with my own eyes.  i have been fishing a long time, and i have yet to see someone crank on a spinning reel with the reel perched up.  i always thought it was filed there with "old wives tales".  like a long running joke.

 

it was a lady casting from shore.  she was having a blast, laughing with family and i just smiled and moved on.  it was kinda cool seeing it done.  looked awkward as heck.  hahaha..but she was happy. 

I saw a photo of President George Bush Sr. doing this also. But, I've never seen anyone else doing it.

I’ve seen It a lot. Very cringy. 

Seen it myself this weekend also. The young man doing it did catch a few in his defense.

21 minutes ago, Mobasser said:

I saw a photo of President George Bush Sr. doing this also. But, I've never seen anyone else doing it.

That's funny because he's fished with some of the pros.

Seen an old timer catching one catfish after another using a spinning reel upside down this weekend.  I couldn't argue with the results.  Seemed crazy to me.

Several years ago I had a friend join me for fishing and he did this. Teaching him that you can change the side the handle is on is all it took to correct him.

Doesn't make sense as most of if not all the handles can be oriented on either side.

Why fight gravity ?

Plus spinning rods lack the guides for this.

My 8 year old grandson did this just last week. He's got an excuse though as it was his 1st time with a spinning reel. He gave up and went back to the spincaster.

2 hours ago, padlin said:

My 8 year old grandson did this just last week. He's got an excuse though as it was his 1st time with a spinning reel. He gave up and went back to the spincaster.

Did you teach him?

Of course, trying to remember to open and close the bail was the problem. Kept removing his right hand from the rod when casting, I could picture the setup getting thrown into the water.

I have a relative that fishes spinning reels that way. He fishes with us often and knows how others use them, but he is used to it and catches a lot of fish that way.

 

Seems very unnatural and backwards, and rod and guides are not intended to be flexed that way,... But it's his reel!

We had a lake manager at our local state lake the fished his spinning reel that way on purpose and caught thousands of bass that way. I still don't know why he did it but the results worked for him. 

This is proof that left hand reeling is unnatural.  When forced with the option of reeling backwards with the right hand or forwards with the left they novices choose right hand reeling and only shaming out of it them can convince them otherwise.

I see it every year when they stock the pond near me with trout.  But, as I’m generally there with a ultralight bait caster, I assume tbey are looking at me and assuming that I’m the idiot. 

3 hours ago, Tatulatard said:

This is proof that left hand reeling is unnatural.  When forced with the option of reeling backwards with the right hand or forwards with the left they novices choose right hand reeling and only shaming out of it them can convince them otherwise.

Not necessarily true. My brother in law still has the handle to the left side while holding it upside down, meaning he switched it to right side if in normal position, so it is on the left when he holds it upside down. 

 

He holds the line with his right thumb, opens the bail with left hand to cast, then reels backwards with left hand.

3 hours ago, Tatulatard said:

This is proof that left hand reeling is unnatural.  When forced with the option of reeling backwards with the right hand or forwards with the left they novices choose right hand reeling and only shaming out of it them can convince them otherwise.

Nope. I'm as right handed as right handed gets, and working a bait and rod and hooksetting and fighting fish with my left arm and hand is far more unnatural than reeling with my left hand. It doesn't make any sense to me that righties prefer to do a lot more work left handed rather than just turn a handle left handed.

8 minutes ago, ironbjorn said:

Nope. I'm as right handed as right handed gets, and working a bait and rod and hooksetting and fighting fish with my left arm and hand is far more unnatural than reeling with my left hand. It doesn't make any sense to me that righties prefer to do a lot more work left handed rather than just turn a handle left handed.

I'm 'mostly' a righty...a few things I can't do left, but my right is slightly more dominate.

 

Still, my left arm is my stronger arm...so cast and work the rod with the left, turn handle with the right.

@MN Fisher just described me 100%. When I was younger, I could cast with either hand. Major wrist surgery forced me to use only my left for over a year. When I tried to go back to casting right handed, it was like starting completely over, and there was a major lack of strength as well. Since I was doing just fine with my left, I abandoned the right.

One of my co-anglers has the reel flipped up while he casts and drops it down once the bait hits the water.