My main fishing style for the last few years (I switch to a new style every few years to learn something new) has been various versions of casting and/retrieving lures with spinning reels.
I tend to prefer the high retrieve rates when selecting reels and pair that up with longer rods that mitigate not having lower gearing when fighting larger fish with the right technique of the arms and rod fighting the fish more than gear ratio, so I'm already somewhat prepared for the di
vantage of not having low gearing for fighting an occasional big fish. Besides, it sort of fits with my deep sea fishing experience to use a technique that doesn't rely solely upon cranking power.
There's a new reel that intrigues me. It has an extremely high 44 inches of line recovery per crank rotation! This is quite uncommon in small light reels. It's even more than my huge surf fishing reel (42 inches of line recovery per crank rotation) and that reel is five times heavier! It's much more line recovery per crank than any of my reels in that smaller class and more than any I know about. Is more line recovery per crank rotation a trend?
I'm tempted to buy it. As I get better with long casts and covering lots of water with casts and retrieves, it seems like it will make an easier job of it and with quicker retrieving after I'm out of the targeted zone, I'm able to get the lure into the next targeted zone quicker.
Does anyone have experience with the higher gear ratio reels or otherwise have thoughts on the advantages and di
vantages?
It's new at Cabela's:
"The Abu Garcia Revo Rocket spinning reel uses 7.0:1 Rocket Gear Ratio for blazing fast retrieves"
[signature]
I get to answer my own question because I just ordered it and should have it this week. I also see there are no reviews. I suppose it's that new. I think it will be my favorite reel for long casts to cover a lot of water fast, linger in the targeted zone and retrieve fast for the next cast to be quickly to the next target.
I'll post on how I like it and I have a lot of new rods and lures to try with it. I'll experiment with which rods cast which lures best.
Sunday should be a nice day, so I might give surf casting practice a try at Sandy pond. I know that looks funny, but practicing with new equipment close by makes fishing more productive for when I take more time to go to a reservoir and in the case of surf fishing, the ocean.
That proved to be the case for seeing lure action with the advantage of the fishing pier and clear water. I especially gained advantage by learning to steer and control the depth of swim bait. It helped me to have confidence to fish them in rocks and weeds because that's often where the fish find cover.
[signature]
[#0000FF]Hope it works well for you. As I suggested in our PM exchange, I suspect it will work best for fishing your lures at long range for small to midsize fish. With the high speed retrieve it will have less cranking torque for winding in larger fish. But that is a good problem to have...and only a problem made available if you are able to cast far enough to reach them...and to work the lure right when they want a fast retrieve.
I know whatcha mean about getting funny looks from fishing with strange stuff on the community ponds. I have long used Willow Park Pond, which is near my home, to field (water) test new lure designs. On one trip I was checking the best speed and action for fishing some new chatter baits. These were larger sized lures I put together for bass, walleyes and pike. But there were some recently planted albino trout in there that went berserk over those noisy lures. They kept zinging in and whacking them as I reeled them close to shore. Trouble was they were either dumb or just inexperienced. They didn't know enough to chomp on the hook part. Never did catch one but it was fun to watch them try to get a new lip ornament.
Oh yeah, I drew a small crowd of onlookers who enjoyed the show too. Until a couple of non English speaking teen-agers began crowding in front of me and were trying to snag the fish following my lures. I told them to get away and quit but they didn't stop. So I put a foot on one's backside and pushed him into the water for a more direct approach. He was not happy. Nor was his father who showed up a few minutes later. But once Dad noted that I was about twice his size he mellowed out and left with the two younger lads. Discretion is the better part of cowardice.
[/#0000FF]
[signature]
Great story! Thanks for the advice. The huge goldfish in my picture came from Willow Pond. I've seen it jump about three feet out of the water a few years later. Was it saying hello to me? It's was even bigger! Have you seen it jump?
On the retrieve speed advantage being at the price of less torque to reel in the big fish -- no problem as technique and a longer rod with plenty of bend solves all of that.
My fishing experiences as a child was deep sea fishing for fish as big as me, so I grew up with cranking the reel alone being insufficient and had to work the rod with basically my full body to move the fish in and only retrieving line with lowering the rod to take up slack.
I suppose with using arms and shoulders to work the rod, the extreme high line take up of 44 inches per crank rotation will take up slack even quicker with that technique and give the fish less chance to take the slack back. I'll soon find out and post on the results.
My other best spinning reels with a conventional great ratio have been getting the same treatment albeit for another reason as they do have the torque and quality to simply reel in the big ones. In fact, at a comparable weight (it's magnesium) it has a huge 35 pounds of drag adjustment that is mostly unheard of in a spinning reel this light! Though it does have gearing to handle that much pull, I still work the big fish with the rod and feel better that I'm not working the gearing so hard and figure it will last longer that way since I know engineering is all about compromises and the gearing is lightweight aircraft aluminum alloy instead of heavier bronze or hardened steel that can have longer life for those who crank it hard against resistance instead of slack.
When I report, I'll be comparing the two, but likely without the TubeDude advantage of the same released fish being caught again.
[signature]
I tried the reel today at Sandy Pond. I like the fast retrieve rate. I spooled on cheap Walmart $1.74 line in 12 pound test because I was wondering about a different lip shape of the spool and wanted to see how much I could over spool before it causes reliability problems of pulling off extra loops because I'd rather waste cheap line to find out before spooling expensive line. I did have to take off 50 yards and perhaps will need to take off a little more, but a tiny planter rainbow trout interfered by biting my lure (tiny Lucky Craft) on my second cast with it just before dark.
I reeled off the spool laying flat to fill it and got the right direction, but the line spool is much bigger than the reel spool and that creates some twist, so probably I should use the machine when I put on the good line.
[signature]
Following up over six years later, I've enjoyed the fast retrieve of both the lightweight reel and the reel that is five times heavier. I find them to be interchangeable and question the virtue of lightweight that seems to be so important to others that sometimes strength and durability is sacrificed. What am I missing? I'm open to not having "common sense" and that is a given, so please explain even what would be otherwise assumed that I should already know.