Do left handers ...

[postoak]

Switch their baitcaster rods from the left hand to their hand right so they can crank with their dominant hands the way right handers do?  Or do they use "right hand" reels the way more and more right handers are using "left hand" reels?

[FrnkNsteen]

The few anglers I know that are actually left handed all cast with their left and reel with their right using a RH reel.

[GRiver]

same as @FrnkNsteen said

[VTFan]

I've often wondered about this. I'm right handed, cast right, switch rod to left hand and retrieve with my right hand....with a baitcaster that is.  Now, with a spinning outfit... I cast with my right and retrieve with my left.  And even that is something I just learned how to do this year. I asked Timmy Horton about it when I met him earlier this year and he says "It's a feel thing", and "a muscle memory thing".  We fishermen are a crazy bunch LOL!!! 

[padlin]

I’m a righty, cast right, retrieve left, both reel types. My grandson is a lefty, he prefers the opposite of me although he can use mine no problem whereas I am useless using his.

 

I used to do the swap thing, no idea why or when I swapped to my current mode.

[JN94]

I'm right handed. Cast and hold rod with right hand and retrieve with left. The way right handed people are supposed to do it 😂

[MickD]

I'm a switch hitter, have both and use them without problems.  New purchases will be left retrieve, right handed casting.

[Choporoz]

I'm left handed, but always said I am 'left-armed'.  I write and eat left handed.  But, I throw, bat, bowl, golf right.   

   I cast left and reel right.   I've tried switching it up, like using my wife's casting or spinning gear (left hand reeling) and it is bad bad bad...lol

[DaubsNU1]

I am an odd duck...but it works out over the course of a day.

 

Left handed for everything. But for fishing I do it this way...probably because there were limited reel options growing up.

 

Casting rods:  I cast with my left hand, reel with my right

Spinning rods:  I cast with my right hand, reel with my left

 

If one arm gets tired from casting too much...I simply switch it up.  Problem solved. I'm 56, been fishing this way for ~40 years....

[Boomstick]

I am left handed and cast left handed but I can't reel with my left hand, it's super awkward and jerky if I try so I use my spinning reels left handed and a right handed baitcaster.

[thunderblack]

Not sure if this is odd or not....I'm right handed. I cast with my right hand....reel with both spinning and casting gear with my left. 

[TOXIC]

Cast with left hand reel with right.  Since spinning gear can be changed to accommodate either I switch it to match my baitcasters, cast left, reel right.  I am ambidextrous in a lot of things but the sensitivity I have is geared to the above.  While I can do it with either hand, I prefer a left hand cast and holding the rod. 

[KYKBassing]

Primarily left handed, cast with my left hand & reel with my right hand.  Definitely seems to save time on exchanging the rod and retrieving.

 

For some reason I grew up doing the opposite with spinning gear.  I've swapped my spinning gear to match so I'm throwing everything left handed, it took a while before it felt natural.  The one drawback seems to be that with most spinning rods, you have a tendency to loosen the reel nut.

[WaskaCrank12]

I am new to fishing - and primarily left handed - I have found that like to cast with my left hand/arm and have my left hand on the rod so I am controlling/manipulating the rod with my left hand/arm and then reel with my right hand (at this early point in my fishing adventure I only have spinning rods/reels)

[Skunkmaster-k]

My Wife and my Dad are both left handed. They both reel with their right hand. 

[Gera]

I blame it on Zepco. they ruined me on my formative years. 

[padlin]

If what I just read is right, and we know the internet is always right, left handled spinning reels weren’t mainstream till the 90’s. That must be why I remember casting and feeling with the same hand in my youth, which was the 60’s +.

[PhishLI]

1 hour ago, padlin said:

If what I just read is right, and we know the internet is always right, left handled spinning reels weren’t mainstream till the 90’s.

My Daiwa spinners from the mid 70's have reversible handles. Pretty sure this was standard by the late 70's for a lot of brands.

7 hours ago, thunderblack said:

Not sure if this is odd or not....I'm right handed. I cast with my right hand....reel with both spinning and casting gear with my left. 

Not odd.

[12poundbass]

I’m a south paw that casts left a reels right with both casting and spinning. Reeling with my left and casting with my right feels extremely awkward.

Switching hands even if it weren’t awkward seems silly to me.

[ElGuapo928]

Left handed, I cast right then switch over to the left and crank with the right. All of my spinning reels have the handle on the left.

[padlin]

1 hour ago, PhishLI said:

My Daiwa spinners from the mid 70's have reversible handles. Pretty sure this was standard by the late 70's for a lot of brands.

Not odd.

Blows that theory.

[VTFan]

14 hours ago, Gera said:

I blame it on Zepco. they ruined me on my formative years. 

Exactly, same here. That was all we had back in the day.

 

[GreenPig]

On 11/13/2023 at 6:57 AM, VTFan said:

I've often wondered about this. I'm right handed, cast right, switch rod to left hand and retrieve with my right hand....with a baitcaster that is.  Now, with a spinning outfit... I cast with my right and retrieve with my left.  And even that is something I just learned how to do this year. I asked Timmy Horton about it when I met him earlier this year and he says "It's a feel thing", and "a muscle memory thing".  We fishermen are a crazy bunch LOL!!! 

The good thing about being really crazy is you don't know you're crazy. SO SPEAK FOR YOURSELF!🤪

[Susky River Rat]

With bait casters I use left hand retrieves and do not switch hands. I do this with everything other than with my tranx500 which was not offered in a left retrieve. For that I switch hands.

I am right handed though. I like having my dominate hand on the rod.

[the reel ess]

I'm so right dominant I greatly prefer a RH BC to a LH spinning rod. My left just won't do exactly what my brain tells it. I also can't cast LH, so I use the LH spinning anyway.