P01135809
just the way i've always done it. we never used spinning reels growing up. we grew up with zebco 808 and 888's
I am right handed, cast left handed and retrieve right handed. No hand switching etc. Just the way I was taught as a kid. My Dad does the same, as does my Brother. Really helpful for flipping etc. No hand switching like I see on youtube from the chesty cams. Where I see people get strikes on the drop and don't even have a hand on the reel handle.
Right hand baitcasters and left hand spinning for me and I’ve tried both ways
I use right hand reels for casting but left hand for flipping. It is much easier to flip and not have to change hands to reel. I tried to use all left hand reels and did not like casting with them.
I'm all screwed up when it comes to right and left hand retrieve. My baitcasters is right hand retrieve. My spinning reels are all left hand retrieve. Almost impossible for me to change either one.
I started out with a spinning reel with handle on the left side as are most. My dad was left handed and all the bait casters with handle on the right suited him. He just assumed since those reels fit him, he should start me with a handle on the left side. So it is what I started with. My wife and all my kids use a reel with handle on the left side.
Aside from the fact that is how I started, I cant understand why someone would want to switch hands between casting and reeling and why someone would want to use a spinning reel with a handle on the opposite side than a bait caster. Why do folks think it normal to switch hands with a bait caster and not a spinning reel. That makes no sense to me.
been fishing 40 years a always used a baitcaster right hand crank and throw right handed .It like throwing a ball for a right handed person left hand aint working
Whenever this topic comes up, the elephant in the room is switching hands on the cast. And that does make a [slight] difference, more so in some situations than others. But when I started using left-handed bait casting outfits for Great Lakes smallmouths, I soon realized that having the rod in my dominant hand [right hand, for me] while trying to land fish was possibly an even greater advantage. It doesn’t make any difference to me which side others prefer to use in their bait casters, but if you’ve never tried it, you might find as I did that controlling those hard-fighting fish close to the boat is much easier with your dominant hand. If the fish makes a hard run at the boat and you need to take up a little more line, the rod stays more under control that way—unless you are truly ambidextrous.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
Everybody must be very young on here or started fishing when they were old. . When I started fishing, the only reels we had were the ones with the crank on the right side. That's before spinning reels. That's the reason I cast with the right hand, switch the rod to the other hand and crank with the right hand. There were no alternatives.
Glad you think we are young, Real L! However, my first left-hand bait caster was in the early 80s, which is nearly 40 years ago. Not going to admit how old I was then, but it was quite a bit more than 21. That said, there’s definitely a higher percentage of anglers younger than 40 using left-handers, at least from what I see.
John Clark — Findlay, Ohio
2003 Bass Cat Cougar FTD
2003 Evinrude 225HO
I don't buy the notion that switching hands during the cast results in lost fish. Its usually switched well before lure hits the water.
Boatless Bank Trash for now
I switched from Right handed to left handed. I crushed my left wrist some years ago. Arthritis set in and I could nolonger work a topwater bait or a jerk bait holding my rod with my left hand. My wrist couldn't take it for more than a few minutes. My first switch was to buy a couple of left handed reels just for topwater and jerk baits.
Some years later I broke my pinkie finger and between my wrist and that finger I had to switch the others. It was no big deal and is faster and more efficient.
I just practiced casting with my off hand because my first BC was right hand retrieving. I can pitch and cast just fine(I like to think) . I’ve tried LH reels and don’t like it.
Red Sox in 6!