Right or left

[Bill Kowalski]

Not to mention that the spinner bail should be closed with the free hand before reeling so that timing issue is irrelevant.  At least on spinners switching handle sides is quick and easy. 

[Further North]

5 minutes ago, Bill Kowalski said:

Not to mention that the spinner bail should be closed with the free hand before reeling so that timing issue is irrelevant.  At least on spinners switching handle sides is quick and easy. 

Took me years to get that...still trying to teach my brother...

 

Wonder what a baitcaster with a switchable handle would look like?

[Fisher-O-men]

LOL, this is the new "what stick bait is as good as Senko".  For what its worth, I feel spastic setting the hook with my non-dominant hand.  For a while I felt spastic reeling with my non-dominant hand.  I felt the hook setting was more important.

[Hawghead]

There are 5 boys in my family. I am the only left handed one.  

 

They all crank right handed with a bait caster and left handed with a spinning reel.  They used spincast reels growing up, and then moved to spinning reels.  I sorta brought the bait casting bug into our family.  My 4 brother hadnt used anything but spinning gear for 35 years.  It amazes me that they instantly and instinctively were able to start reeling with their other hand after all that ime.   

 

I cast left and crank right no matter what.   Pretty interesting dynamic 

[fissure_man]

2 hours ago, Further North said:

 

 

 

I've never seen any justification for switching hands that made any sense...and I've seen a ton of fish caught (or missed) in that ¹/₂ second when the rod is switched from hand to hand...

 

 

Someone should tell KVD how many fish he's missing:

 

 

 

[tholmes]

I fish the way it's most comfortable for me. Rod in my left hand, reel with my right hand. Don't overthink this. Do what feels best to you.

 

Tom

[Jaderose]

I don't understand this "argument".  I'm a 49 year old man.  With no disrespect meant to anyone, I couldn't possibly care less whether anyone else thinks I'm doing it right or wrong.  I do it the way I do it and I catch plenty of fish.  End of story

[Bassun]

Just wondering, for those who swap hands exclusively --- if you fly fish, how do you handle things there?

[Further North]

21 hours ago, fissure_man said:

 

Someone should tell KVD how many fish he's missing:

 

 

 

1. Again...who cares what the pros do?  They operate at a a level so much higher than we do it's not worth discussing.  I didn't see anyone drafting like in NASCAR on my way to work today either...
2. Everyone - including KVD - has room for improvement.  Ask him.  He'll agree.  That's how he got to where he is.
3. What does your comment/video add to the discussion? Help me out here...really trying to figure it out...I'm not watching 20+ minutes of video for 10 seconds of wisdom on why it's a good idea to switch hands...do us a favor and tell us where in the video it gets discussed.

[Further North]

9 hours ago, Bassun said:

Just wondering, for those who swap hands exclusively --- if you fly fish, how do you handle things there?

Short answer: Poorly.  I can't imagine what a disaster that'd be...'specailly if a fish hit right after the fly hit the water.

[fissure_man]

15 hours ago, Further North said:

1. Again...who cares what the pros do?  They operate at a a level so much higher than we do it's not worth discussing.  I didn't see anyone drafting like in NASCAR on my way to work today either...
2. Everyone - including KVD - has room for improvement.  Ask him.  He'll agree.  That's how he got to where he is.
3. What does your comment/video add to the discussion? Help me out here...really trying to figure it out...I'm not watching 20+ minutes of video for 10 seconds of wisdom on why it's a good idea to switch hands...do us a favor and tell us where in the video it gets discussed.

1. The pros get to such high levels of performance with practice, honing their skills, weeding out bad habits, etc.  The fact that so many pros choose to swap hands after casting shows that they don’t see it as an issue that needs to be fixed.  Why would their demonstrated stances be less valid than random anonymous internet posters?  Regarding NASCAR, the people you saw on your way to work weren’t racing.  For someone learning to become a better race car driver, would it be a bad idea to look to the professionals for driving techniques?

2. Sure, but if reeling with the opposite hand made a difference, it would be a pretty low hanging fruit for improvement.  These guys go out of their way for any advantage they can get.

