Reel handle side

[Aussie_fisher]

For all my life I’ve been fishing with my reel handles on the right side despite being right handed. The reason I did this was because that was the default setting the reel always came in and I couldn’t be bothered to swap the sides 🤣 though I’ve become pretty used to it, now that I started to use lures I think that my movements aren’t as strong or as smooth as they should be since I’m controlling the rod with my non dominant hand. I’m wondering if I should change sides. initially it would be quite uncomfortable but will it be better in the long run? Which hand do you guys use? Thanks

[TheFishyFisherman]

I usually use my right hand even though I’m left-handed. I’m no expert but I find that using my non-dominant hand works better for me. Watched some videos about it and found that reeling with your non-dominant hand was better once you get your head around the weirdness for a number of reasons such as the fact that you don’t have to switch hands on your rod after casting. Also flicking lures while using your dominant hand on your rod is better too and fighting fish is easier too if you use your dominant hand on your rod. Credit for this info obviously goes to the creator of the video. I wish I could post the link of the video here for you but I’m not sure that’s allowed here.

Edited September 5 by TheFishyFisherman

[Little_Flatty]

This has already been covered: 

This is a contentious topic. 

Best advice I can give is to give each option a real good try (I.e. at least a few weeks at a time) and see what is best for you.

[noelm]

Just because it’s theoretically best to wind left handed doesn’t make it right (in my opinion) you do what’s comfortable for you, not some tackle supplier/magazine/fishing movie.

[Peter KH]

I started fishing with my brother, using some of his gear. He is ambidextrous, although, mainly using his left. When fishing, he holds the rod in the left, reels with the right. I learnt to do it that way, although my dominant is right hand, I hold the rod with my left (and cast with my left), and reel with my right. Whenever I try switching over it makes no sense and my casting accuracy gets horrid, try doing a bit of both for a few hours and see what works for you. If you can try to get the casting and rod holding in the same hand, then you should be sweet, if your swapping hands when holding the rod, the perhaps you should try a different hand combination. All the best.

[DerekD]

As @Little_Flatty said this is contentious topic. I'm right hand dominant, cast right handed but hold and work the rod with my left hand while winding with my right. I teach several people a year and find myself with a left handed winding student once in a while. To really hit home that it is the user and not the gear which allows me to work the lures in the way i do I will demonstrate using their gear. I can do it but I hate it as it feels awkward to the point it actually causes me physical discomfort at times.

I tell all my students the theoretical arguments for each method and then point out why (in my case at least) with good technique it doesn't matter.

If you have been using the rod that way for most of your life and are having problems working the lure I suspect it is more a case of not having been shown several retrieves for lures rather than purely a case of left versus right hand. Having said that I have had a few people struggle and then try opposite for a while rather than training their non-dominant hand.

Try both but if you are struggling then reach out to see where your technique might be causing you problems.

[Aussie_fisher]

Thanks everyone I'll switch hands and give it a shot next time I go out and see how that feels.

13 minutes ago, DerekD said:

As @Little_Flatty said this is contentious topic. I'm right hand dominant, cast right handed but hold and work the rod with my left hand while winding with my right. I teach several people a year and find myself with a left handed winding student once in a while. To really hit home that it is the user and not the gear which allows me to work the lures in the way i do I will demonstrate using their gear. I can do it but I hate it as it feels awkward to the point it actually causes me physical discomfort at times.

I tell all my students the theoretical arguments for each method and then point out why (in my case at least) with good technique it doesn't matter.

If you have been using the rod that way for most of your life and are having problems working the lure I suspect it is more a case of not having been shown several retrieves for lures rather than purely a case of left versus right hand. Having said that I have had a few people struggle and then try opposite for a while rather than training their non-dominant hand.

Try both but if you are struggling then reach out to see where your technique might be causing you problems.

Yep I'm attempting some new retrieves like the fast twitching action which seems to work well for bream but I'm failing miserably 😅 I think its more an I don't know how to do it properly rather than a hand thing but maybe switching could help so I was thinking to give it a shot

[noelm]

35 minutes ago, DerekD said:

As @Little_Flatty said this is contentious topic. I'm right hand dominant, cast right handed but hold and work the rod with my left hand while winding with my right. I teach several people a year and find myself with a left handed winding student once in a while. To really hit home that it is the user and not the gear which allows me to work the lures in the way i do I will demonstrate using their gear. I can do it but I hate it as it feels awkward to the point it actually causes me physical discomfort at times.

