Fishing reel with a three speed planetary drive and drag control

A fishing reel with a three speed planetary drive and means of drag control, said planetary drive comprising:

• a planet gear carrier rotatably mounted in and axially restrained by a gear housing at one end of said reel;
• a hand crank fastened to an outboard end of said planet gear carrier outboard of said gear housing for driving said planet gear carrier;
• a ring gear mounted in said gear housing concentric with said planet gear carrier and restrained from rotating by said gear housing;
• two pairs of planet gears rotatably mounted in said planet gear carrier with external teeth on each of said planet gears in constant mesh with internal teeth of said ring gear;
• an axle with one end rotatably mounted in said gear housing at one end of said reel, and the other end rotatably mounted in a clutch housing at the other end of said reel, with said axle concentric with said ring gear and said planetary gear carrier;
• a high speed sun gear rotatably fixed to but axially slidable on said axle, with said high speed sun gear in mesh with an inboard pair of said planet gears when located at an inboard end of its axial travel;
• an intermediate sun gear rotatably mounted but axially fixed in said planet gear carrier, with external teeth on said intermediate sun gear in constant mesh with an outboard pair of said planet gears, and with internal teeth in a central bore of said intermediate sun gear in mesh with external teeth on said high speed sun gear when it is moved axially into the plane of said intermediate sun gear;
• internal teeth in said planet gear carrier arranged to mesh with external teeth on said high speed sun gear when said high speed sun gear is located at the outboard end of its axial travel;
• and
• a means for moving said high speed sun gear to selected positions along said axle.