First and foremost if this is in the wrong location moderator’s feel free to move. Also if this has been discussed before I apologize in advance. So after reading @Bigbox99’s response in a maintenance thread about casting mechanics using left hand retrieve reels but being right hand dominant it got me thinking about my own casting mechanics using left handed reels in both casting and spinning reels over my morning coffee. Now and correct me if I’m wrong Bigbox99 but your basically saying by palming and casting while palming the reel your wrist isn’t creating the proper motion during the cast and when I finally got out to the garage to check my own mechanics I’ll be darned but I definitely feel I’m understanding what you were saying and now I’m excited to get out hopefully Monday to test this out as I’m a bank bound fisherman who could use every advantage I can get for distance as my beloved ponds have a strong weed presence at least 10-15 yards from the edges out. I again apologize in advance if this is in the wrong thread, has been discussed too much already or if it’s just plain boring but I’m wondering if anyone else has developed bad habits as I feel I have without realizing it.

I fish with lefty reels too. The whole switching hands and cranking right handed feels so awkward.

      Are you talking about gripping the rod behind the reel …. Where just your thumb rest on the spool to cast, then move your hand up the rod to palm or partially palming the reel. 
  I am going to have to get back with you on that, I’m not sure how I do it. 
Anybody have any pics? 

Bass rods are short and stiff compared to surf and other long limber rods and benefit from a snappy, lots of jerk wrist snap type movement at the release point of the cast when casting for maximum distance.  To get this range of movement you need be able to rotate the wrist on the cast by moving the rod 90° on the cast.  This is hard to do if you are palming the reel while casting.  

To some reading this may be obvious but a surprising amount of newer anglers are doing this.  They are using left hand reels to avoid changing hands between casting and retrieval but are also casting the reel while palming with two fingers in front of the trigger and resting their thumb pad on top of the spool or on the side of the reel and then coming down on the spool with the whole thumb. 

 

While this is great for close in work ( well get to that later) it's a hindrance for distance casting.  It's better to move your hand down the rod and grip the rod grip and place your trigger finger on the rod's trigger when casting.  This will free up wrist movement and allow you to rest your thumb on the thumb bar and rock your thumb forwards and back of the thumb bar to use your thumb tip to regulate spool speed.  Notice how these rod are reel components of trigger, grip and thumb bar are named?  They were designed for this use.

 

Palming while casting isn't inherently bad and is great for flipping and short target casting and objectively better than switching between a casting and 3 finger in front of the trigger casting style for the ability to rappidly enguage the reel and set the hook.  I do this with my lefties and I believe everyone who punches should learn to punch with a lefty reel palming while they punch and should palm with 2 fingers in front of the trigger so they can use the thumb base to operate the thumb bar while holding the spool with their thumb pad to control the spool as line is stripped out with the left hand.  The reel can be engaged to make the punch/flip by either moving the handle with the drag star by the right palming hand or lift up on the thumb bar with the thumb tip.  Even if you don't punch much of this still applies to pitching.  

Ok 

I went out grabbed a rig, went to the dock, and casted a for a while. Thinking about how I casted was awkward and cumbersome to say the least. Hahaha

I do cast with my hand down behind the reel and then slid my hand up and palm the reel. But not really a full palm, just my thumb over the far right part of the reel.

 But I don’t always do it, I did some pitching and flipping and my hand stays back on the reel and use my thumb to stop and hold the spool. I keep a light drag, so I compensate with my thumb if needed.

I tried to cast while palming the reel and it was too awkward and actually got a small bird nest. 

The mistake I see a majority of bass anglers doing casting with bait casting reels is improper wrist rotation. Your wrist and thumb on the back cast swing shouldn’t go beyond your ear and the thumb should be facing towards your ear. The forward cast motion is mostly in your wrist with about 45 degrees forearm movement and your wrist stays knuckles up, thumb should still be in the same position where the cast started. Most anglers today rotate the thumb to 12 o’clock position during to forewarn cast with the spool parallel to the water surface. Rotating the thumb up puts a lot of force on your elbow tendons and slows down the rod tip.

Your index finger should always be holding the rod finger trigger grip during the casting motion.

Tom 

I almost always cast with 2 hands, using my off hand for the butt of the rod. I have carpal tunnel, and if I don't cast 2 handed, I fatigue quickly.

I have to agree with @WRB-2.0 on most of what he said. When I cast, my hand rarely, if ever goes behind my head, or even past my ear as Tom said, and my thumb is usually pointing at my head.

 

As the cast goes forward, the hand mostly stays in this position and the spool is mostly standing on end with the axle vertical ( or close to it). When I used to cast right handed reels, the handle was facing up, now with my left handed reels, it is angled downward.

 

The only area I differ, and seem to be an oddity, is I am palming the reel the whole time, usually with three fingers in front of the trigger.

 

If I need a little extra distance, I MAY slide back to only having two fingers in front of the trigger, but I NEVER go back far enough to have only my index finger on the trigger. Not with my left hand reels anyway.

 

If you think this is strange, you should see me casting right hand reels. If I really needed to zing it out there, I may hold it in my right hand with just my index finger on the trigger as Tom said (and how most do)...

 

But many times, I keep it palmed in my left hand and either cast left handed over my left shoulder, or a hybrid grip with both hands where I am am still palming it and running the button with my left hand but using the right hand to support a hard cast from over my right shoulder.

 

I must look like a sword fighter out there. But to quote the movie Princess Bride,.... "I know something you do not.... I am not left handed!!" 😁 

 

The moral of the story is there are good basic techniques for casting, but we all have our differences that work for us. Start with the basics and experiment to see what works for you.

