Any of you cast both right and left handed?

[32251]

Old football shoulder injury is catching up with me. After several hours of right handed casting with a spinning rod my shoulder sometimes just hurts like heck. I want to try to see if I can develop some left handed casting skill to take the pressure off it.  All I have to do is switch the reel handle over.

Any of you done this?  Any tips to get some quick results. thanks

[brgbassmaster]

all i can say is practice....the front yard is a good practicing area.

[roadwarrior]

I cast spinning and baitcasting equipment with two hands, all the time.

Try casting with both hands which significantly reduces fatigue and

may improve your accuracy!  I think this will solve the problem for

you.

8-)

[flechero]

I cast a spinning rod with either hand (or 2 hands in either position) depending on what I'm throwing and where.

Never meant to diversify my casting, it sort of just happened over time, and I usually realize it after a "changed" cast.

With a little on the water practice, you should have no trouble casing a spinning rod with either hand.

[Grey Wolf]

I cast spinning and baitcasting equipment with two hands, all the time.

Try casting with both hands which significantly reduces fatigue and

may improve your accuracy! I think this will solve the problem for

you.

8-)

x2

[J Francho]

My primary casting arm is my right.  Go figure, I'm right handed .  Whether the handle is on the right or left is based on the type of fishing.  

For all spinning applications, I use a left hand retrieve.  When I cast, I take may left hand off the handle, and grip the butt end of the rod for both control and/or leverage.

For most horizontal casting applications, I use a right hand retrieve.  I palm the reel with my left hand.  When I make a cast, I generally simply move my right hand from the handle to the reel seat holding the rod like a gun, with my thumb on the spool release.  I will feather the spool with either thumb, since all my reels have lots of access to the spool - a requirement for all baitcasters I buy.  If I need power for the cast, I can simply move my left hand to the butt of the rod for greater leverage, though this something reserved for cranks or casting spoons and plugs for salmon and trout.

For flipping and pitching, grass spoons, and frogs I prefer a left hand retrieve.  I use a flipping reel with the spool release at the top of the reel, instead of the usual thumbar.  Mine are Daiwa TD-X HSDL.  Shimano has the Castaic which works the same way.  This way I can palm the reel with my right hand and cast without moving it out of this position.  I can also reengage the reel with my right thumb with is important when fishing jigs, since many of the bites come on the fall.  All in all, this setup offers the capability for hair trigger hooksets.  For frogs and spoons, I just find it easier to work the baits using this same rig, something learned through usage more than preference.  Now its SOP for these baits.

I think whatever you do, if you do it enough, it becomes confortable and then becomes muscle memory.  Whatever you choose, go for comfort first, then functionality since I think you'll do something more frequently if its comfortable.  My opinions on what "the proper" rig is means nothing if you don't like the way it feels.

[kikstand454]

while i rarely find myself CASTING witth my left hand.... i most certainly reel with it. i fished spinning reels exclusively until recently so when  i bought my first baitcast, i got a left hand retreive. since i had planned on using it for mostly bottom fishing i thught this was smart anyway. why cast and change hands? i mean i know this comes from all of us starting out on our zebco 33s.....but its ineffecent.   i do both though.... like RF. left handed when you need to engage immediately, right handed for more relaxed things like spnrbt and crnnkbt.

its easy to learn.

im sure you could learn to cast lefthanded.

[32251]

You know I should have thought this through better. Actually the RETRIEVE is what is killing me. Gripping the rod with the right hand and cranking with the left, the rod pressure exerts a "pull" on the right shoulder socket.

I wonder if I can still cast the way I am now and just retrieve with the other hand?? All I would need to do is reverse the handle and then just shift the rod from the left hand to the right to cast. This may be easier than I thought!

I have a weird way of casting with a spinning set up anyway. I start out with the rod in the right hand and end up with the rod butt in my left hand as the line is bailing out.

EDIT:  OK I went out into the front yard with the spinning set up and tied on a practice plug and reversed the handle and threw a few.  Wow!! NO problem. Just shift the rod to the right hand for the cast and like I said it ends up in the left anyway.  Man I cannot believe I did not try this before. This is really going to help me out during an all day fishing trip to take the pressure off my mistake shoulder.  Amazing.

[kikstand454]

awesome.

glad its working!!

[skillet]

I am REALLY right handed (have a hard scratching my arse with my left hand )! Unless it's just the fact that it's the way I learned I don't understand why I'm so comfortable cranking with my left hand (spinning or baitcaster) :-/...

                             As Ever,

                              skillet

[J Francho]

I don't understand why I'm so comfortable cranking with my left hand (spinning or baitcaster) Undecided...

Muscle memory.  Its built through repetition.  You can do (or undo) anything with practice.  I play drums.  I play them in the traditional right handed setup.  When I was bored, and uninspired, I set them up backwards (to me) and relearned how to play.  When I switched them back, I was no longer confined to one way of thinking about what was possible.

[Munkin]

I have been practicing casting with my left hand in open water. While I can cast I am not accurate at all! But I do not need to switch the rod in my hands.

Allen