Fishing Reel Gear Ratios | What You Need To Know

Fishing Reels, Fishing Rods, and Casting Videos
Bass pro Aaron Martens talks about the differences and benefits of gear ratios in fishing reels.
Transcript

I use all 7:1s.  I don't own a 6:3 anymore.  I'm one of the few guys that does that, but I use all 7:1 and try and get those new ones.  There's a 7:6 coming out, I think, and an 8:4 or 8:5 I’m begging them, Shimano, begging them.  The new reels, if you guys have old reels and, I mean, the new reels, most of them out there.  I know, I use a lot of Shimano stuff, they have bigger gears in them and usually the handles a little wider too. 

So actually a 7:1 is easier to reel in than an older 6.3:1.  And the torque and the leverage you have, I mean the gears are like, the gears are that big compared to our old gears.  It's almost at least a third bigger in diameter and just everything's better in them.  It's like a winch, it's just so easy.  So I crank my big crank baits and I throw the 6XD, the 10XDs, I throw all those on 7:1s.  But I have different reels, the bigger the bait gets I have the bigger 7:1s.  I have the Curado’s and stuff I use.  But the gear ratio, to me, I can Iaconelli, I use him as a reference, it's funny.  But he uses 5:3 or 5 something, 4:8s for cranking?  I get so irritated. 

It's so hard to believe, it's just so hard, I can't imagine.  I mean a lot of the guys do that still.  I talk to them and I see their reels and I don't know why they do it, really.  Maybe it's because the reels I use are that much better.  I don't know.  Not everybody, there's only a couple of guys on tour that use the reels I have, and that might be the reason why I'm able to use a 7:1.  But you should get those in the store.  They're coming.  They're going to be available in the US.

Got them on order.

Yeah.  When he gets those reels if you guys want to get the Porsche, just get one of them or two of them, try them out.  They're incredible.  It's a lot more control.  No it's not important, Russell will tell you.  They don't sponsor me so I'm not gonna talk about them.   But, I mean, they're all pretty good, it's just a lot more control.  So when you do get bit on a crank or something and you're, on a 4.8 you're doing this and you're cranking, well if you're moving forward a little bit on the boat and you're cranking like a ridge and you get bit, you don't have anything left.  I don't understand. 

On a 7:1 you're like this.  So you're not wearing yourself out, I mean you get bit, you just, you got him.  You can pull him to the water and if he comes at you, which spinnerbait and stuff they do, you can always keep the rod tight.  I almost never have to run backwards.  Maybe that's why those guys still do that a lot, they run back to the back.  They're jumping, you know?  They do.  I've seen them do that lately.  I've seen guys do that.  But I don't, I do that once in a while if I trip or miss a handle of something, but it doesn't happen ever.  I just grind on ‘em.  I do a lot of grind sets on the 7:1.  I mean it's literally just grrrr and then Gamakatsu’s are sharp.