[slayerfish]

When I first started fly fishing,I found it a pain to keep switching the rod from hand to hand to either cast or reel.I switched it to wind from the left side and it became much easier and enjoyable to fly fish.Any of yous guys notice this?

 

[hellfish]

left hand reel, its generally easiest to reel with the same hand you strip with.

 

[left_turn56]

I am left handed so I am not sure how "backward" this might seem...cast with my left hand and reel/strip with the right.

 

[jbrowning]

I am right handed and strip and wind with my left hand. Is anyone seeing a pattern here?

 

[Don In Denver]

I'm right handed and every reel I own (fly, spin, and baitcast) is set up for a left hand retrieve.  So I cast with the right hand and reel with the left.  I think it's much easier and more efficient than shifting the rod from one hand to the other after the cast.

 

[slayerfish]

Up till a few years ago,most fly reels were set up for right hand wind.If most people are right-handed,why was this so?

 

[hellfish]

I know that up till a few years ago you could change your reel to either left or right, now you need to ask for the style you want. Don't know why?

 

[Don In Denver]

Up till a few years ago,most fly reels were set up for right hand wind.If most people are right-handed,why was this so?

I don't know, but you're right. Out of the box most were set up for a right hand retrieve. I haven't bought a fly reel for a long time, but all of the ones I have you can switch over.

 

[fishinguitars]

left hand for everything ...Gets expensive on the baitcasters but trying to reel in with my right just doesnt feel natural

 

[idratherbfishing]

I am not coordinated enough to wind with my left hand. If for some reason I am using a left hand wind I end up holding the crank in place and moving the whole rod!

Dan

 

[roadkill]

i set my fly real up to reel on the left so i cast with my right and dont have to switch hands its not as cordinated but not as bad as switching hands

 

[Oats]

I reel with my left usually but when I'm using a bait caster I usually use the right hand crank also found this more useful when trying to sence the smallest hit of the line which so offten happen when fishing for bass, walleye and other warm water quarry.

 

[left_turn56]

I am not coordinated enough to wind with my left hand.  If for some reason I am using a left hand wind I end up holding the crank in place and moving the whole rod!

Dan

LOL...bet that is a sight to see!!

 

[afishman]

i strip and wind with left hand and cast with right and i am right handed

 

[amster]

I am not coordinated enough to wind with my left hand.  If for some reason I am using a left hand wind I end up holding the crank in place and moving the whole rod!

Dan

Thank you, Dan, for that image! I am sitting up late with the blues, and that makes me feel a lot better....

 

[Mustang]

im right handed, i learnedmto fish with a lil zebco, so switching to the left on a spin reeel was a pain, but now i use my left hand to reel everything, but i still use the right hand on baitcasters

 

[scorpion_bsk]

All of my reels (spinning and fly) have left hand retrieve except my baitcaster, it is right hand retrieve so I have to switch hands with it. They didn't have one with left hand retrieve when I got mine. It's an ABU Garcia 6600 D6.

 

[Cutthroat]

I learned to flyfish with my dads fly rod when I was a kid. His old reel wasn't really set up for reeling in one directio or the other. They didn't have drags on fly reels in those days (makes me sound older than I am), but in any case, you just turned the reel around and respooled. The reel had a clicker that worked in either direction, and your palm was the drag.

I think there are a lot of flyfishers who started as spinfishers, and that may be one reason for the switch to left-handed reels. Also, formerly it didn't matter which side the reel was on, because it was so rarely used. Only in the last few years have people's minds begun to change about whether you should play fish on the reel. Now, it's encouraged much more, especially for big fish.

I learned to strip the fish in, though, so in the heat of battle, I never remember I can play the fish on the reel, and the few times I have had someone urge me to, I lost the fish, because it surged and fly reels don't have favorable gear ratios that allow you to bring line in fast.

 

[tekneek]

cutthroat-
i think you are right one. all my spinning and even bait casting reels i reel from the left. but when i began fly fishing a few years ago, i had to reel with the left hand, because that was what felt normal and my casting using the right hand/arm was already coordinated from other forms of fishing.
i try as much as possible to play a fish on the reel, but many time in taking up slack fly line or getting the tension on the fly reel i loose fish, where as if i just stripped, i probably would land more.

 

[patmc]

I have found stripping in smaller fish works great but for bigger fish I like to get them on the reel. A disk drag system makes it a little easier to fight and land bigger fish,IMHO. I am right handed, so fighting fish with my right hand and reeling with my left.