Handedness: What hand do you hold rod with?

[Julius L]

I am a firm believer that a fisherman should hold the rod with their dominant hand and reel with their non-dominant hand.
 

I say this because when will your non-dominant hand ever have more finesse than your dominant hand? You’ll never be able to write, shoot, or draw as well with your non-dominant hand and I think the same goes for imparting action on a lure with your non-dominant hand. 
 

Maybe I’m wrong, but if you’re right handed you should be using a left handed bait-caster and vice versa. 

 

[TnRiver46]

Either 

[softwateronly]

I mean, I don't care what any of you do, but I do abide by @Julius L's system.  Lefty gang for life or till switching makes more sense.

 

scott

[MRQturbo]

I'm right handed.. Use lefty reels... I learned how to use baitcasters on a right hand reel but eventually switched to left hand reels because I could not set the hook holding the rod on my left hand.. 

[Julius L]

27 minutes ago, MRQturbo said:

I'm right handed.. Use lefty reels... I learned how to use baitcasters on a right hand reel but eventually switched to left hand reels because I could not set the hook holding the rod on my left hand.. 

I’m left handed and use a right handed reel. I can’t imagine trying to set a hook with my right hand.

[Alex from GA]

I fished in the salt and the only conventional reels were right hand.  I hold my rods usually with my right hand but can set a hook just as well with my left. 

[DaubsNU1]

I'm left handed. When I started fishing, spinning rod was an old Mitchell 300. Rod in right hand, reeled with my left. 

 

First casting rod...rod in left hand, reeled with my right. 

 

I have tried reeling with right hand on a spinning rod...and left hand with a casting rod...It just doesn't work for me. HA!

[Tennessee Boy]

I’m right handed and hold the rod in my right hand and reel with my left for slow retrieve technique so I can use my dominant hand to impart action on the lure.  For fast constant retrieve techniques I do the opposite so I can crank with my dominant hand.   I always cast with my right hand because I would throw the rod in the water if I tried to cast with my left.

[MyKeyBe]

This has nothing to do with me but my wife is ambidextrous. She's actually left handed but in the past being left handed was a sin, so she learned to write with her correct hand and not her dominant wrong hand. 😆 Her writing is actually about the same using either hand today and she can do most things equally well with both hands.

 

As for me and this topic, with casting reels I cast with the correct hand, switch to the wrong hand to hold the rod and reel and retrieve with my correct hand. I do this for the same reason my wife learned to write the way she does. Back in the day (a Thursday if I remember correctly) it was a sin to do it any other way. 😂 

 

Spinning rods are cast with the correct hand and stay there for the retrieve which is performed by the wrong hand ✋. 

 

All kidding aside it wasn't that long ago that left handed casting reels where a lot harder to find. Most fisher people around 45-50 and older probably do this as well. It makes no sense but it's what we had to use and learn on and once you learn/do something for so long it's hard to relearn/change. Even if it wasn't that hard to relearn (I'm pretty sure I could) all the reels I have now are right handed. It would be an investment to switch them all out. So I just continue to do what I do.

[Rockhopper]

I can roll both ways easily, but I'm right handed and prefer to reel lefty.

[brophog]

4 hours ago, Julius L said:

I say this because when will your non-dominant hand ever have more finesse than your dominant hand? You’ll never be able to write, shoot, or draw as well with your non-dominant hand and I think the same goes for imparting action on a lure with your non-dominant hand. 

For some people with injuries, they’ve had to learn to use the other hand. I taught myself to do all of my casting decades ago with my left hand, even though I’m right handed for most things. I don’t cast any better with my right hand than most people would with their non-dominant hand because I don’t use it for that task. 
 

If I had to learn today, I’d just use a left hand reel and do it that way, but that wasn’t an option decades ago. 

[new2BC4bass]

1 hour ago, Rockhopper said:

I can roll both ways easily, but I'm right handed and prefer to reel lefty.

Same here, but I prefer my dominate hand (right) for techniques requiring delicately working the lure.  However, I quickly learned while sitting in front of the TV that my non-dominate hand was able to feather a spool much better than my dominate hand.  It took a lot of practice to train my right thumb.  I've never checked since then to see if my right thumb caught up with the left.

 

Originally learned to cast with my left side so I could take advantage of purchasing right hand reels offered at a great price.  Plus some reels back then weren't offered in left hand.  Cranking either hand has never been a problem.  All you have to do is move your hand in a circle.  How hard is that? 

 

[Mobasser]

I'm right handed. I cast with my right then switch to hold the rod with my left hand. I've been doing it this way for so many years I'd have a hard time learning a different way. Spinning reels, I cast with my right and reel.with my left. Both ways work. To each his own.

[Bigbox99]

9 hours ago, Julius L said:

I am a firm believer that a fisherman should hold the rod with their dominant hand and reel with their non-dominant hand.
 

I say this because when will your non-dominant hand ever have more finesse than your dominant hand? You’ll never be able to write, shoot, or draw as well with your non-dominant hand and I think the same goes for imparting action on a lure with your non-dominant hand. 
 

Maybe I’m wrong, but if you’re right handed you should be using a left handed bait-caster and vice versa. 

