Left or Right Baitcaster

[Bosshog]

I have a few BCasters and ther are all right handed(I reel in with the right hand). Now I switched to CAsters about two seasons back and have always used Spinning and reeled in with my left hand.

I cast with my right hand too. It seems like I am wassting time each time I cast with my right and then switch hands to reel. Why is it this way with Baitcasters.

I've tried searching the web but couldnt find legit answers. Some people said they still buy right BCasters and just learned to cast with their left and that solved the swithcing hands problem. Some also said they just buy left BCasters and that solves the problem(this seems like the most reasonable answer since I was use to reeling with my left because of spinning reels) but why wouldnt they have it this way to start with??? Cast with right and reel with left??

If your a righty shouldnt the pole be in your right hand and reeling with your left? Or am I missing something here?

Anyone have any thoughts

[kennethdaysale]

This discussion comes up on boards, in the boat and in tackle shops all the time. This is one of those things that definately comes down to what works and feels best to you. I am right handed and have been throwing baitcasters (and spinning) for 30+ yrs. The only time it matters to me is if I'm casting a buzzbait or spinnerbait over grassbeds that are 1 or 2 inches below the surface. In that case you want your lure to actually begin buzzing back towards you the nano-second before it hits the water. Depending on the reel/line/lure/wind etc I will either switch hands mid-cast or thumb the spool to a stop, lift the rod enough to get the lure started and then switch. In the thousands of times I've done it by switching hands after the lure hit the water, I can count on one hand the number of times a fish has slammed my bait during "the switch" and caught me with my pants down.
As far as wasting time......the switch takes about as much time as snapping your fingers.
As far as what feels natural.....again that's subjective, but I like being able to use my outfits for more than just one technique if possible (flipping maybe an exception). Anyway even though baitcaster and spinning reels are reeled on different side of the rod, baitcasters are reeled clockwise and spinning reeled counterclockwise, it just feels unnatural to me to change it up.

As far as why it's this way, I'm not sure, but think of a righthanded baseball player, where does he position his hands on the bat? Looks like he's "holding" the bat with his left hand and his right/dominant hand is just above that. Why?

[nofearengineer]

I'm not going to get into which is better, because that debate goes absolutely nowhere.

What I will talk about why the handle on the right hand side is the standard.

Baitcasters started out as those big bulky reels you see on deep sea fishing boats. For that type of fishing, you actually need your stronger arm to be the one reeling, rather than gripping the rod. It's assumed you are in some sort of harness, or the rod butt is in the transom or gunwale.

When they started making smaller baitcasters for us, they probably just scaled down the design, rather than putting much thought into why the handle was where it was. Turns out, it didn't cause many problems, so it just sort of stayed there. Ironically, the newfound popularity of bass fishing among those who had previously only used spinning reels is what caused some manufacturers to start producing "lefty" baitcasting reels. I'm not even sure if you could get a left baitcaster prior to the 90's. Any old-timers want to verify that?

[Tavery5]

Bryce there are several older round reels that date back to the 30's and 40's that were made in a LH retrieve.

[bassboogieman]

I don't know how or why it works but it works differently for each individual angler. I have the handle on my spinning reels on the left side and cannot use a spinning reel with the handle switched to the right - I TRIED IT and it just feels unnatural. Now baitcasters, my handle is on the right side and I cannot manage one with the handle on the left. It's crazy, but that's the way it works for me. I cast most times right handed and have no trouble changing hands to reel a baitcaster and don't really think about doing it, it just happens and it's completed just before the lure hits the water. I really tried to learn to do a left handed baitcaster on my jig rod as I felt that was one presentation that I could benifit from a left handed reel - it didn't work for me. It doesn't make any sense on paper, but in my hands it's the only way it works.

[nofearengineer]

Originally Posted by Tavery5

Bryce there are several older round reels that date back to the 30's and 40's that were made in a LH retrieve.

So was it just a couple? Still, I guess a tiny minority.

[Tavery5]

Originally Posted by nofearengineer

So was it just a couple? Still, I guess a tiny minority.

They were def a minority, they are worth quite a bit more than their RH counterparts. I know South Bend and Pflueger had some older LH models.

