Straight from the United States, casting fishing has today become a must in the French landscape. However, many of you are still wondering how to choose your casting reel. The profusion of reels available on the market, the shapes and the ratios certainly have something to do with it. Here is an article that could enlighten you to better understand the key characteristics and advantages of a casting reel, and therefore in the future how to choose your casting reel.
Anatomy of a casting reel
As explained in our article " Casting or spinning: which choice to adopt? A casting reel, or baitbasting, is a spinning reel spinning on its axis. Thus, the crank acts directly on the spool and makes it possible to reduce the number of parts (and therefore the weight) of the casting reel. The casting reel attaches to a casting rod from above.
A casting reel is made up of:
- From a frame closing the coil and gears.
- Of a crank, present on the right or on the left, often doubled for current fishing and simple for stronger fishing such as bigbait
- A release button allowing the reel to be released. It closes again at the first stroke of the crank.
- A fixed star combat brake under the crank. It allows to tighten loosen the reel during a fight to better control the fish.
- A friction brake near the crank. It allows the coil to be slowed down by friction to avoid its runaway.
- A centrifugal, magnetic or electronic brake. It allows to influence the speed of rotation of the coil. it can be adjusted according to the lure, the distance to be covered, the type of cast to be made and of course the wind.
- Weights for the centrifugal brake. They allow the speed of rotation of the coil to be accelerated. Weights placed in the center of the coil will turn faster.
- From a wire guide. This is the ring through which the thread or braid passes.
Advantages and disadvantages
A casting reel generally requires more learning time. Each throw must be controlled with the thumb in order to prevent the spool from continuing to spin on itself and creating what are called wigs ...
Controlling a casting reel is however synonymous with better casting precision and discretion when setting the lure.
Moreover, the wire being in the direct axis of the crank, the whole baitcasting provides more sensations during the animation of the lure, the attack and the fight.
The different profiles of baitcasting reels
Casting Low Profile Reel
A low profile casting reel is a casting reel whose foot is under the spool but whose crank axis is approximately at the height of the foot. There are hundreds of low profile casting reels on the market, each with their own unique features and benefits. Low profile baitcasting reels are the most popular reels due to their more oval shape. They are generally smaller than a round profile casting reel and are easier to handle.
Round Profile Casting Reel
A round profile casting reel is less conventional than a low profile reel. It nevertheless has its own technical characteristics. By its morphology, it also allows the coil to be filled with wire. This detail can be important for heavy fishing, requiring a large diameter of wire or braid, or for fishing large predators such as catfish or pike.
How to choose your casting reel according to the fishing technique?
Casting equipment, which is often more robust, generally makes it easier to fish with larger lures such as big baits. It is nonetheless perfectly suited to other fishing techniques.
We could for example talk about fishing with crankbait or with any lure with strong vibration. These lures require a lot more power when you reel and produce a lot of vibrations. For more comfort and due to the robustness of this material, a casting assembly is therefore often more appropriate.
We could also talk about jig fishing or frog fishing. These types of fishing often require removing the fish quickly from obstacles, responding to combat with great power, being precise on casting and reactive as soon as the lure hits the water. Line or braid diameters are also often larger than with other types of fishing.
In our opinion, the casting reel is therefore an asset for this type of fishing, especially when looking for large fish such as black bass, pike or even catfish.
How to choose your casting reel according to its ratio?
Many anglers pay little attention to the ratio of their reel. It is however a crucial element which influences enormously in the animation of a decoy, the technique employed and the launching of an attack.
The ratio (gear ratio) of a casting reel, or even spinning, represents the number of turns of the spool for each turn of the crank. For example, if a reel has a ratio of 6.4: 1, that means that each turn of the crank will generate 6.4 turns of the spool.
There are currently three types of ratios: slow, normal and quick. A slow ratio is between 5.0 to 5.9: 1. A normal ratio is between 6.0 to 7.0: 1, while a fast ratio is above 7.0: 1.
Here is a summary of the ratios and their equivalence in cm
| Reel Ratio | TMV (CM) |
| 6.2:1 | 66 |
| 5.5:1 | 55 |
| 6.4:1 | 64 |
| 8.1:1 | 81 |
| 6.4:1 | 64 |
| 7.3:1 | 76 |
| 8.1:1 | 81 |
Slow ratio casting reel
When the waters get colder and the fish are listless, a low ratio is ideal for slow, non-aggressive approaches. A low ratio also allows your lure to evolve longer in a given area and often in depth. A slow ratio casting reel is therefore generally used to very slowly recover large and heavy lures, such as spinnerbaits, swimbaits, big baits or even deep crankbaits.
Medium ratio casting reel
A medium ratio casting reel is the all-purpose reel, suitable for many techniques. If only one had to be chosen to start casting fishing, this would be it. This ratio is well suited for power-fishing and thus quickly beat the ground and play on the aggressiveness of the fish and trigger reflex attacks.
Quick ratio casting reel
A fast ratio cating reel is a reel that will be perfectly suited for fishing where the work and animation with the rod is important. Indeed, if you work a lot with your rod, you will need a high ratio to quickly retrieve your banner and immediately put you in contact with your lure during the animation or the touchdown. For example, we could use fishing techniques such as jerkbait, stickbait or even soft lures.
A quick ratio will also be essential if you are fishing in crowded areas. This allows fish to be quickly removed from these areas. We could, for example, use fishing techniques such as jig fishing, Texan fishing or even frog fishing in arches or water lilies.
Useful links to start casting fishing:
Casting or spinning: which choice to adopt?
Which fishing rod to choose according to the lure used?
