It looks like I’ve messed up my right forearm while fixing the car. It’s badly pulled muscle I think. Pain is getting worse from day to day. I’m going to see the doctor this Friday but since some of my regular meds interfere with healing of my body I might not be all fixed before season. Bummer. I need to consider the worse case scenario and prep for it.
How difficult it would be to learn casting with my left arm? I know some people have done it. What about fly tying?
Any advice? I might have to start learning now or miss the spring season!!!
I was right handed all my life and it took very very long time for me to learn typing with both hands - the slow learning curve I guess…
I spent an hour one day trying it. After the hour, I was able to carry 30 ft of line and shoot to 40 ft like said above, hit a bathtub size target. Give it a shot. It’s useful on the stream in given situations.
Do it. I cast southpaw all the time, but then again I am left handed. I practice semi regularly with my right, and can do pretty well up to about 35 feet or so.
I cast with both hands due to back issues. In the beginning you’ll need to think about correct line pickup and stroke mechanics. You just need to do it for a while and will become second nature. Obviously, start with short casts and build from there.
One nice side effect is once your right arm heals you’ll still be able to use either hand for casting. This has been beneficial on windy days and for changing casting angles in tricky situations without the need to reposition yourself in the stream.
The biggest problem I had with casting left handed is line control with my right hand. Also, I still cannot double haul left handed.
Start with the lightest rod you have. I am pretty good with my 3 wt and am getting better with my 5 wt. Take your time and only practice for 10 to 20 minutes at a time. The one thing I found helpful was that my left hand didn’t have to unlearn the muscle memory of bait casting. Also, do some light lifting of free weights with your left.
Being able to cast decently with your off hand is a very good trick to have up your sleeve. As someone else said, often it is far easier to get a cast by switching casting arms than throwing your back cast into some brush.
A couple summers ago I had a husband and wife in my boat. The wife never held a fly rod before that day. With a few minutes of basic instruction she was actually casting well enough to start the float. (Women often learn faster.) She was in the front of the boat so I was on the left bank to make casting easier for her. Her casting was pretty darn good for a first timer. After a while we had to switch banks. As we approached the bank she put the rod in her left hand, and without missing a beat began to cast just as well left handed. When her husband and I expressed some surprise at how easily she switched hands she just looked at us and said, "I just thought that was what you were supposed to do.)
Rmeinds me of the old saying, “I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous.”
You will be fine. A few years back J.C. encouraged me to learn the Off Hand cast when I broke a bone in the pinkie finger of my casting hand. That’s when I learned to heed his advice as he kept me on the water that year during healing and recovery/rehab. As mentioned this is another weapon to add to your arsenal of fishing choices. I now practice my off hand casting every time I am out on the water.
Start out nice and easy. Short casts of up to 20 feet until you get the rod control and timing down. Then I would work for accuracy. This can be done well within the first day. After you have become comfortable with that then go for distance and accuracy.
I am left handed and not too long ago I broke it really bad with nerve damage and a year in therapy to get use back. You will be surprised at how fast you will adapt to using your weak hand for things like fishing, what pocket you put your wallet in, driving, eating, horse shoes, et al.
Two things I know for sure are if you know the basics and stick to them you will master them and develop muscle memory. Be strict in the basics; discipline yourself to do it perfect. If you fall short of perfect you will be as good as the rest of us lefties. Two, dexterity takes time and you will probably be better before you develop it but don?t let that stop you from trying. I still have a heck of a time tying flies on to tippets.
If you need flies let me know what you need and I will see if I can tie some for you.
Respectfully,
Sean
P.S. I have an extra left handed fly rod I could rent to you cheap.
“Piece of cake!” Nothing to it! Easy, except for; ya gotta use the other side of your brain, your master eye is on the wrong side now and you automatically cast two feet to the side of your target, the muscles in your off hand are wimpy and have no idea what co-ordination means and you will feel badly that your casting sucks so badly. Oh yes, the double-haul, ah, that is a fun one.
As many have stated it certainly can be done, even the tying. It will just take a little patience. I am left handed, I think lefties naturally pick up doing things right handed a little quicker than the other way around simply because we often have to, but that aside it just takes practice. I lost the top third of my left middle finger about 20 years ago and while that was healing I was able to even write legibly with my right hand. I have helped out with a few tying lessons and many times will reach around the student that is tying right handed and demonstrate how to make the wraps, place materials etc. Granted we were tying foam spiders and buggers, but the principal is the same.
I’m right handed but for some reason I make nice casts with my left hand. I get more loading and more precision so I’d say take a few practices and see how she goes. Like my buddy says, “You don’t know if you don’t throw.”
Last year at the Michigan Fish-In there was a “2 wt. Shoot Out”! The first event was Off Hand Distance! Using Supermans (aka JC) personal instructions (located here in the archives) I threw a 42’ cast with that little 6 & 1/2’ rod winning that part of the “Shoot Out”!!
Fly casting (or should I say fly fishing?) really is a two handed effort, unless you only want to fish 30 feet or less of line. Learning the basic casting stroke with your off hand isn’t all that difficult. What I find much harder to do is wrapping my brain around what to do with my “new” line hand for line control.
Back in my guiding days, I had the opportunity to “teach” many new flyfishers. Most of the problems newbies would run into after they got the 11:00 to 2:00 o’clock part down usually could be blamed on line control issues (ie, failure to strip line in enough line before starting the cast, letting the line slip or dropping the line too soon while casting, etc.)
My “regular hand” casting distance and line speed has significantly improved in the last few years to the point where I can routinely throw over 80 feet of flyline. The last 20 feet came around when I started “pantomine casting” every day for 5 -10 minutes, in effect ingraining in my mind the correct hand locations and movements for both hands through the casting stroke.
When I switch rods hands I find myself making the “newbie” line handling mistakes all over again! As silly as looks to the rest of the world out there, pantomine casting really does help and I am sure would make the switch over to a lefty much easier.
IMO, I would think that you can learn to cast with your left as we all did with our right and correct any mistakes that you have with your casting hand.