I tell all my students the theoretical arguments for each method and then point out why (in my case at least) with good technique it doesn't matter.

If you have been using the rod that way for most of your life and are having problems working the lure I suspect it is more a case of not having been shown several retrieves for lures rather than purely a case of left versus right hand. Having said that I have had a few people struggle and then try opposite for a while rather than training their non-dominant hand.

Try both but if you are struggling then reach out to see where your technique might be causing you problems.

Yep, that just about covers it, theory plays a small part in things, but practical is where it all happens…..

[DerekD]

Ok. First thing is shake the rod rather than twitch the rod using your wrist. Get an oscillation going down the rod so the tip is shaking somewhere between 5 and 10cm side to side, Turn 90 degrees to the lure so that the rod tip is bouncing away from the lure so it kind of pulls the lure forward in small taps. Then use a stuttery retrieve to pick up the slack each time. I can get a super tight walk the dog.

This is me working this topwater lure with my friend filming:

 

Have you looked at this article and specifically the section further down in the post on hardbody lures.

 

Edited September 5 by DerekD

[Aussie_fisher]

2 hours ago, DerekD said:

Ok. First thing is shake the rod rather than twitch the rod using your wrist. Get an oscillation going down the rod so the tip is shaking somewhere between 5 and 10cm side to side, Turn 90 degrees to the lure so that the rod tip is bouncing away from the lure so it kind of pulls the lure forward in small taps. Then use a stuttery retrieve to pick up the slack each time. I can get a super tight walk the dog.

This is me working this topwater lure with my friend filming:

 

Have you looked at this article and specifically the section further down in the post on hardbody lures.

 

I was actually talking about soft plastics. I’ve seen some people do these series of really quick small twitches with plastics (like shroom) and seem to get a godo variety of species. I usually do the typical 2 or 3 jerks but all I really seem to get are flathead so am trying some new techniques to try get some other species like bream.

would really like to try some hardbodies as well but last time I got 2 crank baits and snagged both 🤣 a bit out of my budget atm to risk losing

yep I’ve read it that was actually the first thing I read when I first started fishing with plastics and got my gear based on it. Currently my go to setup is a daiwa revros LT rod 1-4kg and a 2500 shimano miravel with 8lb braid

 

 

[DerekD]

Hmmmm.... Part of the problem is that you are seeing just the results and not how much casting and covering ground is done for those results. I teach another retrieve for plastics which really gets lures dancing. This one is very effective on the pelagics.

As for the hardbodies, consider topwater. Less likely to lose them. Are you on the lower North shore? There are a few areas you can get into on the topwater. Also we are just starting to come into topwater season as the water is warming up. Usually we get really excited around October when it seems to kick up a level and then continues till about April. I picked up a barely legal topwater whiting yesterday afternoon in the Manly area on a bent minnow.

[Rob81]

Probably for baitcaster it might make a difference, but I dont use them so I wouldnt know. 

Personally, I find my least dominant arm has more finer control over the rod, which is what I am more looking for. My dominant hand just has more strength in it if anything, but if I'm fighting a bigger fish, I use my body for the lift, so I dont really see the benefit of getting used to switching over. For those that say the timing between switching hands, I do this as soon as I cast, so there should be plenty of time to switch over (plus likelihood of fishing jumping out of the water to catch your lure in the air before it hitting the water is pretty slim imo).

[BaitDropper]

I remember some time back, a fishing mate informed me I was doing it all wrong and suggested that I give his method a go.

I'm right handed, reel right handed. So, I had some old egg beaters with opposite orientation, so gave it a go, admittingly not for a long period.

I just didn't feel comfortable, I can see the sense in it all, but maybe it's because of the time I have spent fishing which makes it hard to break my old habits.

For me, I stuck with what I was used to, or more importantly, felt comfortable fishing with.  One of my sons is a lefty and I guess he is doing it correctly with having a r/h handle, Dunno..

Interesting topic though, but for me, it's now second nature and fishing otherwise makes me feel awkward.

I say, fish which ever way makes you feel comfortable or natural..

