bassinyea

I have a lews bb1 for deep cranking and not having the instant anti reverse definately gives it a different feel. The real difference is that when you have a reel in which the handle shaft/crankshaft rides inside a roller bearing like in instant anti reverse reels it loses some of the free feel of the handle. Kinda hard to explain unless you have felt the difference. I guess I would describe reels with IAR as having more of a stiff feel when reeling and the bb1 has a looser, freeer feeling. I personally like it for what i use it for. I do not think having instant anti reverse is all that important on a crankbait reel in particular.

The spool yardage doesn't make a difference in the lighter lures. One thing about the spool on the mg, it isn't drilled which means it wont throw the lighter cranks as well. The tournament pro has a drilled spool which is lighter weight and it spins up quicker which is better for lighter lures.

lews reels have been great for me so i think you will be happy. Like 21farms said above about the BB1, it does cast differently than the other reels and is meant for heavier lures. It doesnt have any magnets to fine tune your casting for lighter lures. When casting lighter lures 1/4 oz or so, I always use more magnets than centrifugal braking and when casting heavy crankbaits and jigs, use more of the centrifugal braking and turn the magnets down. If it were me I would get the BB1 for your deep diving crankbaits in 5:1 and a super duty 7:1 for your frogs. Everything else would be a tournament pro for me in the appropriate gear ratio. Have fun with your purchase. On another note, I also purchased a regular speed spool and a tournament MG and while i think they are great reels, just having the magnetic cast control I seem to lose some distance casting heavier baits than i would like. I stick to the tournament series and above for all of my lews reels because I like the dual cast control. Even though they proclaim the BB1 as a crankbait reel, I believe you will get better distance and more control on smaller crankbaits with a tournament pro. I think the 6:4 ratio for shallow cranks would work well for you though.