Looking at grabbing one of these but the 2 gear ratios have significantly different ipt. The 8:1 at 29" is going to be too fast for my micro/finesse cranks and Paddle tails but im worried the 7:1 are 24" may be a little too slow. For people who have these what ratio do you have and what are you using them for. Another option is the Millionaire CT SV which at 26ipt is more of what I'm used to. Lures will be between 1/8 - 1/4oz with 6 - 10lb braid. 

I have some 8:1 BFS reels and use them with crankbaits all the time. They deliver a superb presentation over flat cranks with tight wiggling swimming. I just slow down my retrieving, quite easy. But it's even easier to speed it up in a 7:1 reel. The differences over IPT are hardly perceptible in your case.

 

I don't like to  just crank lures. At least a very subtle twitching happens, even with crankbaits.

 

 

I dont have the Alphas Air but I do have have the Silver Wolf, the Millionaire CT, and the Aldebaran BFS. All three have slightly different IPT and I have used crankbaits on all three.  I just pay attention to how fast I want to reel and do so accordingly.  I don't get to caught up in it. 

 

As far as which reel I like the best... it's a tough call but the Aldebaran has been my favorite. I might change my mind as time goes on but so far it's the best caster between all of them for 1/8oz baits. The Millionaire CT is better at 1/4 oz baits and the Silver Wolf sort is the in-between, being great at soft plastic and ned rigs.

One reason the Japanese like high gearing on BFS is stream trout fishing, and throwing micro plugs upriver. 

 

I have 3 Daiwas set up for finesse, 6.3-geared Steez with Roro-X spool, 8.5-geared Zillion with Ray's Studio SV spool in ML, and 8.5-geared Silver Wolf with lighter AMO fixed-inductor spool. 

In my main salt finesse application, big fish sipping winter glass minnows, the low-geared Steez does have a touch advantage fishing micro plugs.  Big fish don't spend a lot of energy chasing tiny bait, because they don't gain a lot in return. 

 

I have a shorter, 88-mm handle on the low-geared Steez.   Both my high-geared Zillions have 105- and 100-mm handles, Avail and ZPI. 

You can tune both finesse and pick-up with handle pitch.  It's easier to turn a short handle faster, because you use more wrist and less arm.  The longer handle on high gears essentially gives you more resolution, since you're moving your hand farther through the rotation.  Both of these high-geared reels work fine for me in their niches, ML with 1/8-oz jighead and plastic bodies, and finesse topwaters and micro jigs. 

 

Adding on-topic info.  Alphas Air is making inroads for inshore ML on TX coast. 

A friend on TKF added his recently, following YouTube reviews on the same application (and followed my lead on Omen Green ML rod). 

https://texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=2331798

It seems like a higher gear ratio should be more versatile with the addition of handles so I'll grab the 8:1. Thanks for the replies.