Switching hands for casting
Hi All,
I am pondering a switch. My right, usual, casting hand is bothering me. Yeah, see the doctor, but has anyone gone from right to left? I am thinking about it because maybe using my "off" hand might make for better casting. My thinking is that the left doesn't have the spinning rod motion and maybe I can "train" myself to cast better.
Thoughts? Thanks, Mike
Hey Mike, I have a badly torn rotator cuff on my right arm and have been dealing with it for too long and have come to use my left arm quite a bit. Note that this is also an advantage when fishing close quarters on the back of a drift boat. It does take a while to get use to, but the roll casting is no problem at all right from the start.
I have tried casting left handed, my left hand wants to cooperate, my right hand protests greatly. I have not been able to get my right hand to strip line, haul, etc. Good luck.
Want to hear God laugh? Tell him Your plans!!!
That has been my challenge as well.Originally Posted by Uncle Jesse
" If a man is truly blessed, he returns home from fishing to the best catch of his life." Christopher Armour
Mike,
A number of years ago I had a serious injury to my right shoulder so I started casting left handed, which is my 'off hand'. I did this for about 3 years until my right shoulder was decent enough to start using it again. I got to where I was a fairly decent caster with my left hand. I couldn't put a fly within 6 inches of a target like I could with my right hand but I could do it within a foot or so. Practice, practice, practice, that is the answer. Everyone should learn to cast decently with their off hand. Like Hickory said, it is a real advantage when in the back of a drift boat or when a strong wind is taking the fly and line across you. The grabbing of the line and the strip in will come with, you guessed it, practice, practice, practice.
Larry ---sagefisher---
I try to do some left handed casting every time I go fishing.
There are times that it helps to be able to it.
Castwell always said that you should be able to do it.
Rick
Larry and Rick have the right idea. Remember your off hand doesn't have all that stupid stuff developed yet! It will also help remove that "Stupid Stuff" when you go back to the strong side and make it cast better too.
Quite true. Learning to cast left got me to think more about the basic mechanics, not what muscle-memory from decades years ago is telling me to do.
Bob
It brings up one of my all-time favorite words; ambisinister.
Ambidextrous comes from Latin... Ambi- both or either and Dexter- right or right-handed; so equally right-handed with either hand.
Ambisinister, also from Latin... Ambi and Sinister- left or left-handed; so equally clumsy with either hand...
Have been casting either-handed for years and years mostly because small stream silvers require it, but also because I like to play with odd-ball casts. Off-handed makes them seem odd immediately.
Just remember to start with very short casts to get the timing down then slowly add a foot or three to the cast, do that for a while and add a little more.
Larry ---sagefisher---
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