So this may be a stupid question, but I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately.
Do you cast and reel with the same hand? I cast with my right hand and reel with my left (although I’m right handed). Watching TV the other day I noticed a guy casting AND reeling with the same hand and thought it looked odd. The flip side of this is that it totally made sense at the same time. This also prompted me to look at my saltwater/deep water gear. All of my spinning reels are set for left handed retrieve. I was honestly questioning myself as to why I had them set up like that when it’s very easy to simply switch hands after making the cast with spinning gear.
Anyway, I’m just curious if anyone else has ever thought about this and what your thoughts/opinions may be.
My fishing partner and I go back and forth on this all the time. I’m cast right/reel left, he’s cast right/reel right; his argument is that his right hand is stronger and leads to less fatigue when fighting large fish. I hate switching hands and don’t notice any decrease in strength. Personal preference.
Whne I first learned to fish many years ago, I learned on spinning reels. They all had the reel handle on the left side. You cast and held the rod with your right hand, reeled in line and fish with your left. I was right handed. Seemed quite natural that this was the ‘optimum’ method for a right handed fisherman.
Bought a level wind casting reel eventually. At the time, all the ones I’d seen had the reel handle on the right side. If you were right handed, you cast the rod with your right hand, then switched hands after the lure hit the water and operated the reel with your right hand. Seemed backwards to me. I wasn’t as good at manipulating the rod to give action to a lure with my left hand on the rod. My left hand wasn’t as strong nor did it have the same reflexes as my right hand/arm did. Setting hooks was difficult on the bass I was after.
When I saw my fisrt left hand crank level wind reel, I switched immediately.
On my first fly rod, the reel that came with it was right hand retrieve. Wasn’t built to be switched. Took me some time and and a bit of work, but with a file, drill, and dremel I made it work so that I could fish without changing hands after the cast.
Makes absolutely no sense to me to change hands. The dominant hand needs to be on the rod. That’s where the power, control, and finesse is. The weaker hand can easily learn to crank the reel and strip the line.
Besides, when I was bas fishing, it seemed that I’d get lot of strikes while changing hands. Not the best time to not have absolute control over the equipment. I’ve found the same thing to be true when fly fishing. Lots of takes in the first few seconds after the fly hits the water.
All that being said, I think it’s possible for us to adapt to either way of doing it. I know lots of fishermen, both fly and conventional tackle, that do quite well with it with what I’d call backwards.
I started fishing with spincast reels. Cast right, switch hands and reel right.
It took some getting used to casting right/reel left when I switched to spinning reels. But I did that for many years, and it got to be 2nd nature. I made it make sense…I told myself I had better control over the distance of my cast if I could keep the rod in the casting hand, while slowing/stopping my line with my left hand.
So, now with fly reels, I still cast right/reel left.
I don’t think its right or wrong, its whatever works. But I’ve seen those that want so badly to reel right-handed with spinning gear, that, instead of simply switching the handle to the other side of the reel, they will turn the rod over so the reel is upside-down on TOP of the rod handle! :lol:
I don’t think they are intended to work that way, but people do it.
I cast all rods right handed; reel left handed on spinning and fly, right handed with bait casting. Switch hand on the baitcaster takes a split second, can happen with the bait in the air on a crank bait. I have good strength in my left hand so working a bait is natural. I am half left handed, anything I do two handed I do left handed, bat, sweep, dig, chop, etc.
If you casts right handed you should reel left handed. This is most necessary in salt water and with large fish. You’ll want to have your rod in your dominate (strongest)hand. There is also less of a chance of messing up and breaking off a fish while switching back and forth.
So it seems that I’m not unusual. I’m not ambidextrous, but I do a lot of things with both hands so it never occurred to me that I may not be following the “guidelines” (if there is such a thing).
And I’ve seen people that fish a spinning reel on top of the pole. . . .can make for an interesting show if they’ve hooked something big.