 

[XD351]

I wonder if any manufacturer has thought of putting a handle on both sides of a spinning reel ? It wouldn’t matter which hand you cast with or wind the reel as there is one on either side. Ok my thoughts are :

You can learn to jiggle a rod or wind a reel with either hand fairly easily , ideally you want to be fighting a fish with the rod in your strongest hand but sometimes that isn’t your dominant hand , you want your rod in the hand that gives you the most accuracy when casting lures . I don’t know about anyone else but this for me is my writing hand which is also the hand I throw things with . Now just to throw the cat amongst the pigeons - I throw a ball ,write and weld left handed but do everything else right handed , kick or catch a ball , use a tool like a screw driver, hammer or spanner - so yes I’m a freak ! I feel that in most cases lure placement is more important than the retrieve so work out what hand is most accurate for you then train the other hand to do the less important work like winding the reel . 
I haven’t worked out whether being left or right eye dominant works in with casting accuracy yet but I do know it affects accuracy for target shooting- I do know of a few that were right hand shooters but left eye dominant- usually ended training this out . 

[DerekD]

1 hour ago, XD351 said:

I haven’t worked out whether being left or right eye dominant works in with casting accuracy yet but I do know it affects accuracy for target shooting

Hi @XD351 I hadn't even considered eye dominance.... Always something else to think about...

[Burger]

1 hour ago, XD351 said:

yes I’m a freak !

You’re not the Lone Ranger tho….

my dad used to play cricket as a young bloke….. batting right handed and bowling left!

Me, I got none of that skillset, total righty here.

[Little_Flatty]

What about casting with your non-dominant hand? I was thinking about this recently playing while fly fishing.

With fly casting, there are multiple factors that can contribute to a backhand (off-shoulder) cast not being as good as your forehand cast. I’ve been toying with this idea in the park lately,  as well as working on my backhand cast. Will see how I go!

Granted, with conventional gear my backhand cast is perfectly passable…

[Burger]

Hmmm, gets more interesting for me thinking about forehand vs backhand casting….

Spinning or beach, then it’s a forehand or overhead (?) cast.
Luds, it’s backhand preference all day. Maybe due to line stripping on the cast.
Haven't thought about it too much, but the analyst in me who wants to know ‘why’ will check it out! 😂

[Green Hornet]

2 hours ago, Burger said:

You’re not the Lone Ranger tho….

my dad used to play cricket as a young bloke….. batting right handed and bowling left!

Me, I got none of that skillset, total righty here.

I’m exactly the same as your dad Stu so all this debate isn’t a problem for me.

I naturally cast left handed and wind with the right. Always have.

I’m ambidextrous when it comes to using most tools, which came in very handy being a carpenter/builder for getting into tight corners, but can only write right handed.
 

[XD351]

3 hours ago, Burger said:

You’re not the Lone Ranger tho….

my dad used to play cricket as a young bloke….. batting right handed and bowling left!

Me, I got none of that skillset, total righty here.

Same here - bat R/H , bowl L/H .

I used to play games with my welding teacher - he would come into my welding bay to check my work , I would be doing a vertical up weld left handed and he would go out and come back a few minutes later and I would be doing the next run right handed - one day I switched hands while he was watching me , can’t repeat on here what he said - too many expletives 🤣🤣🤣
Goofy foot skateboarding and  orthodox boxing are the only two things I can’t switch over . 
Really weird thing is the only things I do always with my left hand are write and throw a ball  , casting feels more natural with my right hand but less accurate than my left - I always seem to push the cast to my left if I cast right handed . I don’t know if this is my stance , eye dominant issue or grip .

Edited September 6 by XD351

[lhan]

I'm switched to reel using left hand when I started lure fishing because it feels more natural for me to work the rod/lure while reeling is more of a repeat action. It's also handy because I cast using right hand too. I think all JDM reels default handle in the left side, contrary to what we have here (TD black defaults to right while certate defaults to left, quite funny)

However last summer I had a hand injury so I was forced to use my left hand a lot more. It's a bit awkward initially but it seems fine comparing the results... I think my left hand action somehow makes things slower in a good way - I have to slow my action to make the lure work smoothly... Anyway it's not as bad as I thought and now I switch handles from time to time just for fun or for better casting when there's trees around.

I highly suggest re-read and practice @DerekD's hammering technique. It's the baseline that I could do casting efficiently using both hands.

 

[JonD]

I'm right handed and use the winding handle on the left as my dominant right hand is used for accurately pitching lures where I want them to land when controlling the rod with my right hand. Also being right handed allows me to use my strongest arm to pull on the rod, which comes more into play on larger game on big spin outfits. 

