Whats The Deal With Left Hand Spinning & Right Hand Casting Reels?

Im right handed and use left hand crank casting AND spinning reels. I cast and set the hook with my right hand, so it just makes sense to me to use left hand crank reels. I see guys and gals all the time who are right handed use right hand casting reels, but left hand spinning. They cast with their right, then move the rod to their left hand to fish. They will cast a top water bait then while the bait is still in the air, hurry and switch to the left hand so they can start cranking as the bait hits the water. Just an observation, but Im sure this will hit a nerve in some people. ???

The very first baitcasters were originally large, heavy, and with low gear ratios
They were difficult to turn the handle with a big fish on with the non dominant hand
Thus, a right handed person purchased a RH retrieve with the handle on the right hand side
This tradition has continued

As materials have improved (smaller, lighter, higher gear ratios); the handle can be turned just as easily with the non-dominant hand

These days it all comes down to preference

Solving the mystery.

Outdoor Life

I started fishing in the late 1950's and I never saw anything but a right handed baitcasting reel. But you could buy right or left handed spinning reels. Today's spinning reels are designed so you can put the handle on either side. For baitcasters, I only buy left handed reels so I can throw with my (stronger)right hand and crank with my left. Only makes sense to me not to have to switch,but as cctex said, it's a matter of preference.

I'm VERY right hand dominant. I cast both types with my right, because I can't cast left handed, then switch the rod to my left hand to crank with my right. However, I flip and pitch only with my left hand. I guess 40 years of muscle memory won't let me change.

I'm glad because my right bicep was getting ripped using spinnging rods all the time. Switch to the baitcaster to even things out.

I'm right handed and have always cast and retrieved with my right hand. It feels comfortable and never has been a problem for me. I did try retrieving with left hand for a while and couldn't get used to it.

I'm a righty and switch my spinning gear to right hand retrieve, I cast and flip left handed though. My guess is you do what was taught and if nobody taught you it was just what felt right like me.

A leftie, here, and I use my left to cast, right to reel for spinning and baitcasters . . . the way I think most people would do it naturally without influences, biases, limitations on availability (casting with your dominant side and reeling with your opposite hand).

Hmm, I'm also 64 so several other posts, the article too, mention the rationale behind it. Makes sense.

Just sort of thinking back to when I was a kid fishing, so back in the 1960s, I and others typically used spincasters like Zebcos. I just don't recall there ever being any right and left reeling options, that they all came with a right handed reel.

For the more expensive reels, most of us would look through magazines like Field & Stream and various catalogs . . . and dream of owning a high end red-colored Ambassador. I think they were all right handed reels, too.

So, this might be it, just another one of those things that starts one way, the reason for it disappears along the way, but it remains. Angling's version of Newton's First Law of Motion.

Brad

those are just the people who haven't realized their spinning reel is convertible to right hand reel

I like holding the baitcaster in my left hand for hook set but probably could do it either way. It pains me to watch lunkerstv fish

we are all a little goofy in our own way !

i do the righty lefty deal

i will reel it with my teeth if i have too !

Who cares. You have the option.. do what feels good for you. There is really no need or benefit in over analyzing this.

I am right handed. I use left handed casting reels, and make the same adjustment on my spinning reels as most if not all allow you to change it. I never hacve to switch hands and that's how I like it.

I don't care what other people do, I do what works for me.

NO problem here.

I have never known anyone who reels with his hand in exactly the same position as when he made his cast. Do you guys reel and set the hook with your index finger on the "trigger", your other three fingers on the handle, and your thumb behind the reel?

Or do you palm the reel?

If you palm it, how do you go from the casting position to palming without at least momentarily switching the reel to the other hand?

http://texasfishingforum.com/forums/ubbt..._ri#Post9319581

Seems to really be a pet peeve of yours

That's funny right there. I guess we know the reason for the question now.

it just makes sense if you are comfortable using a left handed spinning reel that you go to a left handed conventional reel, if for anything else then to save time switching all the time.

I'm the exact same way.

Uh oh, here we go again......

i assure you this situation is not that relative in my world --
america is a beautiful place - land of the free -- i couldnt give a rats rear end what people think about the way i operate my equipment -likewise i dont care how they operate theirs

if it works for you go for it !

i believe there is so many more aspects of the fishing game to concentrate on

just my 2 cents !

I am fairly ambidextrous. My problem is a coordination thing... I have trouble getting my left hand to perform the reel motion without "thinking about it". Speed and circular motion the handle are better with my right hand, but sensitivity rod movement, and the feel of a bite is more in tune on my left.

I played Clarinet for years, so my fingers in both hands worked as a unit. When I tried to play piano, I couldn't get my left hand to do something different from my right... I could do static cords, but attempting to keep a moving Rhythm while my right hand played the melody, or a combination melody I just couldn't do. That has transferred to my fishing.

I set my spinning reel up the same way as my bait casters for that reason. Drop shotting my left wrist is just more finnesse, and my "non-dominant" arm can set a hook just fine.

Spinning reels should be reeled left-handed. Just the way God intended it.

Obviously you just flip the spinning reel over and upward and reel backward! Problem solved!

You see folks doing that now and then and you have to ask yourself... how comfortable is that?? Besides gravity usually taking over on the reels you would think reeling backwards just plain sux.

p

I actually watched Aaron Martens doing that on Bassmaster Live. I couldn't believe what I was seeing, but he did it several times. He even held the baitcaster so the handle was on top a few times. I wouldn't do it, but I ain't gonna question his technique either. Haha.

To each his own. I converted over in the late 80's when there were few left handed baitcasting choices. I would guess 95 percent of all bass fishermen used right handed reels exclusively. All the best lefties were middle of the road quality and the best ones were all made by Shimano.
Most people also used left handed spinning reels.


I remember when they started making the first top of the line reels both right and left handed. I think that was in the late 90's. The first team Daiwa was the most goofy thing. It was essentially a right handed reel that had the levelwind on the other side of the reel. A bar which pivoted underneath the reel made the levelwind work. The worm gear that drove the levelwind was at the back so they did not have to redesign the whole reel. I think I still have one.

Anyone can use one if they want to. I am not a leftie by any means but all it took was using it exclusively for a couple days before it became comfortable. I use both right and left handed baitcasters. My daughter was taught on both and uses both types with equal ease.

even funnier then that i fish with a guy that uses a spinning real with a left sided handle but when they use the bait caster they will cast it and then flip the reel upside down and real it that way so he can reel it with his left hand