[WTL]

I think doing what is most comfortable and natural is the correct first answer.

I am right handed, but cast with my left.
I try, from time to time, to practice casting both with my right hand, and with my left hand but from the outside. For me, I am a fairly average caster, and I cast with my left and from the inside %99 of the time. That works great in open water, but sometimes you go down a line of brush and find that you really need to be throwing from the outside in, or with your right hand, to really get the lure in the pockets you are aiming at. If I were trying to be really good at bass fishing, instead of trying to just look good, I would probably spend even more time honing all the different casts and angles, instead of doing the same casting motion %99 of the time. Its sorta like basketball, you really want to be able to hit a fadeaway, a skyhook, dribble with your right, and left and do all that jazz if you really wanna be proficient. You can score if you just have a jumper from the corner, but you wont win MVP.

[nofearengineer]

I wish I could cast with my left. Unfortunately, I am the most right-handed (and legged) person in history. Not a single ambidextrous gene in my body.

[bassboogieman]

I wish I could cast with my left. Unfortunately, I am the most right-handed (and legged) person in history. Not a single ambidextrous gene in my body.

The answer is so obvious, in your case in particular, in that you have a severe aversion to anything dealing with the left, when you think about the left - your mind naturally and uncontrollably reponds from the right. You are so right minded, the left never has a chance to exert it's influence over you, your mind just reflexivly snuffs it out from the right. I thought I would never say this, but it's true: Bryce you're right and will always be right. Accept it for what it is - A BLESSING!

[3dkicker]

I guess I'm independent then because I use both right and left.

Left handed reels were very uncommon in the 80's so most people were forced to use right handed reels. My first bc was a righty. Slowly over the years the lefties have become more popular and now you can get left handed models with no problems (for the most part).

Why were a majority of the reels right handed? Don't know but left side makes more sense to me.

[pro reel]

I have heard several theorys through the years. I am not at all sure if any are correct or not. I think Bryce was mostly correct that when reels were invented, it just seemed natural that you would crank the reel with your dominant hand. You can hold a rod in either hand, but cranking one against resistence is easier with the dominant hand. The exception to that is with spinning reels. Spinning reels and casting reels are so different that you can't even compare them. When a reel hangs under the rod, the balance point is totaly different than when it's on top. For some reason that makes it very comfortable to crank it with the left hand. When the reel is on top of the rod, it just feels much more natural to most people to hold it with the left and crank with the right. Some say that it's just because you learned that way. I don't agree. I have taught lots of folks to fish that had no proir experience. Some of them decided to try both left and right. Most came to the same conclusion as I did, it just felt very awkward to use a lefty reel.
All that aside though, I have a little chuckle every time I see or hear this come up becuae most of the time it's the same old idea that a right handed person could cast a lefty reel with thier right hand and then the fact that they wouldn't have to change hands would make things better or they could make more casts in the same time period. That would be fine and dandy if and this is a big IF, if you kept holding the rod in the same exact positon that you hold it to cast. Think about it, with a spinning reel, your fingers wrap around the stem of the reel for casting and cranking, you always hold it in that same spot. Thats not what 99% of people do with a casting rod. Again, think about how you hold a casting rod during that cast, Your finger is wraped around the trigger with your thumb over the spool, Your hand is completly behind the reel. Now think about how you normally hold a reel to crank. Most will hold it further up or palm the reel. Some actually hold the foregrip with longer , tip heavy, rods. Also, think about the power it takes to set the hook, if your hand is behind the reel, you would almost have to move one hand up to the foregrip to get any leverage at all. So, what do most of the people do that have made the switch to using lefty reels, well, what I have seen is they do almost the same thing they would do with a right hand reel, They move the rod to the other hand that will crank it, then hold it with that hand while they move the right hand up further to palm the reel. Most don't even realize that they do this. It takes the same amount of time to do that and there is no benefit that i can see. I cast with my right and crank with my right. I switch hands during the cast as a part of the mechanics of the cast. My left hand is in positon to take the rod before the bait hits the water. the switch is effortless and i could easily set the hook as soon as the bait hits the water.