3. You claimed that swapping hands costs time and “a ton of fish.”  The video shows the best power fisherman in the world being tasked to catch as many fish as possible in a short amount of time, still choosing to swap hands with each cast.  He does this for a living, and if his casting technique was costing him “a ton of fish,” he would fix it.

    

Doing whatever gives you the most coordination and comfort for casting, retrieving, bite detection, hook setting, fighting fish, etc is what makes sense, and the answer is going to be different for different people.  Compromising any of the above in order to avoid swapping hands would be a mistake.  If it made a difference, the top ranks of the sport would be skewed toward folks who don't swap hands, and that is not the case.

 

[mwh33]

I can cast, flip, and pitch with both hands, but I prefer to reel with my right hand with both casting and spinning gear. I feel I control the fish better with my left hand on the rod. I think it probably comes from a combination of me using a right hand zebco 33 growing up and I am left handed when I hit baseballs and softballs.

[Bassun]

4 minutes ago, mwh33 said:

I can cast, flip, and pitch with both hands, but I prefer to reel with my right hand with both casting and spinning gear. I feel I control the fish better with my left hand on the rod. I think it probably comes from a combination of me using a right hand zebco 33 growing up and I am left handed when I hit baseballs and softballs.

 

Do you fly fish?  And if so, how do you approach that?

[mwh33]

16 minutes ago, Bassun said:

 

Do you fly fish?  And if so, how do you approach that?

I haven't got into fly fishing. I only really fish for largemouth and inshore. I live in South GA on the coast. I do want to try it out though. I think it would be fun for inshore.

[Bassun]

Just now, mwh33 said:

I haven't got into fly fishing. I only really fish for largemouth and inshore. I live in South GA on the coast. I do want to try it out though. I think it would be fun for inshore.

 

Ok, cool thanks.  Anyone else who is a right hand cast and cranker, who also fly fishes?  How do you handle things?

[Further North]

6 hours ago, fissure_man said:

The pros get to such high levels of performance with practice, honing their skills, weeding out bad habits, etc.  The fact that so many pros choose to swap hands after casting shows that they don’t see it as an issue that needs to be fixed.  Why would their demonstrated stances be less valid than random anonymous internet posters?  Regarding NASCAR, the people you saw on your way to work weren’t racing.  For someone learning to become a better race car driver, would it be a bad idea to look to the professionals for driving techniques?

Yeah...that's what I was saying...and you completely missed the point about NASCAR: People driving to work aren't racing...that's the point.  People fishing outside of the very top competitors...aren't competing...and have no where near the skill set, ability, reaction time...

6 hours ago, fissure_man said:

Sure, but if reeling with the opposite hand made a difference, it would be a pretty low hanging fruit for improvement.  These guys go out of their way for any advantage they can get.

See above.  They fish hundreds of days a year and practice, practice, practice.  We're talking about normal, every day fishermen here...

6 hours ago, fissure_man said:

You claimed that swapping hands costs time and “a ton of fish.”  The video shows the best power fisherman in the world being tasked to catch as many fish as possible in a short amount of time, still choosing to swap hands with each cast.  He does this for a living, and if his casting technique was costing him “a ton of fish,” he would fix it.

Again...we're talking about one of the top people in the sport.  What he can do, and what you and I can do are completely different...

 

...and I still have not seen a good reason for switching hands.  I see a lot written a lot of rationalization for why it's OK and why some people do it...and how it supposedly doesn't make a difference...but nothing saying why it's a good thing to do, or what benefit there is.

 

That's all I'm asking for.

6 hours ago, Bassun said:

 

Ok, cool thanks.  Anyone else who is a right hand cast and cranker, who also fly fishes?  How do you handle things?

I thought you were asking rhetorically...but since it seems I was wrong, here's my take:

 

When you're fly fishing, you seldom crank the reel - you're stripping your line in by hand.  I can only recall a few fish I needed - or wanted - to try to get on the reel.

 

I strip in trout, bass, pike and musky.  Of the bunch, a big trout is the one I'm most likely to try to put on the reel as they are most likely to run hard for sigsnifcant distance, often up current.