I learned & grew up with baitcasting gear…cast right, with the reel handle “up”. It quickly became essentially a part of the cast to simply “lay” the rod in my left hand as part of the follow through & retrieve with my right. With both spinning & fly reels “under” the rod, casting right handed & retrieving left handed seem equally natural.
Mike
I suppose a great deal has to do how you were “brought up” fly fishing. I’ve tried reeling left but just does not feel right for this old man. And speaking of old casting and spin cast rods I’ve seen and had them reel both ways.
I am ambidextrous (I am a lefty that never was allowed to be, because of fountain pens!
I can cast either with my right or left hand. Thanks to some sadistic school teachers with 18-inch wooden rulers! I was a switch pitcher in fast pitch softball. But at the plate I was a stricly a righty!
When casting I do not switch hands, I either cast with the right/reel in with the the left, or cast with the left/reel-in with the left. There is a time and place when you need to cast with the other hand.
Most reels can be setup (some sort of mechanism/switch inside the reel) so the reel can be rewound with the right or left hand. Normally I am a Cast Right/Reel Left.
Whatever you are comfortable with, is the correct setup for you. If you want to experiment, do so, but you do not have to feel that you are wrong and everyone else is right.
Lefty Kreh and most salt water fly fishers cast and reel with the dominant hand, for Lefty that would be left handed.
Their reasoning is that fly reels are not multipliers, that is one crank of the handle gets you one rotation of the spool. That is not true with spinning reels or casting reels where 5:1 retrieves are possible. Salt water fly anglers argue that line retrieval is fastest with the dominant hand even if your normally a left handed reeler in fresh water fishing. So they say switch hands becasue maximum retrievve trumps swithching hands in salt water.
Fresh water anglers reply that unlike salt water angling where the strike occurs on the retrieve, strikes on dry flies can be immediate and can occur before one can switch hands. They also argues that salt water anglers don’t cast all that often, it is more of a wait until a fish is spotted type fishing. Fresh water anglers cast often and so there is going to be a lot of switching rod and reel hands.
With casting and spinning reels one has to reel the line in before casting again but not so with fly reels where on can make cast after cast without reeling in much or any line. So why switch hands if you don’t have to?
Fly anglers fish most often in moving water and that fly line control needs to be immediate and not delayed by switching hands. They argue that most mends are in the direction of the casting hand. That is, most often right handers will fish the the left bank when wading upstream. Most mends therefore will be made upstream and if you were to make that with the left arm you would be mending across body with the left hand and would not be able to make as large as mend as if you were mending and leaning upstream with your right hand. When was the last time you saw a mend in salt water bone or tarpon fishing???
Lefty Kreh and most salt water fly fishers cast and reel with the dominant hand, for Lefty that would be left handed.
Their reasoning is that fly reels are not multipliers, that is one crank of the handle gets you one rotation of the spool. That is not true with spinning reels or casting reels where 5:1 retrieves are possible. Salt water fly anglers argue that line retrieval is fastest with the dominant hand even if your normally a left handed reeler in fresh water fishing. So they say switch hands because maximum retrievve trumps swithching hands in salt water.
Fresh water anglers reply that unlike salt water angling where the strike occurs on the retrieve, strikes on dry flies can be immediate and can occur before one can switch hands. They also argues that salt water anglers don’t cast all that often, it is more of a wait until a fish is spotted type fishing. Fresh water anglers cast often and so there is going to be a lot of switching rod and reel hands.
With casting and spinning reels one has to reel the line in before casting again but not so with fly reels where on can make cast after cast without reeling in much or any line. So why switch hands if you don’t have to?
Fly anglers fish most often in moving water and that fly line control needs to be immediate and not delayed by switching hands. They argue that most mends are in the direction of the casting hand. That is, most often right handers will fish the the left bank when wading upstream. Most mends therefore will be made upstream and if you were to make that with the left arm you would be mending across body with the left hand and would not be able to make as large as mend as if you were mending and leaning upstream with your right hand. When was the last time you saw a mend in salt water bone or tarpon fishing???
