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I'm right handed and reel in with my left which I think is what normal righthanded fisherman do correct? If that's the case why is it with bait casters/trolling reels the norm seems to be right hand retrieve? I've mostly fished my entire fishing career with a spinning reel and as u know you're able to change the orientation on all of them. I recently started investing on trolling reels and just noticed that most of them are right hand retrieve. Anybody know why that is? My trolling reels are LH retrieve but I was looking at a used reel that interested but lost interest when I noticed it was RH.. it will just frustrate me having to switch reeling hand(probably my OCD).
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I'm left handed and I reel with my left hand, which I think isn't technically left handed but its comfortable for me. Kind of confusing though.
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[quote Jiggy81]I'm right handed and reel in with my left which I think is what normal righthanded fisherman do correct? If that's the case why is it with bait casters/trolling reels the norm seems to be right hand retrieve? I've mostly fished my entire fishing career with a spinning reel and as u know you're able to change the orientation on all of them. I recently started investing on trolling reels and just noticed that most of them are right hand retrieve. Anybody know why that is? My trolling reels are LH retrieve but I was looking at a used reel that interested but lost interest when I noticed it was RH.. it will just frustrate me having to switch reeling hand(probably my OCD).[/quote]
All of my trolling reels were available in left or right hand models when I bought them, pretty sure you will find the same by simply looking up the reels on google that you are interested in buying.
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I'm also right handed, and so I have always held the rod when spin casting and fly fishing with my dominate right hand to cast and fight fish and reel with my left hand. So when I purchased my trolling reels I went with the left handed reels, it just made sense to me to continue reeling with my left hand.
When I let others use my left handed trolling reels they say it doesn't feel right to them even though they are right handed and normally reel with the left hand when spin casting and fly fishing.
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I've never understood this phenomenon of baitcasting reels using the right (or dominant) hand to reel.
What really confuses me is to watch a bass angler using a baitcasting reel -- they put the rod in their right hand to cast, then switch hands and hold the rod with the left and reel with the right, then switch hands to cast again. For a group that likes to cast-n-reel-n-cast-reel as fast as they can -- wouldn't it make sense to stop switching hands and keep that rod in your dominant hand and reel with the other??
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Ah, the age old question, why are baitcasters bassackwards !!! There is no explanation to this other than that is the way it is. There are a lot of guys that cast with their right hand, then switch the rod to their left to crank with their right. AS a confirmed lefty, I cast left, crank right, no switching hands. While there is no real reason, my recommendation is to find the method that works for you, stick with it and don't try to reason why the reels are built the way they are. Just remember, it wasn't so many years ago that all that was available were "right" handed bait casters and left handed cranking spinning reels !! We have a lot of choices now that were not available in the past !!
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I had almost that same conversation with my son about a week ago. He and I are both right handed. I cast, and hold the rod with my RH, reel with the left. I noticed he was casting with his right, switching the rod to his left, but rolling it "up-side-down" with reel on the top so he could reel with his RH. Doing that he had to reel it backwards. The rod and reel is one I just got him for Christmas, and like all my spinning reels, the crank can be swapped from right to left, and that seems to be the way they mostly come when new. So it was set up with reel crank on the left side which when cranked, it is cranked turning it toward the rod tip. When he would roll it with the reel up, he would have to crank it right handed turning back toward his body. When I noticed it, and how awkward it looked to me I started laughing. Never really did get an explanation from him as to why he reeled like that.
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"OCD = Obsessive Catfish Disorder "
Or so it says on my license plate holder
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This is only my best guess but I think the first bass gear was actually lite saltwater tackle. And being saltwater gear most people weren't "casting" but jigging or trolling. Since the majority of people are right-handed the reel manufacturers thought it best to use the dominant hand as it is stronger. Kind of makes sense.
I too am a left-hand retrieve on both casting and spinning gear but don't seem to really notice when saltwater fishing using those larger Penn Reels. It's not really playing the fish as it is winching the fish.
Back when I got into bass fishing most of the higher end reels only came in right-hand retrieve. Thank goodness for Shimano Bantam Curado 201. I still have several Curados. Casting, Spinning, or Fly, it's all left hand retrieve for me.
HM
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I am right handed and use a left hand retrieve real on all my level wind stuff ,after years of spinning reals I just can't use right hand retrieve level winds, I do have a couple of right handers on the boat for my friends to use.
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Sounds like I'm normal for once! Haha. I know you can buy the LH retrieve reels (that's what I have now)my question was about why most baitcasters/trolling reels are mostly RH retrieve which made me think I was using the wrong hand to reel. My first trolling reel was actually RH retrieve and I hated it.. tried to get use to it but I couldn't so switched it for a LH retrieve. Was at sportsman yesterday and most of the baitcasters on display was RH retrieve.