 

I use both.  Because I am right handed I and I have greater fine motor control in my right hand a right handed reel is preferred when the primary means of moving the bait is with the reel and use left handed reels when the primary means of moving the bait is the rod.  Much like writing the pinching of the knobs between my fingers and rotating at the wrist are intensive use of fine motor control and my left hand simply isn't as good at this.  I reel slower and fatigue faster than my left but like writing left handed you can improve over time as you develop the fine motor skills with use.  That's why it really comes down to what hand you learn on.  I learned on right handed reels but have taught my left hand too and it has gone from being a fumbling mess trying to reel a baitcaster like a spinning reel to being adequate at reeling a baitcast reel. 

 

As far as arms go there should be no "strong arm" like there is no "strong leg" unless you are disfigured.  These are large musle groups and have equal strength so setting the hook should not be impared no matter which side of your body the rod is on.  I say body rather than arm because you should be using your body to set the hook and not just freezing and swinging an arm.

 

The switching hands thing is also the same with left hand reels as it is with right since you should be using a casting grip and then switching to a palming grip of the reel. I think people not palming the reel or palming with too few fingers in front of the trigger trying to be cute with a left handed reel is why there is such an obsession with reel weight lately.  People aren't palming the reel properly and centering that mass into their hand so the felt reel weight is exaggerated. 

 

There are instances where you can cast while palming the reel but this restricts wrist movement and should really only be used for pitching, flipping and short target casts.  You still end up with only 2 fingers in front of the trigger when palming but it's a compromise that allows you to instantly engage the reel on a pitch or lift the thumb bar up with a thumb tip after pulling out line for a flip cast. 

[Jar11591]

I’m right handed, and I do all my casting and my reeling with my right hand. The whole “switching hands” argument makes me laugh. It happens so fast that I went 25 years without even realizing it. It’s a non-factor. 
 

For whatever reason, on the rare occasion I take my fly rod out, I do my winding with my left hand as it just feels natural with a fly rod. 

[DogBone_384]

I’m right handed, reel with right, and hold rod with left.

[bulldog1935]

Firm beliefs should should stick with 1st person and never be applied to 2nd or 3rd person.  

Those of us who grew up fishing in the 70s naturally fished baitcaster and fly rod with left arm, and spinning rod with right arm.  There are some natural advantages to growing up with this split use.  

When you get good enough with a fly rod that you only need a single back-cast for line speed to shoot past 70' (little kids ask why aren't you doing this? making whipping motions), you recognize fly cast is more in your line hand than in your rod arm.  

With spinning tackle, wrist jerk is rewarded with extra distance, but it's a bad habit brought to fly rod or baitcaster.  With both, you should be loading the rod with smooth acceleration and total absence of jerk - jerk with a fly rod is tailing loop (wind knot) - jerk with a baitcaster is start-up backlash.  

[VTFan]

40 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I'm right handed. I cast with my right then switch to hold the rod with my left hand. I've been doing it this way for so many years I'd have a hard time learning a different way. Spinning reels, I cast with my right and reel.with my left. Both ways work. To each his own.

I am the same way. Right or wrong that's the way I learned it as a kid and it works to this day at 68 yrs old. As you said, to each his own.

[OkobojiEagle]

Our fishing society has mis-labeled reel's "handedness"...

 

oe

[Teknys]

I grew up in 60s - 70s in MN & WI.   We all used spinning reels while holding the rod in the right hand and cranked with left.  Moved to the NW and almost all Salmon / Steelhead used right hand crank bait cast.  Switching hands after the cast.  I was not able to understand that and just bought lefty reels.  Hard to find in the 80s.  To this day all handles on left side.

[Craig P]

I share the OP's logic but I also understand that handedness varies by task for most people.  I use my phone in my left hand even though I am right handed?  Curious if others do that?

 

BUT! When I see people switch hands during a cast, even the pros, you're not doing yourself any favors.

[F14A-B]

Baitcast: pitch-flip-cast with right hand, completion of cast switch rod to left hand, handle retrieve is right hand. 

 

Spinning: cast with right hand, feather cast with left hand. Completion of cast, rod held w right hand, retrieve with left. Bulldog1935 is correct, it’s pretty much a byproduct of growing up in the 70’s when you had RH baitcast reels and left handed spinning. Old habits die hard 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

[Scott F]

11 hours ago, Julius L said:

I say this because when will your non-dominant hand ever have more finesse than your dominant hand? You’ll never be able to write, shoot, or draw as well with your non-dominant hand and I think the same goes for imparting action on a lure with your non-dominant hand. 

If this was the case, how is it that musicians can play a piano, or drums or a guitar using both hands? If the non-dominant hand wasn’t able to perform “finesse” techniques, they wouldn’t play very well. 

[A-Jay]

11 hours ago, Julius L said:

Maybe I’m wrong, but if you’re right handed you should be using a left handed bait-caster and vice versa. 

 

Once you've been at this long enough, you'll just dominate. 

Won't matter which hand I do it with.

A-Jay

[BigAngus752]

11 hours ago, Julius L said:

right handed you should be using a left handed bait-caster

^^^me^^^  Cool bonus, the left-handed baitcasters are on clearance a lot more often than the rightys.  

32 minutes ago, Craig P said:

I share the OP's logic but I also understand that handedness varies by task for most people.  I use my phone in my left hand even though I am right handed?  Curious if others do that?

 

BUT! When I see people switch hands during a cast, even the pros, you're not doing yourself any favors.

I hold my phone, reach for things, carry anything, etc. all with my left hand.  The right stays free at all times.  This is a lifelong habit.  Gun hand stays open at all times.  

 

I agree 100% about the casting and then switching hands.  It's highly inefficient, which is why I learned to use a lefty baitcaster.