I am looking to put together a set up for medium diving/square bill cranks...any recommendations on reels you've had good experiences with for cranking?

I've fallen in love with the Shimano Curado DC. With 12lb test this reel will outcast a my Shimano Chronarchs and Lew's Tournament Pro reels. I fish the DT-6 and balsa squarebills a lot.

Shimano also makes the SLX DC priced around $190 if that's closer to what you'd like to spend. You don't give up much with the SLX compared to the Curado. I haven't fished it but handled one in store after buying my Curado and I wouldn't hesitate to pick up the SLX DC to save some money. The SLX at $190 is cleaner and better engineered than the BB1 Pros and other Lew's reels around that same price point.

I use the ~6.2:1 and 12lb test for most of my shallow to mid-depth cranking. I think my Chronarch is 6.5:1 and the Lew's is 6.4:1.

I own a lot of Lew's reels and they're okay but they aren't on par with Shimano. I'm transitioning away from Lew's after using them almost esclusively for the last 6 or 7 years. I have very little experience with Abu or Diawa and would love to hear some opinions on those.

I use a Shimano Curado DC. 7.4:1 It is a solid quality smooth running reel and I can throw lighter square bills up to a 5XD and not have to adjust the reel. It has proven to do as advertised when throwing light baits into a little wind and all but eliminate bird nests.

Agree with the above^

Tatula 100-It’s a little Beast

Tatula ct. You don't really need a DC reel for cranking unless you have a problem backlashing a reel.

I love my DC reels. I’ve got one Curado and a few SLX. I’ll probably keep buying the SLXs unless I run into deals on the Curados.

Daiwa Tatula 150P

I like the K series Curado, for square bills I would choose a 6:1.

Any reason you guys don't like lower gear ratios for smaller cranks? I'm just curious...I haven't fished smaller cranks much

My personal opinion, the smaller crank baits get down faster and it is all about a reaction bite so you want it to be moving along at a pretty good pace. Also, they don’t have anywhere near the resistance of a big crankbait so it won’t wear you out nearly as fast. I can only imagine how good a deep crankbait would be if somehow it had the same resistance as a squarebill.

Fantastic reel. I have several of them. I use one on a 7ft 3in rod for buzz baits.

Because they are small and have very little water resistance so what would be the point in using a slow gear ratio reel. You can slow down with a faster gear ratio reel if you need to but you can't speed up very much with a low gear ratio reel. I use a low gear ratio reel for deep cranks that are heavy and have a lot of water resistance.
Sometimes you will get more bites when you burn it back to the boat.

I appreciate the info guys!

Daiwa Tatula is now my go to for all types of fishing. I prefer the 200 for extra line since I use heavy braid.