Everything you need to know about retrieve ratios

If you have a baitcasting reel, or are interesting in getting one, you may have heard of the term retrieve ratio. Yet in some cases and it can hard or confusing to find out what this means and why it is relevant to your reel.

When you see a retrieve ratio mentioned, the number you are looking at refers to the gears on the reel - you will often see something like a 2:1, 6:1, 7:3 ratio quoted. The first number indicates how many times the spool wraps around the line and the number on the right is per revolution. In this context, 1 revolution is 1 complete turn of the handle.

In the examples previously quoted, a 6:1 ratio would mean that the spool wraps around 6 times for one full turn of the handle. This indicates it is a fast reel. To give an example of why, this would suggest that you are able to reel in a fish a lot quicker than some other reels - turn the handle once, and you have already retrieved 6 spools worth of line.

For comparison, the higher the first number is, compared to the second often shows a better quality reel but it also suggests that the angler does not use as much energy per cast because they will be turning the handle less, whether there is a fish attached to the end or not. This is not always the case however as there are a lot of other factors involved in a reels quality outside of the gear ratio, such as drag, levelwinds, smoothness and so on.

With that said, beginners often find a faster spool is also harder to control. If you are new to using baitcasting reels then it might be an idea to use one with a low ratio to start of with, so you can get the hang of it first. If you cannot control it properly you will only end up with birds nests and other problems and the less time you spent fixing these problems, the more fishing time you will have.