all the line they can eat to fill all those reels. And where can you put all those extra reels in the boat? Personally I have found moving baits too fast, to be more problematic than the inability to "catch up" with your reel. So currently my selection is this: 5:1 or slower for swimbaits and a few crankbaits. I have one 7:1 for t-rigs or flipping. EVERYTHING else is 6:1, and that's about 80% of all of it. Pretty simple.