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I tried a search and did not come up with what I was looking for. In several of the recent post's I have read that everybody recomended a reel with a high gear ratio. But I have not or at least do not remember if a reason why was given. Can some elaborate please. Personally I like lower gear ratio's when I fight bigger fish.

I'm an old rookie, but with the limited experince and one of the things I thank about is this. When the fish is coming toward you, you can reel in the slack in and keep up with the fish to some degree. Now, with that said the bigest fish i've caught is 5'6" spinner shark. On bigger sharks maybe it would be better to have lower gears. One thing I do know is that a lot of guy's use the Diawa SHV30 like I use and I haven't heard of any problem's landing fish out of a yak.

Generally, if fishing BTB you hope to get a 4:1 or better ratio with 6:1 being optimal. Doesn't mean you can't catch a fish with a 2.5:1 or 3:1. But as stated above if the fish turns toward you (and that happens a lot with sharks) you will need something to keep up with him or you may lose him or he can go under your yak dragging a lot of line and when you finally catch up you could have a real mess.

Hope this helps.

Troutless is right. A higher ratio is better. I use 6 to 1 Ratio most of the time. When any big fish heads right towards you and they do alot.
You want to catch up will them before they go under your kayak.

A lower ratio might be better from the beach but does not help from a kayak as the kayak will move towards the fish very easily.
I think TJ measured it only takes 3-4lbs of pressure to move his FnD with him in it.

The 5:1 gears in the 300 Series Newell reels are one of the features that make them a good BTB reel.

Got to stay on top of a charging fish.

The right set of gears could make the diff. between a shake off or a hookup on speedsters like Tarpon, etc.

I like 6:1, but on reels with a gearing to do this. They most often have a second gear box, making the reel have a long turn radius on the handle. This can or can not be a problem, just depends on the person.

5:1 seems to be the all around best, but you can catch fish on a 1:1 if needed.

Fla-Fish wrote: A lower ratio might be better from the beach but does not help from a kayak as the kayak will move towards the fish very easily.
I think TJ measured it only takes 3-4lbs of pressure to move his FnD with him in it.

Yep, had a scale with one of thoose indicaters of max weight. I hooked it to my anchor, then hook my line to it. I gave myself about 50' of slack.

I pulled until my kayak started to move toward the anchor. Looked at the scale, 4lbs.


If you are sideways to a fish or hang your legs overboard you can add pressure. But it is not much more. This is what we are dealing with, also one of the reasons that we can catch such large fish on small tackle.

As usual, I find myself in the position of contrarian. While high ratio reels are nice, they are not necessary for BTB. The main argument for them seems to be if a hot shark is running right at you. How often does that actually happen? Granted, I've only been fishing BTB for a couple of years, but I've never had a shark turn around from 100 yards away and head straight back under my yak. Even if that happened, I think I'd rather have enough slack to be able to use the rod to bring the line to the other side of the yak before the shark comes tight. In any other scenario, the belly of line being drug through the water will keep the line tight to the reel, and you won't have to worry about slack line. I have fished, perfectly happily, with reels from my trusty 209, that has a roughly 2.5:1 gear ratio, to my 7000s at 4:1, and have never felt I needed a higher gear ratio.

So, if you want to buy a new reel, and want a 6:1 gear ratio, go for it, but don't be talked into needing one.

Thank for all the different oppinions. It kind of sounds like any reel will work and just like with everything else some will work better than others.

Now here's another question for ya'll. Would you recomend level winds or no level winds? Personnally I prefer no level winds. With the exception of my ambassadors I remove my level winds before I ever use the reels. Over the years I have gotten pretty good at laying my line good and even regardless of if there is a 40lb fish or if I am just bring in bait.

Oops -- I was fixin' to answer before you posted. When I originally saw your thread, I was thinking low gear ratio would be better because of more power. I remember when the high gear ratio reels first came out for burning buzzbaits and other lures. They were fast but had lots of problems with power, even on largemouth. That's where my bias against high speed vs power comes from. But since then manufacturers have solved the problem of power vs speed and the "new" (in the last 20 years ) reels have both power and speed. Speed is always good if the reel can also do the other things. Power is probably the most important. You don't want to burn up an expensive reel.

If you can operate reels without level winds I would go in that direction. I used level winds last year and just absolutely wore them out on two good Shimano reels. I had to take them off.

Lots of big fish put a lot of stress on level winds.

I haven't have any trouble with the Penn or Abu levelwinds. Just keep them cleaned and maintained. I fish a lot of different reels. Some with levelwind (Penns and Abus only), some without. I have no preference.

Having said that, if you don't have any problems without, it's one less thing to potentially break.

I've been tempted to bring this jewel out to play again BTB.

It is my Accurate Custom Jigmaster w/5:1 gear upgrade.

Handle, frame, sideplates, frame, gears are compliments of Accurate Mfg.
Drag pressure plates and washers are Smooooooth Drag upraded.

I used it a couple times at high Island & Sea Rim last year and for over 15 years of offshore, inshore and surf.

This reel is one of my personal favorites.

I just wish I could bring my self to use it more .

You sure you want to use such a nice reel for BTB?

You better strap that puppy down tight in case you turtle.

Find yourself a used Penn Jigmaster 505HS and go fishing.

5:1 ratio...good line capacity, and they're dependable as the day is long.

Bighead

sherwood wrote:You sure you want to use such a nice reel for BTB?

You better strap that puppy down tight in case you turtle.

I don't have much of a need for reels I can't use when and where I want.