I can't reel with mine worth a darn, but, if you can, BPS has left hand retrieve Diawa Procaster Z and X reels on their website for $40! I'm thinking of ordering a Z and just trying to get the hang of it for that price. Just wanted to let everyone know--that's a great deal!

I am 20 and since I was about 15 I had been using reels set up for south paws. I never realized that they made them any differently. Sounds pretty stupid and ignorant, but all my reels were hand-me downs. I purchased my first right handed reel (curado, I LOVE IT)last year and it took me a while to get the hang of it. Just thought I would share!

To me it just makes sense for a right hand person to cast and "feel" with your right hand and leave the menial task of reeling to your left.
You aren't switching hands every cast!
Im teaching my 11 yr. old to do this and he has caught on very well.
Thanks for the reel notice at BPS!

Good question: it feels perfectly natural to reel a spinning reel with my left hand but the baitcaster feels weird. Why do you suppose that is?

Grew up trout fishing with spinning reels on the left side, but for baitcasters the left side retrieve just got in the way. Seemed like no matter how I was holding the rod, the line would find the handle when flipping.

I am working on learning to pitch and cast with my left hand so when the situation calls for it I can hit the target. Otherwise the right hand retrieve has not been an issue, swithching hands feels just as natural as anything else I do when fishing.

Fishbrain, if you try to order one it will only let you order the X not the Z reel.

My friend Mark is right handed and always reels with his left hand. He had fish on two of his poles so I grabbed one and could'nt reel it in. I said to him "I didn't know you were left handed." He said he wasn't. He told my I fished with a left handed pole. Still to this day he will argue with anybody that says he's wrong because he knows he's right.

I am amadextrous (spelling maybe wrong on that word) right or left hand reels and had a guy fishing with me grab my rod and couldn't even set the hook with it. I was using my left hand reels that day. He tried to hand it to me to reel, but by that time it was too late the fish got off.
Oh well, I'll catch that fish another day. Only thing is we blanked in the tournament that day. First bad tournament all year.
Thanks for the heads up fishbrain. Think I will go check BPS out.

I wish I was ambidextrious, in fact... I'd give my right arm to be ambidextrious !!!
I'm left handed and my wife is right handed. We were out fishing just after she had her rotor cup surgery a while back and she hooks a fair size cat and hands me her rod saying it was hurting trying to bring it in. Here's for y'all that run into this in the future..... I turned the rod over so the reel is on top and proceeded to reel it in for her. Easy way to change the rod from one handed to the other.
Have you gotten my first sentence yet ???
David C.

First thing I've read on the TFF in a while that made me laugh , thanks MrClyde !

fishbrain, that's funny I never thought of this. I grew up with spinning reels, and use Shimano Stradics, which you can switch the handle to either side. I leave then on the left, even though my baitcasters crank from the right. Just seems natural somehow. Maybe its because you don't "palm" a spinning reel like you do with a baitcaster. My wife, who is my fishing partner, puts all her handles on the right, but with a spinning reel, I just can't get used to it.

My brother and I get into this all the time because we can't use each others reels lol I am right handed and reel with my right. He is right handed and reels with his left. I just don't do well any other way. I generally keep my fingertips of my right hand on the rod while holding with my left. Anything else just feels WEIRD.

I've thought about this before and did a little research. If you think about it, when you are right handed, you cast with your right hand and your hand is not in the same position it is in while you are reeling in. So even if you wanted to reel with you left hand, you somehow have to get your right hand from the casting position to the palming position. How do you do it? You switch it to your left hand, think about it. So really, if you are right handed and wanting to use a left handed reel, you are adding a step.

On a spinning reel, your hand is in the same position while casting and reeling, so no switch is needed.

Pictchin'/flippin' is a little bit of an exception cause you usually keep your thumb on the bar and don't palm the reel. Lots of people use left handed reels to pitch, I find it more trouble than it's worth cause if I'm pitchin', I'm usually flippin' as well and the line gets tangled in the handle. I've found the perfect match for me is a castaic with the thumb bar, while flippin' and pitchin', the rod never leaves the right hand until it moves to the handle just after a hook set. I palm the reel with my left hand after a flip or pitch anyway to feel the line.

Man, that was long, hope it makes sense.

Guess I am one of the lucky ones, since I am left handed hehehe but I do use both right and left handed reels and keep both in the boat ! Depends on which direction I am running down the bank on which reel I use. I do tend to use the leftys more than the right handed ones. Never thought much about it til this post.......

I think your sense of feel for light bites would be better with the hand you normally use. Fortunately for me I am left handed as well. I never realized that righties had to switch hands to cast since I can do it all with the same hand.