Reeling hand?

[choppertime]

Does it really matter? Left or right if your catching fish whats it matter if you use left or right hand...which hand do you pull the hook out with

[Frog Turds]

not sure how your BC technique is BaitFinesse but when im casting or pitch'n using a lefty my hand is palming and same position...

[TBAG]

On 1/26/2019 at 5:13 PM, MIbassyaker said:

 

Yes. The reason is, I learned to fish with spinning as a right-hander, where I cast, hold the rod, work the bait, set the hook, and play the fish all with my dominant hand. The left, non-dominant hand moves the bail and turns the handle, and that's it.

 

When I started using baitcasters, it was impossible to get my non-dominant hand to do new jobs it hadn't already learned to do years ago. So I just use left handed baitcasting reels, with the same hands playing the same roles for spinning and casting.

Yep, my reasoning exactly for using LH retrieve BC reels.

[Joshua van Wyk]

On 1/26/2019 at 7:30 PM, Log Catcher said:

I'm like @HeyCoach with this. I cast right handed, switch the rod to my left hand and reel right handed. I do this with both casting and spinning setups. I wouldn't but a spinning reel I couldn't switch the handle around. Reeling with either hand may be okay but I have tried casting left handed and it wasn't a pretty sight.

I'm the same, cast with right hand and reel with right hand, I'm learning to cast left hand and I've gotten pretty good at it but I can't pitch for the life of me left handed. 

[Frog Turds]

how its possible BaitFinesse?  simple, same as it is to palm & pitch a jig using a lefty reel with rod in right arm...but thanks anyways for telling me what i should and shouldnt do with my inexperienced self...

[J Francho]

4 hours ago, BaitFinesse said:

With a left hand  reel you still have to take your hand off the rod to palm the reel after casting.

With most reels, I do not have to take my right palming hand off the reel.  I just press the thumb bar with the heel of my thumb, and continue palming throughout the cast.  I use both right and left hand casting reels, but prefer a lefty for pitching, since I only pitch right handed.  Any overhand casting is two handed, with my left on the bottom.  so I'm moving my hands around anyway.  For anyone that thinks it's inefficient, it makes little difference to me.  My hands are ready before the bait lands in the water.

2 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

I'm genuinely curious.  How do you you thumb the spool when palming the reel?  

I'll get a picture.  It's pretty simple.

[choppertime]

just so happens I reel left handed when fresh water fishing....when using a jerk bait or top water it feels better to me moving the rod with my right hand to move the bait I feel like I have more control since im right handed...what does it really matter....do what makes you feel better.....90% of the bass pros reel right handed....1 guy on sat mornings tv...hook and look fishes with left reel baitcasters and he doesn't seem to have a problem with his technique.....so if ya wanna be like the pros you better get right handed cranking reels otherwise do what makes you feel better and comfortable when fishing

[FishDewd]

I grew up casting right and reeling right, but ever since I got my first spinning reel where I could switch to LH retrieve I quickly decided it just felt a lot better to me. Therefore, my last few casting reel purchases have been LH retrieve. I just don't work the rod as well LH as I do holding it RH. The difference was night and day to me. Reeling LH isn't a big deal at all. I can still use a RH retrieve though, I've just also picked up (and now prefer) to do that LH.

[PhishLI]

On 1/28/2019 at 3:47 PM, BaitFinesse said:

'Normal' casting is placing the hand on the rod grip with the index finger on the trigger of the reel seat.

I'm right handed and never considered anything but a left hand reel. Wasn't even a second thought. I bought a bunch.

 

I didn't have a mentor, just taught myself casting righty and reeling lefty. I found it most comfortable to have my middle finger wrapped around the trigger. I use the heel of my thumb to depress the thumb bar, and the flat of my thumb to control the spool. This has my hand nearly "palmed" around the reel. I'll usually leave it in that postition while reeling in unless I'm throwing jerkbaits. Then I'll just slide up on the reel a tad and I'm there, fully palmed. It's second nature. Automatic.

