Here's something that's always bugged me....

I'm right handed but I have to fish with a left handed baitcaster or I wind up reeling crosshanded. In surfing parlance I suppose that would mean I fished goofy....

Why do most righties switch hands when they cast a baitcaster instead of going with a lefty reel? Cast/retrieve instead of cast/switch hands/retrieve...?

If you ask the average fishermen to pantomime reeling in a fish they reel with their left hand and hold their rod with their right seventy five percent of the time it seems...

...anyway...

...made you look!

Here's another question.

How come I can reel a spinning reel with my left hand and it feels fine, but when I reel a baitcaster with my left hand I feel like a monkey fu%#ing a football?

YES!!!

WHY???

Its a thing that makes me go...hmmm?

I must say at first I thought this would be another flame fest but what a pleasant surprise. I, too, reel with my left hand on my spinning rod ..no problem. I cast the baitcasters with my right arm and reel with my right hand. I suppose the purist would cast right handed and reel left handed ...it is a curious habit.

FIANALLY!!!!!
I have been preaching this since I learned how to cast a baitcaster back in the late eightys!!! You right handed people, your right arm is your POWER arm, RIGHT!!??? So then your left hand is your reel hand.
I see this over and over, cast-switch over, cast-switch over. I don't care how "comfortable " it is you gotta admit it looks and seems backwards, dosen't it?? As a exercise, spin your left hand in small,even, tight circles whenever you think about fishing to get used to the feeling. I guarantee that others will agree with me on this that once you righties pick up a left handed reel you won't go back!!! ( I have seen alot more left handed reels on the river lately!!!) The more demand for lefty reels, the more manufactures make em !!!$.02

Aunty,
Its easy.... Just turn the rod over....

Wrong... The right arm is the power arm, but the left arm is the finesse arm... I have a better feel of the bottom holding the rod in my left hand and reeling with my right.

:p

For me it's "an old dog/new tricks" thing. They didn't make southpaw level winds when I started using them, and so ...........
I've lost a few fish because I switch back and forth, and occasionally get the rod butt hung up in my jacket, but that's the way it is. Maybe someday.......yeah, right.

i made the switch years ago hold rod in right reel left can cast with either arm which is nice when brush and stuff on one side.

Aunty and Fishbelly you got it right.
I was started with a spinning reel left and rod on the right and I am a left handed person.
I fished this way for years because my father is right handed.
When I first start using a baitcaster, I swear to be a true left hander by holding the rod on the left and reel on the right.
I refused to switch hand while learning to handle this new setup.
Now I have both left reel and right reel to use on a long trip to balance out both arms from fatique. And I don't ever do the switching hands either way.

I suppose those people who are doing the goofy swithing hands were brought up on an era where there was no left handed reels.
This is the only logical explaination. Sure is funny watching some of them cast, set he hook, and fighting the fish. They had to be magicians for switching hand so fast in 3 motions.

I started fishing so long ago that spinning reels had not even come into popular useage My first reel was a Green Hornet - no drag, no free spool, and of course right hand crank. So I cast with my right and switch hands most of the time, except when I cast with my left. And I never have owned a spinning reel and never will - I see no need for the useless line twisting things :p If I want to fish ultra-light I break out the bug rod. But I don't mind at all having my rod in my left hand when I hook a fish, because then I have my strong, and less clumsy, right side available to handle the net or unhook the fish. I damn sure couldn't handle the pliers to unhook a fish with my left hand and I am damn glad to have my right arm on the net when I have to nail a 40 pound king by myself. I bet you guys with the left-handed levelwinds have to switch your rod to your left hand to do that - and how much worse is that monster king to deal with when you are switching rod and net hands

No friends, spondo? KIDDING.

Heck I'd fish with you and net your fish...............but you'd probably clown on my line-twistin' spinnie reel.

right-handed, cast with my right arm, reel with left hand reels. Except... DR rods are right handed reels. Opps!

I like using left handed reels because it's so fun to watch the newbies scrambling to reel a fish in when the plug rods go down.

Usually on the way to the river I'll suggest that they just reel on one I keep in the glove box for a while. They always say they're fine, "I can handle it". I'm usually howling by the end of the day.

The reason it is so simple for righties to reel a spinning reel with their left hand is because of the diameter/circumference of excursion being much larger with a spinning reel having a longer crank. A baitcaster's shorter crank, forces your hand into a much smaller circle, like beating scrambled eggs, especially if you are trying to reel at warp speed.

Very few people can scramble eggs with a perfect tight circular motion using their non-dominant hand, it's just too fine a movement. I don't care how much you practice reeling with your non-dominant hand, it will NEVER crank a baitcaster as fast as your dominant hand.

So when you have the need for speed, righties should crank their baitcasters with their right hand, or go for a left-crank spinning reel with a high gear ratio.

...I'm gonna hafta try 'scrambling eggs' with the other hand...you know... for a change.

So how is it that I can crank my little 1 weight fly outfit left handed at a million miles an hour with a fish at the other end??

But,

To watch me throw a baseball left handed you'd wet yourself laughing so hard...

I totaly disagree....I can fish with more control and speed with a left hadnded retreave reel and I am right handed. Give me a right hand retreave and I feel like a beginner.

As far and not being able to make a perfect circle making scrambled eggs with my left hand as opposed to my right, I would agree, but who cares about making perfect circles when your reel does that for you.

The biggest factor is what your comfortable with. Left vs. right, right vs. wrong....ITS ALL PREFERNCE!!!

BTW fishNphysician, awesome fish!!!

piper...as RP McMurphy would say...you are a marvel of modern science. Can you reel with your feet too?