left or right reel handle for spinning reel?

[PhishLI]

16 hours ago, king fisher said:

     It has always been a goal of mine to learn to retrieve a bait caster with my left hand, but now I  find myself subscribing to the theory, you can't teach old dogs new tricks.

My 1st spinner was a Daiwa 1000c which offed the option of swapping retrieves, and I chose left handed without a thought. I hadn't looked at a fishing forum or witnessed a debate on the subject 1st hand before I bought my 1st bait caster, so the idea of getting anything but a left handed reel had never entered my mind. A few years ago, I decided it would be good to learn to cast lefty and retrieve righty mostly because of fishing with two people on small john boats, Bass Raiders, Sundolphins, and the like. A few hats smacked off and too many close calls with hooks. I got it down in my early 50s with lots of on the water practice, all except for skipping holding the rod in my left hand. Last spring I Kung Foo'd my left shoulder badly enough so the right retrieve reel experiment is over permanently. I offloaded all of my stupid righty reels except for one I'll use for jerkbaits. That doesn't seem too dangerous. So, I say it's doable past a certain age if you want to do it, but "things" seem to happen past a certain age that wouldn't have happened when we were younger.

[Susky River Rat]

I prefer to have the handle on the left for spinning or bait casting. I am right handed and want my strong hand on the rod. I also think I have better feel. Now with my tranx 500 I do not have a choice but to have them on the right.

[treble hook]

I switch the handles on my spinning reels to reel right handed. I reel right handed on my baitcasters.

[WRB]

I cast both spinning and bait casting right handed and reel spinning left hand and bait casting right handed. 

Fly fishing same as spinning, cast right handed work the line and reel left handed.

Tom

PS, tried casting left handed, just doesn’t work for me.

[Jason Penn]

i use casters on the right and spinning on the left. i've tried to use left crank baitcasters, but i can't really get a good hookset with my right arm although i am right handed. 

 

same deal with spinning, but that's why i use left crank. i don't want a power hookset, i just pull into a hookset and not jerk. i want light wire hooks to penetrate and not rip a hole.  that's why i want spinning rods in my right hand.

[ska4fun]

Your dominant hand always with the rod. Cranking requires way less precision.

[JediAmoeba]

I reel on the right because my first reels were Zebcos and all of them were right handed retrieves. The first time I picked up a spinning rod(some Shakespeare model with an easy cast trigger) I immediately put the handle on the right. I was probably 10 years old.

 

It's never been natural since to reel with my left hand

[GetFishorDieTryin]

Im more accurate and coordinated from my right then my left, but I can cast or reel effectively with either hand.  I favor my right, but ill cast left fishing from a small boat or if the angle is poor to cast from my right.  What I havent much headway in, is getting my left hand to be as precise as my right.  Casting gear it doesnt really matter, but a lot of the finesse baits I use with spinning gear I just cant fish as effectively with my left.  

[Ben77]

I'm a righty so my spinning gear was always left hand. I always cast with my right. But now I ventured into baitcasting and I feel more comfortable reeling with my right hand is that weird? I thought I would of liked a left hand retrieve in baitcasting but the right hand just feels more natural to me. No big deal to me after casting with my right and switching the rod too my left.

[caribouhunter]

Having used spinning my entire adult life on the left side handle, I just obtained my first casting rod.  The Zebco imprinting of my youth is having me reel the casting on the right.  Been practice casting in my backyard and all is good, no issues with right handle on the casting rod.  It was a major debate when buying the casting reel having never used a casting rod prior to purchase but figured I did it that way as a kid, maintain the same way as an adult.

[NavyToad]

Left for spinning and baitcasting. I like the rod in my right/dominant hand.

[JediAmoeba]

I always remember- if it ain't right, it's wrong.

[Log Catcher]

I reel baitcasting and spinning right handed. That is how I have always done it. I'm too old to try changing now.

[JustBassinThru]

I threw nothing but baitcasters until much later in life when I started adding spinning reels to my arsenal. Reeling left handed felt unbelievably awkward. So, I reel right handed with both.