 

A while back I picked up a righty Chronarch for a specific reason: To learn how to cast with my left arm. That's a work in progress. I'm getting there. It's still pretty ugly. In the meantime, I've been casting with my right arm and switching hands to reel in. As usual, the reel gets transferred into my left hand, fully palmed, once the lure hits the water. However, last week I was fishing next to a pal and BSing. Casting and retrieving on autopilot. I caught myself casting, switching hands while the lure was in mid flight, then thumbing the spool with my left thumb. It sorta happened on it's own. An absolutely unconscious act. This suprised me. It also showed me that righties using right handed baitcasters aren't as absurd as I thought they were beforehand. I get it now.

[Deleted account]

12 hours ago, PhishLI said:

last week I was fishing next to a pal and BSing. Casting and retrieving on autopilot. I caught myself casting, switching hands while the lure was in mid flight, then thumbing the spool with my left thumb. It sorta happened on it's own. An absolutely unconcious act. This suprised me. It also showed my that righties using right handed baitcasters aren't as absurd as I thought they were beforehand. I get it now.

Someone give this man a key to the executive lounge, make sure to collect his wrong handed reels....

The follow through of a cast places the rod in the opposite hand in one fluid continuous motion. For the longest time I couldn't figure out why my BC rods with cork foregrips were getting pitted in the same spot just above the reel, turns out it was my left index finger nail landing in the same exact spot every time. Now I wrap a little painters tape or get a manicure.  

[papajoe222]

On 1/26/2019 at 5:10 PM, tander said:

Reel left handed for spinning and right handed for casting, just seems like the natural thing to do. ?

Same here. When I tried using a left handed baitcaster, it was like trying to pat my belly while rubbing my head.  Yea, that bad. I've tried to force myself to do it, but, ultimately I end up winding the rod and holding the reel handle.

[Tracker101]

On ‎1‎/‎26‎/‎2019 at 6:34 PM, Glaucus said:

Left hand retrieve. I'm right handed. It's my strong hand. As such, it only feels comfortable to hold a rod and fight a fish with my right hand. 100 percent don't understand why back in the day companies thought right handed meant you reel right handed. Nope. Need that hand for doing the real work. 

I,m with you on this one,, I,m right handed also and I want to be holding on to the rod with my strongest arm and crankin the reel with my left hand. 

[Sebastian Andews]

Im Trying to buy a Max Pro Abu Garcia Bait-caster as my first one but I don't know what side I should get the reel on I have done right my whole life but people say to go lefty because of "advantages" For example they say that right should be your directing hand and i agree with that but to not switch I don't feel that it gives a great advantage but i have never tried it.

[J Francho]

Go to a store and try both.  Buy the one you like better.

[Paul Roberts]

4 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Go to a store and try both.  Buy the one you like better.

When I bought my very first casting reel, this ^^ is what I did. I'm R handed, but I tried both R and L reels, thinking I'd be going L bc of the apparently obvious advantage of no switching hands. Plus, I was already comfortable with L-side spinning reels.

 

Oddly, I found it was more comfortable, and natural feeling, reeling R-handed. So, I've used R casting reels ever since. I own one L, a Daiwa Fuego -the original red one- and it's been used... maybe twice. Nice reel; I still plan to get back to it someday.

 

I'm sure one can quite easily learn to take advantage of a L reel as a R-handed fisher. A few years ago I ended up with "bass elbow" (tennis elbow -caused by wrestling bass) and had to switch to L-handed fishing. It was tough for the first month. (It took a full year to heal). But I hung in there, figured it out, and am now pretty close to ambidextrous. Guess it may be time to take that old -spanking new- Fuego out for a spin.

[ResoKP]

37 minutes ago, Sebastian Andews said:

Im Trying to buy a Max Pro Abu Garcia Bait-caster as my first one but I don't know what side I should get the reel on I have done right my whole life but people say to go lefty because of "advantages" For example they say that right should be your directing hand and i agree with that but to not switch I don't feel that it gives a great advantage but i have never tried it.

Just go with whatever feels more comfortable for you because...

 

IMO reeling is just 10% of bass fishing.

 

Reeling is 90% when your fighting tuna or other sea monsters. Which is probably why right-hand retrieve "tradition" was adopted into bass fishing. When all you're doing holding the rod steady and fighting the 200lb fish by cranking, that's why they used dominant hand for cranking. Bass fishing is NOT that. Probably just the opposite.

 

I prefer to use my dominant (right) hand to do the more precision&power tasks like working the bait/rod, pitching, jerking, setting hook, even fighting the fish etc. which is why I would make the decision primarily around which hand I want to hold/work the rod, and THEN leave the less important task of cranking to the non-dominant (left) hand.

