2 minutes ago, WRB said:

Thumb is a finger.

Tom

In American English, the thumb is considered a digit but not always considered a finger. Common dictionaries disagree on this point.

3 minutes ago, QED said:

In American English, the thumb is considered a digit but not always considered a finger. Common dictionaries disagree on this point.

Fingers and toes are digits.

Tom

1 minute ago, WRB said:

Fingers and toes are digits.

Tom

I don't make the common English usage rules, I merely follow them.  And if words are misused often enough, the misuse eventually becomes part of the new definition, e.g., "disinterested" used to mean impartial but now it also means uninterested thanks to a bunch of miscreants who must not have studied for their SAT exams.

What a silly argument. Seems that useless arguments are becoming more and more common.

 

In common English the thumb is the only "finger" that's consistently called by its name. The other four are rarely identified specifically, almost always just called fingers.

 

Nobody says, "oh! I just cut my finger" and then shows you their thumb. They show you one of the other four.

 

It's just... Whatever

4 minutes ago, QED said:

I don't make the common English usage rules, I merely follow them.  And if words are misused often enough, the misuse eventually becomes part of the new definition, e.g., "disinterested" used to mean impartial but now it also means uninterested thanks to a bunch of miscreants who must not have studied for their SAT exams.

Giving someone the finger is definitely different then giving a ? 

For the rare occasion that I used a spinning rod, I hold it wherever the balance point is. Unless the rotor is beating my knuckles to death.  At that point I remember one of the many reasons that I don’t use spinning reels.   

7 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

two behind, four in front... I've always had a good grip on things.

 

oe

You have six fingers on your right hand. I know someone who is looking for you. ? 

 

7 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

21 hours ago, J Francho said:

I see this a lot! Last saw it about 3 weeks ago while fishing the green river. I don’t know whether to inform them, or punch them, or push them into the river. This guy was different because his casting skills were good and I could tell he had experience when he worked his inline spinner. It suggested to me that his decision to hold his rig inverted was intentional. 
 

Perhaps I am the weird one. I usually employ pinky behind the stem with 3 fingers on the other side, but I have used the other possible configurations already described EXCEPT the inverted one. Push me into the drink if I do that, lol. 

16 hours ago, QED said:

I don't make the common English usage rules, I merely follow them.  And if words are misused often enough, the misuse eventually becomes part of the new definition, e.g., "disinterested" used to mean impartial but now it also means uninterested thanks to a bunch of miscreants who must not have studied for their SAT exams.

Indeed. Fish used to be both singular and plural. But so many people used fishes for the plural form that it has been accepted by society and can be found in dictionaries for quite some time now. 

It seems to me from reading everyone's input that holding a spinning rod is based purely on balance, which is essentially dependent on the rod and weight of the reel. So in my mind, it's basically preference but moreso necessity. If the balance is off, then the hand placement is adjusted to keep the tip up but also for comfort. 

 

While holding my spinning rig, I often wonder why spinning reels aren't addressing finger placement around the stem. Why aren't they made to be more comfortable? It's not a show stopper, but after 4-5 hours of fishing, my fingers get achey being wrapped around a hard stem. It seems to me that someone should tackle this point of contention and either make the stem soft to grip with a thin layer of foam or rubber or other comfortable material. Why haven't we seen this yet? 

 

I did come across vintage reels that seem to know how we hold them and went head first in making the stem functional to increase leverage, I suppose, ie for twitches or hooksets. I guess my rant is more about why aren't more stems made to be functional?

4 hours ago, Ole man Fazul said:

It seems to me from reading everyone's input that holding a spinning rod is based purely on balance, which is essentially dependent on the rod and weight of the reel. So in my mind, it's basically preference but moreso necessity. If the balance is off, then the hand placement is adjusted to keep the tip up but also for comfort. [stuff deleted]

 

Disagree here.  My spinning rod/reel holding position is dictated solely by line control considerations and not balance.  All of my UL rigs weigh under 7oz so balance isn't even a consideration.  Adding just a 1/8oz lure to the distal end will throw off the nominal balance point anyway, so why would anyone even care?  FYI, the question is purely rhetorical, so no response required.

It's exactly  for line control and is just more comfortable to me. 

Finally figured it out. One behind and three in front.  I don't think about how I hold the rod.  I just hold it so it's comfortable.

Depending on my rig, I typically hold spinning gear with the

reel between pinky and ring finger and I like to put my index

on the rod if possible.

 

Other times, if a heavier reel/longer rod setup, I may go all

above the reel, tho not frequently.

7 hours ago, QED said:

 

Adding just a 1/8oz lure to the distal end will throw off the nominal balance point

That's the purpose of the exercise.

 

oe

On 10/5/2021 at 12:35 AM, jbsoonerfan said:

Wow! I must be a strange one. I have one finger in front of the stem and three below it.

I've done that time to time, but normally it's three in front. A lot of times it depends on the reel and reel seat.

47 minutes ago, OkobojiEagle said:

That's the purpose of the exercise.

 

oe

Not sure what message you are trying to convey.  If you mean to balance the rig at a particular lure weight, then it will be unbalanced at any other lure weight.  Not a particularly useful purpose if that is what you mean.

I revisited this last night while fishing. It appears I switch the grip around the entire time while fishing. I found myself using the 3 in front method for every cast, my body did it involuntary before flipping the bail every cast. Who knew? Then usually when the lure landed in the water I switched to 4 in front. A few times while I was reeling something in quickly, I noticed I was doing the 2x2 grip. 

7 hours ago, QED said:

Not sure what message you are trying to convey.  

Balanced without any additional weight allows easier recognition of the lure's weight while fishing... is the purpose of the exercise.

 

oe

I used to hold a spinning rod 2x2, then I watched a short video of Aaron Martens explaining he holds a spinning rod with his whole hand above the reel stem so he can put his index finger on the blank. I tried it and really liked it.

I put my pinky behind the trigger for casting rods, it's just comfortable to do the same with the stem on a spinning reel

On 10/5/2021 at 4:53 AM, Captain Phil said:

 Please don't hold it upside down. 

Oh gosh, Im cringing just thinking about this lol.

Between my big toe and second toe, but only when I'm casting left handed.

11 hours ago, OkobojiEagle said:

Balanced without any additional weight allows easier recognition of the lure's weight while fishing... is the purpose of the exercise.

We'll just have to agree to disagree, as I don't find that to be a useful purpose.  I can tell the approximate lure weight without regard to system balance.  Plus my UL spinning rigs all have short tennessee handles, so you'd have to do some unnatural reel placement to get static balance with or without a lure.  And the system mass is so low that static, unweighted balance doesn't matter one whit.

Between my middle finger and my ring finger is where the stem of the reel goes.  Anything else feels wonky. 

 

And after two semesters of Anatomy in college.... 4 fingers + 1 thumb = 5 digits.  It was on a test, believe it or not.