Poll: Right versus Left-Handed Retrieve

[bp]

just gotta weigh in here. never understood all the switching that goes on when you reel with your casting hand. just makes sense that if you're going to throw right then you should reel left.

makes me think of a guy who wears his glove on his left hand and throws right, only to switch the glove to his throwing hand because he catches better with his right. sounds like an invitation to a line drive in the noggin. never felt comforatable when i dabbled in bait casting reels. have since purchased only left hand retrieves on those as well. all that switching takes time and all kinds of stuff can happen (mostly bad) when you're going through those gyrations - think line coil around the handle when its on the side away from you. can you say "pop - good bye".

i have, however, heard from some flats guys that a whole day of casting and fighting fish with your casting arm can be really tiring. in this case i think the idea is splitting up the burden of casting and fighting between arms. makes sense in that context, but never been to that rodeo.

cheers.

bp

[Darian]

Oh my, Oh my..... What's the debate about

This stuff is all personal preference. What would you guys who're so locked into one way or the other do if you were forced to use a two handed retrieve in the salt

[Hairstacker]

Hi Darian! No debate here and no one's trying to change anyone's preference. Just a discussion of what everyone prefers and perhaps why.

[Loren E]

In Lefty's book "Presenting the Fly," he makes the point that the majority of folks can reel much faster with their dominant hand, which would be with the right hand for right-handed folks, etc. I seem to recall him saying this is true no matter how long they've been doing it the other way.

I am right handed and have my reels set up for left-hand retrieve, and have experimented with right hand retrieve reels, but i still can reel MUCH faster with my left hand than my right. Maybe its just me, who knows.

[Hairstacker]

Loren, maybe you're really . . . left handed. Just kidding!

[Loren E]

Mike, Maybe thats why I throw so many tailing loops with my right hand!