My casting learning curve was using pistol grip rods with knuckle buster right handed reels. As a result I don’t palm a casting reel.Cast right hand and switch to left hand to retrieve, automatic. 
Tom

If you any of the expert anglers on this forum saw my casting mechanics they would be appalled, and my accuracy is at my best horrible.  As far as distance goes, I can bomb a baitcaster as well as anyone.

 

I must state, that my recommendations on distance casting works for me and might not be good advice for others.  

 

The first thing I recommend casting with both hands. One hand on the normal pistol grip part of the rod, and the other hand close to the butt end of the rod.  When I first learned how to use a two handed fly rod, I learned the value of the bottom hand.  Of course most of the time with a two handed fly rod is spent roll casting, they are capable of unbelievable long regular over hand casts.  I was practicing one day making normal casts and another guide came up to and told me to use my bottom hand more.  He said it's a two handed rod make good use of the bottom hand.  He showed me how to make sure I was pulling back with my bottom hand as much as pushing forward with my top hand.  A light came on, and I added distance to my cast.

 

The principle can be applied to a baitcasting rod.  I know this goes against all the rules, but for me to get the maximum distance I use my whole body.  Wrist, forearm shoulder, upper body and even my legs.  By doing this I am able to fully load the rod, at a slower pace, making it possible to get the maximum bend and tip velocity.  A shorter snappy arc, will load the rod but puts all of the force of the cast in to a shorter period of the cast.

 

The other important part of my technique s making sure I use my bottom hand to pull back on the butt of the rod at the same time as using my top hand to push forward.  The same as I learned with a two handed fly rod.  Casting with two hands helps in two ways.  One is the other hand help keeps the rod steady and in control, but the other hand can also be used to add force to the cast by pulling on the rod.  If you are palming your reel with your off hand, it will help with stability, but will not help add much force to the cast.

 

Again I will state this works for me, and I may be doing everything wrong, but I can cast any kind of rod far with my technique.  Yes I do get an occasional professional over run, from throwing so hard, and I will admit a flick of the rist will get me 90% of the the distance my forceful all body swing for the fences cast gets, with far less effort, and minimal backashes.  But in order to get that extra unnecessary 10% distance, my two handed swing for the fences cast works for me. 

Agree, straight long handle or split grip casting rods the hand on the butt doesn’t change the casting mechanics with the hand controlling the reel.

2 handed casting allows you to increase rod tip speed by pulling the butt end back during the forward rod motion.

Tom

I am sure that a truly skilled angler would avert his/her eyes if they watched my casting mechanics. But I am pretty accurate and can get all the distance I need. I remember a quote by the famous golfer Lee Travino..."My swing is horrible. Maybe the worst of any pro golfer. But you know what? I seem to be able to get the job done." That pretty much sums up my casting. Sometimes the results count for more than the style.

So I finally got out yesterday and unconsciously started casting and I did have my hand in casting position with my index finger on the trigger and using thumb to help control the spool along with holding the rod butt to add distance. I then moved to an area on the bank with some trees and casted side arm although at this time I concentrated on casting properly and still didn’t palm the reel and when I tried palming the reel it felt very unnatural and uncomfortable to boot. After thinking about it some more today I didn’t really have anybody teach me how to cast a bait cast reel other than copying what the “pros” were doing on Saturday morning and especially Bill Dance as he was always a favorite of mine so I guess I’ve just been copying his style along with the tips he shared on casting as well. I’m going to keep trying to be conscious of how I’m casting and like all of you who responded I’m going to keep doing what’s working for me even if it’s not easy to watch or even improper mechanically. I do have another question for you all and that is do you cast any differently when it comes to BFS if you do use it? I ask because I was telling bulldog that I finally feel I found a combination of rod/reel, line (braid) and lure that works for me but I was bird nesting albeit not horribly or every cast but I’m not sure if it was my mechanics or my excitement to get the lure back in the water. Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond and I wish I could mark all of you as the “solution” as well. 

@Eric 26

I cast my bfs set ups the same as the regular ones. I have to spend time really fine tuning the brakes when changing bait weights on the bfs.

I use ML rods, Curado bfs and Dream Tackle bfs reels.

I don't do a lot of BFS, but I do have a couple setups. One is a Dobyns 740SUF with a SLX BFS reel and the other is an older 7ft Doomsday Tackle 370BCF that I picked up used because it got good reviews in a couple articles I read. It currently has a Tatula SV with a Rays BFS spool in it I bought from someone on here.

 

I wouldn't say I change my casting motion much. The only place I have used them so far is friend's ponds. The only change I have noticed is I found myself focusing more on keeping the casts nice and smooth with no herky-jerky motions that would lead to backlashes.

 

I was throwing baits around the 1/8oz ranges. Small cranks and 1/8oz crappy jig heads with tiny twister tail grubs or paddle tail swim baits

 

Both worked pretty well and was a blast for catching the nice bluegills, crappie and 1-3lb bass that I caught

I use the same casting motion with BSF as standard baitcasting combo’s.

When I was casting big swim baits with 8’ long rods always used 2 handed casting and further backwards motion plus shoulder turn to launch the heavy lures maximum distance. It takes a lot more energy to cast heavy long rods and big lures  to load up the rod, so you developed a casting motion that works for you.

Watch  Glenn May cast he ha s very good casting motion.

Tom

On 9/30/2025 at 6:14 AM, FrnkNsteen said:

I have to agree with @WRB-2.0 on most of what he said. When I cast, my hand rarely, if ever goes behind my head, or even past my ear as Tom said, and my thumb is usually pointing at my head.

 

 

Soooooo who else is sitting here making pretend casts into the air checking out their form?

 

I DID!! 😁😁

 

After reading @WRB-2.0 response, I found myself thinking about my casting motion and looking to where my hand was relative to my ear! 😂 He was right! 😁