[J Francho]

25 minutes ago, Paul Roberts said:

I'm R handed, but I tried both R and L reels, thinking I'd be going L bc of the apparently obvious advantage of no switching hands. Plus, I was already comfortable with L-side spinning reels.

Funny, I went with a lefty.  It was a mid line Daiwa for around $40.  It had some fancy features, like a flipping switch and you could turn off anti reverse to back reel if you wanted.  That reel lasted at least 30 years before I sold it.  I bought it at B-E, coincidentally.

[GReb]

I reel RH but probably 70% of my casting is backhanded. So my left hand stays palmed on the reel through cast and retrieve. For full length casting I do cast normal though. I just rarely am in a position where it’s needed. The back hand is more efficient and accurate for me 

[Catt]

On 1/27/2019 at 6:37 AM, nascar2428 said:

Switching hands after a cast just doesn't seem very efficient to me. 

 

Wanna fish against me & see? ?

[ResoKP]

A 12 year old could just as adequately turn the reel handle as any pro bass angler would.

 

Why waste the dominant hand for such a menial task? ?

[Paul Roberts]

44 minutes ago, J Francho said:

Funny, I went with a lefty.  It was a mid line Daiwa for around $40.  It had some fancy features, like a flipping switch and you could turn off anti reverse to back reel if you wanted.  That reel lasted at least 30 years before I sold it.  I bought it at B-E, coincidentally.

That's not coincidental; We were almost neighbors, adjusting for a small amount of space and time. I bought mine, a Shimano Bantam Mag, at B-E too. It had an anti-reverse switch too. Don't see many of those anymore. I don't believe I've ever used mine. What were they for? As a back-reeler I guess I could, but, with drag, why bother? I still have that little Bantam and use it every year. Some people have commented on it, seeing it in my videos, saying, either: "Hey, you need some new reels!" -or- "Retro! Cool!" I reply to the first, "No, I don't", and to the second, "That's not retro; That's just my stuff!"

 

[ResoKP]

38 minutes ago, BaitFinesse said:

It is actually difficult for many right handed people to turn a baitcast reel's handle with their left hand.  It is similar for trying to write left handed.  Doable but very awkward and slow compared to using their dominant hand.

If they can reel spinning with left hand, there wouldn't be any additional "difficulty" reeling baitcaster with left hand.

 

Saying it's similar to writing left handed is a major stretch. Reeling is even simpler than drawing a circle on paper. It's basically just rotating your wrist in a circular motion.

 

If you're reeling right-handed because you find that reeling is more important than working the rod in bass fishing, then there's something to discuss there.

 

But saying you're reeling right-handed because it's difficult to reel left-handed on a baitcaster while reeling just fine left-handed on a spinning reel... makes no sense whatsoever.

[Tennessee Boy]

For slow retrieve presentations I keep the rod in my right hand so that I can impart the precise wrist actions necessary to make my bait irresistible to the fish.  This is only possible with my highly trained right hand so both my spinning rod and slow retrieve bait casting rods have left hand reels.  My crank bait rods have right hand reels so I can do all that cranking with my right hand.  I've been doing that way for 30 years and will still be doing it that way next week when this topic comes up again.?

[NorthernBasser]

On 1/26/2019 at 5:10 PM, tander said:

Reel left handed for spinning and right handed for casting, just seems like the natural thing to do. ?

Same here. Always been like that.

[bwjay]

It seems obvious to me to use your dominant hand for control of the rod, which is used to cast, feel bites, set the hook, and fight the fish. Your dominant hand/arm is more sensitive, and stronger. I really could not wrap my head around the idea of using my dominant hand to cast, then losing sensitivity and strength by switching the rod to my weak hand, just to do such a simple task as turning a lever with a handle that requires no finesse or strength. You do need some forearm endurance but that can be built up quickly. It seems so inefficient that the only reason I can think of for doing it is if you grew up doing it and can't retrain yourself.

 

Funny enough, I think I saw on a Tactical Bassin video, Matt said he is a right handed guy who used left hand reels, and did that his whole life, but switched to right hand reels for some reason. Don't remember his rationale for it. I'll keep using my dominant hand for the rod as it is more sensitive, tactile, and strong.