When I fish a spinning rod, I use my right hand to cast, right hand to reel, and left hand to hold on to the rod. This is similar to how I fish with my baitcasters.

 

Does anybody else do this? Is there a reason people reel left handed and hold the rod with your right hand?

Personal Preference

24 minutes ago, HeyCoach said:

When I fish a spinning rod, I use my right hand to cast, right hand to reel, and left hand to hold on to the rod. This is similar to how I fish with my baitcasters.

 

Does anybody else do this? Is there a reason people reel left handed and hold the rod with your right hand?

 

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.

When I got the first spinning reel I could swap handle sides on, I did it. My right hand may be dominant for things like writing and such, but my left arm is stronger (go figure). So my right hand is on the reel handle and my left does the casting and working the rod.

 

Except for my Pflueger 640 - can't swap the handle side on that one, so while I still cast with the left hand, I swap hands after the cast and work the rod with my right. Since it's my UL rig, it's not such a big deal.

I cast and hold with the right and reel with the left , with my spinning set - ups. I like to set the hook and fight the fish with my right, since Im right- handed. I have a couple baitcasters that are right hand reels and I do ok with them though.

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

It never hurts to practice and become proficient reeling with each hand. 

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. 

35 minutes ago, TnRiver46 said:

It never hurts to practice and become proficient reeling with each hand. 

 

Eh,  I think I'd rather just fish.

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.

Spinning left hand to reel and baitcasting right hand. Hold a spinning and cast a spinning rod right handed, cast a baitcasting rod right handed, switch to left hand to retreive lures. 

Tom

2 hours ago, tander said:

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

me too

2 hours ago, MIbassyaker said:

 

Eh,  I think I'd rather just fish.

Hahaha. I think I have posted the story on here before but I accidentally bought a left hand retrieve baitcaster with $75 worth of quarters when I was about 12. I was very proficient with a right hand retrieve baitcaster at the time but the lefty felt crazy and I couldn’t hold the rod tip stationary. Since a 12 year old can’t really drive himself back to the sporting goods store I just practiced until it was second nature . Now I can use either RH or LH retrieve and I can cast left or right handed 

I am left handed. I learned to use right handed spincast reels as a kid and never changed.

I cast with the left hand and reel with the right hand, with spinning and casting reels.

even though I am left handed, I can't use a left handed reel. It feels backwards to me.

Cast with the right hand, switch to the left hand, & crank with the right hand.

 

That's how it's done, the rest of y'all just weird! ?

I reel with my left hand with spinning gear, right hand with casting gear. 

 

Why? because I can't do it any other way no matter how much I try. 

1 hour ago, Bluebasser86 said:

I reel with my left hand with spinning gear, right hand with casting gear. 

 

Why? because I can't do it any other way no matter how much I try. 

Me too ~

And I tried to go lefty on casting gear, I really did.

But in the end, I couldn't take the 'The Spastic Gumby' feeling.

So I gave up on it.

A-Jay

2 minutes ago, A-Jay said:

Me too ~

And I tried to go lefty on casting gear, I really did.

But in the end, I couldn't take the 'The Spastic Gumby' feeling.

So I gave up on it.

A-Jay

I'd been doing it for over 2 decades. I gave it the Ol' college try to go lefty. I was watching my jerky spinnerbait retrieve coming back to the boat and it hit me "What if the fish of a lifetime eats that thing right now and I lose it because I can't reel and fight it properly?" Switched back to righty and not going to try again. 

all comes down to personal preference. i reel left with my left hand and work the rod with my right.  i don’t see any clear advantage to using either or

It's personal preference. Personally, I'm a pretty sold lefty, my right hand is  so discordinated I couldn't through a ball 10 feet (although my right arm is actually stronger) but I cannot reel with my left hand to save my life. So I use only right handed reels. For baitcasters, this feels very natural as I cast with my left and keep the rod in my left hand.

I always wondered. Most of us, I assume, learned on spinning gear, casting right and reeling left. Why do people change to casting right and then changing hands to reel right on bait casters? Didn’t you just re-teach yourself at that point to work the rod with the the non dominant hand? I learned to fish on spinning gear casting right and spinning left. I just started using casting gear about a year ago and never thought about reeling right as it just didn’t make sense to me to even try. With what hand did you all START (when you learned how to fish) reeling with and if you changed, why? 

8 hours ago, Russ E said:

I am left handed. I learned to use right handed spincast reels as a kid and never changed.

I cast with the left hand and reel with the right hand, with spinning and casting reels.

even though I am left handed, I can't use a left handed reel. It feels backwards to me.

this is me also.....

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

Hold the rod with my dominant "right hand" and reel with the left for both spinning and casting.  Had heard many years ago when worked shows that the ol leftys got big first on the west coast and then moved east....even heard it was due to the slime rocket fishermen....(used to be one).  Anyway...not sure if true....but had heard this.

I'm left handed and I'm always reeling with my right hand and casting with my left hand, with spinning and casting. I'm not sure how I ended up this way but that's how I roll. ?