 

If you really need to swap hands though, get it done right after the fly hits the water, and get your left fingers pinched onto that line before you let go with your right fingers.  Messed around a bit with this tonight...and I'd slide my right index finger forward whil still holding the line against the rod, put my left hand on the grip with my left index finger behind the right index finger...and hope like heck that wasn't the moment a 5 lb' smallie chose to inhale my popper...

[samwise2u]

For flipping and pitching - left handed reel. For everything else - right handed reel. Works for me.

[fissure_man]

1 hour ago, Further North said:

Yeah...that's what I was saying...and you completely missed the point about NASCAR: People driving to work aren't racing...that's the point.  People fishing outside of the very top competitors...aren't competing...and have no where near the skill set, ability, reaction time...

See above.  They fish hundreds of days a year and practice, practice, practice.  We're talking about normal, every day fishermen here...

Again...we're talking about one of the top people in the sport.  What he can do, and what you and I can do are completely different...

 

 

So you’re saying that switching hands is a handicap, but it doesn’t handicap pro anglers because their other skills make up for it?  What about the other pros with similar skills who don’t swap hands?  Wouldn’t they have an advantage?

 

I’d say that someone competing at the highest level is much MORE likely than the normal fisherman to do everything they can to remove such handicaps, if they created an actual issue.  The fact that so many pros are still swapping hands on their casting reels shows that it’s not creating a disadvantage, or they would have fixed it in the hundreds of days per year that they practice.

 

Pro vs. non-pro fishermen is not at all the same comparison as commuters vs. race car drivers.  When I go fishing, my basic goal is the same as a pro: I want to catch a fish!  The same things that help a pro catch fish will help me as well.  When I drive to work, there is nothing similar about what I’m doing and what a race car driver does.  The things that help a race car driver achieve success will end in a wreck on public roads.

 

1 hour ago, Further North said:

...and I still have not seen a good reason for switching hands.  I see a lot written a lot of rationalization for why it's OK and why some people do it...and how it supposedly doesn't make a difference...but nothing saying why it's a good thing to do, or what benefit there is.

 

That's all I'm asking for.

 

The biggest “advantage” of switching hands is that for the people it comes naturally to, it allows for the most coordinated and comfortable casting, retrieving, bite detection, and hook setting.  The same can be said for not switching hands, if one’s personal preference dictates that that is more comfortable.  Forcing yourself one way or the other to handle your rod/reel in a way that is uncomfortable or uncoordinated the only way to put yourself at a disadvantage.  Do what feels right!

 

Any other advantages are debatable, subjective, and should be trumped by personal preference.  Going back to my first point, if there was any universal advantage to be had, the best in the sport would be all over it.  But since you insist, here are two points from my own experience with LH and RH reels (which I think I already posted?).  Your mileage may vary:

 

• Swapping hands lets me hold the rod with a different grip for casting vs retrieving, which is an advantage to me.   I can grip behind the reel and run the thumb bar for casting, and still fully palm the reel during the retrieve.  Palming the reel during the retrieve improves balance (vs gripping further back), and I can put a finger on the line during the retrieve for ‘feel’ baits.  Maybe some guys with big hands can do all this without changing grip; I can’t. 

 

• Swapping hands reduces fatigue by keeping both hands and arms better engaged.  This is especially true for flipping/pitching, where keeping the rod in one hand all day definitely increases strain on that arm.  However, the hand-swap is not as seamless with the pitching motion, even worse if you need to strip line in deeper water.  So for pitching, the jury is out for me.  I do it both ways.

 

 

7 hours ago, Bassun said:

 

Ok, cool thanks.  Anyone else who is a right hand cast and cranker, who also fly fishes?  How do you handle things?

 

I don't fly fish, but I imagine I would instinctively handle it like a spinning reel, casting right with the reel handle on the left.  Even though I cast and crank right-handed with casting reels, I don't with spinning.  There's no "palming" of a spinning reel, and removing your casting hand to put your other hand in the exact same place is more awkward than hand-swapping with a baitcast reel (and as mentioned before, your off hand is busy closing the bail).  Interestingly, you won't find nearly as many pros that switch hands with spinning reels, even among those that do with casting reels.