With big game multiplier outfits I use the reels with the handle on the right as no skill is used working the rod to attract the fish. Those reels are used to haul as much as the rod itself is, only here the lifting comes from the handle of the rod and the harness. 

With smaller multi (overhead reels) I use for working lures I also use left handed as this allows me to once again use my dominant right hand to create the jigging action. I find it quite difficult to replicate the same rod action if I try using the rod in my left hand. 

I remember an article in the Fishing World mag titled 'when left is right' quoting why a right handed person should use the reel handle on the left, which basically relates to what Ive just described. In Europe almost all spin reels are used with handles on the left by right handled people. Most bream tournament anglers who rely on skill and accuracy casting light lures use spin reels with handles on the left if they are right handed and right if left handed. 

If you are right handed which hand would you hold a pool cue in, or tennis racket, gaff, landing net etc. Most would use the hand they can control better with, which makes sense to control a rod with the same hand and use the other for simply turning a handle on a reel.

Edited September 6 by JonD

[savit]

2 hours ago, JonD said:

I'm right handed and use the winding handle on the left as my dominant right hand is used for accurately pitching lures where I want them to land when controlling the rod with my right hand. Also being right handed allows me to use my strongest arm to pull on the rod, which comes more into play on larger game on big spin outfits. 

With big game multiplier outfits I use the reels with the handle on the right as no skill is used working the rod to attract the fish. Those reels are used to haul as much as the rod itself is, only here the lifting comes from the handle of the rod and the harness. 

With smaller multi (overhead reels) I use for working lures I also use left handed as this allows me to once again use my dominant right hand to create the jigging action. I find it quite difficult to replicate the same rod action if I try using the rod in my left hand. 

I remember an article in the Fishing World mag titled 'when left is right' quoting why a right handed person should use the reel handle on the left, which basically relates to what Ive just described. In Europe almost all spin reels are used with handles on the left by right handled people. Most bream tournament anglers who rely on skill and accuracy casting light lures use spin reels with handles on the left if they are right handed and right if left handed. 

If you are right handed which hand would you hold a pool cue in, or tennis racket, gaff, landing net etc. Most would use the hand they can control better with, which makes sense to control a rod with the same hand and use the other for simply turning a handle on a reel.

I am using same reel handle sides as JonD, and 100% for the same reasons.

However it might be easier for me and him to use and justify the used left handle side due to - I, and likely JonD were just  taught from the beginning to use the  left handle side - as I and JonD (from memory)  came geographically from the same place mentioned in his post where left handle side in spin reels is more popular. 

Despite that side benefits/efficiency logic - it still does not explain why in US with a huge market and lot of  professional sport/tournament fishing business  (as well as in Europe at a lesser extent) - the majority of low profile baitcaster (which are very very  popular there) and small overhead reels are offered in right hand wind only.  From observation - only 1/4 to 1/3 of mentioned reel models have left hand side option.  Why?

[noelm]

Fly fishing kind of reverses the “theory” you cast (most people) with your right arm, but strip (not wind) with your left…..so? but when you do wind the reel, it’s change hands (like an Alvey) and turn the handles with your right. Does anyone fish a centre pin for Blackfish winding with the left hand? It’s all well and good to talk about “dominant hand/arm” does Alvey make a left hand wind reel? it has to feel right to the user.

[Little_Flatty]

9 minutes ago, noelm said:

Fly fishing kind of reverses the “theory” you cast (most people) with your right arm, but strip (not wind) with your left…..so? but when you do wind the reel, it’s change hands (like an Alvey) and turn the handles with your right. Does anyone fish a centre pin for Blackfish winding with the left hand? It’s all well and good to talk about “dominant hand/arm” does Alvey make a left hand wind reel? it has to feel right to the user.

I'm a non-dominant winder and have been doing so for so long that winding dominant is foreign to me. I'm in my 40s and have been doing so since high school. So fly fishing is no exception to this - I wind left handed when right handed. I also know of at least one person who winds a centrepin with their non-dominant hand, but I would agree it's an anomaly.

At the end of the day, you do what works for you. If one is curious, they can try doing things differently and see if it works for them. If not, it doesn't really matter. Both dominant and non-dominant retrievers catch fish. I've seen good examples of both.