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[quote BSF]
When I let others use my left handed trolling reels they say it doesn't feel right to them even though they are right handed and normally reel with the left hand when spin casting and fly fishing.[/quote]
That's weird how they are normally RH and retrieve with their LH using a spinning reel but when using baitcasters they have to use RH retrieve.. Maybe it's the orientation of the reel.. I don't know but I can't cast with my LH at all since it's not my dominant hand and it would be a waste ofrom time switching hands everything you cast and retrieve. More efficient not having to switch hands especially for the pros but maybe that's what got them there.. trick of the trade!
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I use both and am right handed. If I'm casting or jigging I like left hand reels so I can cast and set the hook with my strong arm. But if I'm trolling I like right handed reels because I have more line out to reel in and the fish usually hooks itself.
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I'm left handed, and have always held the pole in my left hand and reeled with my right. I have never had to switch anything over with my reels when I buy them, and just assumed I had learned how to fish right handed, in a right handed world! So tell me, I'm I fishing right handed or left handed. I guess the important part, is that I am fishing!
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Since the very beginning, casting reels came with the handles on the right. It has only been recently that left-hand models were even made. The assumption must have been that anglers would do everything with their dominant hand: cast AND retrieve.
The advent of spinning gear (about a century after casting reels became common) changed that. Whether that was common sense or what, I don't know.
I can say that back in the early 70s when I was doing serious bass fishing, I taught myself to cast my Abu-Garcia 5000 outfits with my left hand so I wouldn't have to switch over to reel. I still have those reels but I don't cast them as well now - with either hand. Too many years spent with spinning outfits.
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I use bait casters and cast with my right hand place rod in left hand and reel with right...hasn't impacted my catch rate or any of my retrieve techniques. Catching a fish is catching a fish no matter reeling left handed or reeling right handed...a fish doesn't care which hand an angler uses to cast and then reel.
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Ok, sorry guess I have to put my 2 cents in, since I have had the same issues as most on this post... First off, am I the only guy that uses my rod with eyes on top when I fish a bait caster or trolling rod? If so, sorry I'm weird, but that put the handle back on the correct side of the rod for me to reel in comfortably.... Other issue was, I bought my first bait caster last winter to ice fish with, and got it home before I realized I had bought the wrong hand model and by then I had the line on and had a trip the next morning, so needless to say I kept it... But from what I'm hearing, I may have bought the right model, it's just they are set up backwards from what you would expect... Now I feel better..., but it's still weird to reel screwy... Guess I'll stick with my spinning reels for now... Later J
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I think your missing the point.  It also drives me crazy that baitcasters are mostly right hand reel and also trolling reels are too.
I am right handed have always casted with my dominant hand and reeled with my left. I always see people casting with the right and flipping the spinning reel over and reeling with there right?
The only thing I could think of is allot of us learned to fish on a zebco reel and they are right hand reel so old habits are hard to break for some people I guess. Then I started looking into baitcast reels and most all of them are right hand reels so I really never like them and will use a heavy spinning reel if I need to fish for something with some size to it.
To each there own I guess. And you are right or left, both ways catch fish and they don't seem to mind one bit.
fnf[cool]
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The people who hold the spinning reel on top and reel "backwards" with their right hand are exactly the people the bait casting reel designers have in mind. Those anglers must be so right-hand dominant they can't do ANYTHING with their left hand except hold on. (Although why they don't simply change the handle over is beyond me.)
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[quote SkunkedAgain]Ok, sorry guess I have to put my 2 cents in, since I have had the same issues as most on this post... First off, am I the only guy that uses my rod with eyes on top when I fish a bait caster or trolling rod? [/quote]
That's how you fish with a bait caster. I see far too many people with spinning gear turn the rod over so the eyes are on the top and then struggle to reel with the dad gum reel on top too. I got into a somewhat heated discussion with a friend a few years ago. We were catching carp down at Yuba...on purpose. He pulled out his spinning rig and proceeded to cast out then I noticed he had turned the rod upside down. I asked him why he was doing that and he looked at me like I was crazy. He said that was how it went. I told him that baitcasters were oriented like that and the reel was designed to sit on top. He had a spinning rod and reel and he was holding it upside down. It went downhill from there.
Like others on the thread, I've used spinning gear and baitcasting gear. I got a Daiwa PMA 1500 for my birthday when I was 12 and a new 6.5 foot medium heavy Berkley Lightning Rod. I had to practice casting in the back yard (with a weight tied on) until I could flip, pitch, cast without a backlash. I don't know if I could have switched the handle on that old reel or not. I had to cast and switch hands to reel. Now it doesn't matter. I'm only ambidextrous when I'm fishing...
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Exactly why I use Left-Handed baitcasters. It just feels weird reeling with my right hand. And switching hands after the cast is just a waste.
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