[Bassun]

8 hours ago, Further North said:

I thought you were asking rhetorically...but since it seems I was wrong, here's my take:

 

When you're fly fishing, you seldom crank the reel - you're stripping your line in by hand.  I can only recall a few fish I needed - or wanted - to try to get on the reel.

 

I strip in trout, bass, pike and musky.  Of the bunch, a big trout is the one I'm most likely to try to put on the reel as they are most likely to run hard for sigsnifcant distance, often up current.

 

If you really need to swap hands though, get it done right after the fly hits the water, and get your left fingers pinched onto that line before you let go with your right fingers.  Messed around a bit with this tonight...and I'd slide my right index finger forward whil still holding the line against the rod, put my left hand on the grip with my left index finger behind the right index finger...and hope like heck that wasn't the moment a 5 lb' smallie chose to inhale my popper...

 

lol - no, I wasn't trolling - I had just never thought about how swappers handle fly gear.

 

So, if I followed you correctly, you cast and reel right handed on spinning and casting gear; fly fishing you also have a right hand crank reel (or flipped to reel on the right depending on reel), but strip with your left hand?  Unless you hook up with a fish that you want to put on reel, then mid fight you swapped hands, for those you did put on the reel?  Excluding your immediate swap practice last night, lol.  I think this may be one scenario where I think there is a clear advantage to not swapping hands, lol.  I guess I'm kind of lucky in that regard, as I am a right hand rod, left hand cranker regardless of the style...

 

 

And I think the nascar / pro angler vs commute / weekend warrior was this:

Pro's are more capable, finely tuned professionals who are capable of swapping hands with less risk / impact than an average Joe.  While there may (or may not) be an advantage/disadvantage, their total skill set and experience put's them so far ahead of weekend warriors that they can effectively nullify any negatives with their extreme proficiency.  Those same disadvantages (if they exist) would more significantly impact WW because they are not skilled at the same level. 

While I am not really convinced one way or the other on actual impact, that concept I 100% agree with, and is relatively inarguable.  To debate that would be akin to debating that most WW's bait casting skills are equal to the pros.  Sorry, but very very few are as competent.  I think there is room to debate the technical risk of a swap vs the gains of comfort and more natural approach for those not as highly skilled.  In that regard, I think the amateurs biggest benefit would come from what is natural and feels comfortable - regardless of the risk gained during a swap.

 

Randomly, I also just thought about the scenario where a fish does instantly strike as soon as the lure hits the water ... I guess it could even be argued, that since one of the biggest issue's rookies have when topwater fishing is setting the hook too soon, perhaps that delay during the swap could actually be a benefit by slowing down the hook set reaction time.  Or, it could fluster the angler and they try setting mid swap, without cranking out slack, and miss more.  IDK, lol.

 

Like I said way back, this debate will go on as long as fishing does.  I don't think there is a "right" or "wrong" way - just go with what works for you.  Maybe you miss more fish, maybe you don't.  As long as you are having fun and sharing that fun with others, who cares! 

[fissure_man]

8 hours ago, Bassun said:

 

And I think the nascar / pro angler vs commute / weekend warrior was this:

Pro's are more capable, finely tuned professionals who are capable of swapping hands with less risk / impact than an average Joe.  While there may (or may not) be an advantage/disadvantage, their total skill set and experience put's them so far ahead of weekend warriors that they can effectively nullify any negatives with their extreme proficiency.  Those same disadvantages (if they exist) would more significantly impact WW because they are not skilled at the same level. 

While I am not really convinced one way or the other on actual impact, that concept I 100% agree with, and is relatively inarguable.  To debate that would be akin to debating that most WW's bait casting skills are equal to the pros.  Sorry, but very very few are as competent.  I think there is room to debate the technical risk of a swap vs the gains of comfort and more natural approach for those not as highly skilled.  In that regard, I think the amateurs biggest benefit would come from what is natural and feels comfortable - regardless of the risk gained during a swap.

 

Totally disagree with the logic in this case  ... but I don't think there’s much point in trumpeting my opinions any further lol

 

8 hours ago, Bassun said:

 

Randomly, I also just thought about the scenario where a fish does instantly strike as soon as the lure hits the water ... I guess it could even be argued, that since one of the biggest issue's rookies have when topwater fishing is setting the hook too soon, perhaps that delay during the swap could actually be a benefit by slowing down the hook set reaction time.  Or, it could fluster the angler and they try setting mid swap, without cranking out slack, and miss more.  IDK, lol.

 

 

With a casting reel, there truly is zero delay in this scenario – that’s the misconception.  It’s the same motion as making a two-handed cast without swapping hands.  Without a swap, one hand has to move from the butt of the rod to engage the reel handle, and by the time the lure hits the water, that hand is ready to go.  Same thing for swapping hands: one hand moves from the butt onto the palm plate.  The other hand is already right next to the handle; all it has to do is start cranking (even before the lure hits the water, if you want).  Same thing for a one-handed cast, your free hand is either moving from wherever it is to grab the handle, or moving to palm the reel – no difference. 

 

[Bassun]

11 minutes ago, fissure_man said:

 

Totally disagree with the logic in this case  ... but I don't think there’s much point in trumpeting my opinions any further lol

 

 

With a casting reel, there truly is zero delay in this scenario – that’s the misconception.  It’s the same motion as making a two-handed cast without swapping hands.  Without a swap, one hand has to move from the butt of the rod to engage the reel handle, and by the time the lure hits the water, that hand is ready to go.  Same thing for swapping hands: one hand moves from the butt onto the palm plate.  The other hand is already right next to the handle; all it has to do is start cranking (even before the lure hits the water, if you want).  Same thing for a one-handed cast, your free hand is either moving from wherever it is to grab the handle, or moving to palm the reel – no difference. 

 

 

I'm not sure what you disagree with, surely not that pros are better than weekend warriors, lol.  :-)  Just kind of poking ya here.  

 

 

A little more seriously, the second part, I think perhaps that may be true for some - but certainly not all.  And definitely not the few that I know whom I've watched swapping.  They basically went through the entire process from cast to touch down, then swapped.  A couple tried my left hand cranks, and looked completely lost.  They were definitely more proficient swapping than not, but I think mainly because of muscle memory and practice all that jazz.  One guy, who admittedly wasn't great with his own bait caster, seemed to stop and think about reeling before he ever turned the crank.  He was running a buzz bait, and when he swapped to mine - it may as well have been a spinnerbait, lol.

 

It's funny this topic, which we all know will be debated until the end of time, still get's this much conversation, lol.  Fun times!

[Further North]

On 1/19/2017 at 4:05 AM, Bassun said:

So, if I followed you correctly, you cast and reel right handed on spinning and casting gear; fly fishing you also have a right hand crank reel (or flipped to reel on the right depending on reel), but strip with your left hand?  Unless you hook up with a fish that you want to put on reel, then mid fight you swapped hands, for those you did put on the reel?  Excluding your immediate swap practice last night, lol.  I think this may be one scenario where I think there is a clear advantage to not swapping hands, lol.  I guess I'm kind of lucky in that regard, as I am a right hand rod, left hand cranker regardless of the style...

I cast right, reel left with all types of rods; the rod never leaves my right hand.

 

When I'm chucking flies, I hold the rod in my right hand and strip line with my left.

 

I can't figure out a way I'd be comfortable switching hands fly fishing.

[scaleface]

My dad uses spincasters [ Zebco ] only . When he tries using my left handed  spinning equipment , he holds it upside down and reels backwards .   LOL   So , its my job to replace his  reels and keep fresh line on them just so he can fish competently .

[Bluebasser86]

Spinning-rod in the right hand, reel left handed

Casting-rod in left hand, reel right handed

 

These 2 CANNOT be interchanged.

I have practiced and practiced and now am fairly proficient casting left handed with casting gear, especially if I'm making short pitches or roll cast, so the whole switching hands argument doesn't apply there. 

[Further North]

There's a really good chance most fishermen overthink this...

 

Do what works for you, don't criticize how others do it.