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Post 27 Jun 2022, 22:45 • #1 
Guide
Joined: 08/11/21
Posts: 208
Location: Tucson, AZ
Not going to start a discussion on which is better for any particular person or type of fishing...but maybe pose a thought that perhaps it isn't all that important to fish one or the other way in many situations. Though used to left-hand retrieve reels as a righthander, I started in the 60's with right-hand retrieve, as that was the way most of them came from the factory. The old English system, I always assumed.

I get the satisfaction of rehabbing an old flyreel and putting it back in circulation...an often challenging and worthwhile part of flyfishing..but would like to suggest simply leaving a reel (mainly right-hand retrieve) the way it has been set up for many years, often decades.

I marvel at the simplicity and beauty of form and function of fly reels, which have often been in one piece for 50 years or more...and absolutely love to fish the same vintage as the glass rods from the same era. I have switched Pflueger Medals reels around, including the line guard and unscrewed the posts, careful to not lose the screws, but wonder if the effort is worth it sometimes, The need for Loctite is obvious, as the screws will come loose again in no time without it.

Just a thought..I have some wonderful old reels and enjoy fishing them the way they have been for 50 years or more. If easy to switch, go for it, but I find it less and less important every year to have LH or RH retrieve for my fishing...admittedly mostly on lakes out of a float tube


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 02:49 • #2 
Master Guide
Joined: 07/12/17
Posts: 390
Location: SW B.C.
I prefer not to mess about, switching hands to retrieve, but it's a minor inconvenience on streams with classic reels such as the Medalist ringers. However, when it comes to long-running Rainbows on lakes, I am not willing to fart around with RHW, especially for the hours spent stripping when the reel is laying on its side on the float tube apron. I don't need a six pound Rainbow waking me from daydreaming with the reel handle skipping off the apron.


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 04:49 • #3 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
There is nothing that feels more awkward and uncomfortable for me than to hold a rod in my left hand, heck I can't even hold a drink in my left hand without spilling it. However I can wind line just fine.

That sort of seals the deal for me.

As a result every reel I own since day one was purchased LHW or was converted and the tiny few RHW reels I own are either on display or in the case of two vintage Uniquas, they work just fine LHW.


Last edited by Bamboozle on 28 Jun 2022, 11:26, edited 1 time in total.

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Post 28 Jun 2022, 05:04 • #4 
Guide
Joined: 05/02/13
Posts: 213
Location: Almonte, ON, Canada
I golf right, play hockey left. Baseball, I was a switch hitter. Write with my right hand, but draw my bow to my left eye.

Both wife (a south paw) and I (right hand, left eye) cast off either arm, though we cast better left and right respectively.

Also a spey caster, either hand is on top.

My only note is that I reel in faster on my right, so speed of retrieval is important then it is RHW for me. My wife does not care for Winter Steelhead, so my large arbour reels are right.

The trout reels are left.


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 06:26 • #5 
Piscator
Joined: 08/10/05
Posts: 19079
Location: downtown Bulverde, Texas
Ambidextrous people may come by this naturally. I was writing with both hands still in 2nd grade, and the teacher rubber-banded the pencil to my right hand.
Switch hit, throw left, fly rod and bait rod left, spin rod right - that's how they came from the store.
It's probably noteworthy that spinning tackle rewards jerk in your cast, while both fly rod and bait rod react adversely to jerk (tailing loops and backlash).
They all go back to teenage years for me, when our pituitary is still producing learning hormones, and muscle memory comes easy. I was making jerk-free spiral casts with Ambassadeur for weightless free-shrimp within months on a baitcaster, and could double anyone's spinning distance casting the same weightless rig on Ambassadeur.

I have natural haul, and what most people don't get about fly rod, is your line hand should do more reading and loading than your rod hand - everything you do with your rod hand should be short and smooth. Probably a skill that comes more natural to southpaw casters. (S Texas instructor and guide Lefty Ray Chapa comes to mind)
I've been fishing fly rods in the dark most of my life, can make a vertical back-cast backed up to a cliff, change-direction mid-cast, always cast across my chest so there's no difference in forward cast or back-cast - I can present either way.
Image
I can make an underhand cast that's akin to skipping a baitcaster to get under cypress overhang.
Best I could do for a cypress overhang photo, but can think of a spot where it covers 70% of the river channel, your underhand back-cast needs to be parallel on the narrow channel, and change direction on forward to sight-fish the bass.
Image

I normally don't false cast, but begin with a roll pick-up, a single back-cast for line speed, and shoot. The exception to that is fishing beyond 70', and will make 2 false casts to get enough line speed to shoot my Teeny line to 140' (including that much backing, etc.) Of course on a shotgun cast to 70' on the 3rd stroke, beginning with a few feet of fly line, need a false cast to get through the belly.

The time in Alaska I used a guide's LHW fly reel, though, I didn't have the crank speed to keep up with a charging Kenai rainbow, so that muscle memory was never allowed to develop. I wouldn't have that problem on RHW.

My daughter can only tolerate cranking a reel with her right hand, so that's how we set her up on all tackle
Noteworthy, she doesn't care which arm she casts with and randomly switches.


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 06:34 • #6 
Sport
Joined: 06/17/14
Posts: 43
Location: US-NY
I prefer rhw but use lhw also. I cast right hand most of the time but can cast left hand if needed. Casting and reeling does matter much which I use but I much prefer netting and releasing fish with my right hand so that's the hand I wind with most of the time.
Vern


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 12:55 • #7 
Guide
Joined: 09/08/17
Posts: 117
Location: Fort Collins, CO
FWIW, I agree with personal preference to a point. However, a new fly fisher doesn’t know what they don’t know. IMHO I personally and professionally believe that a beginning fly fisher choosing to cast with their right hand should reel/crank left-handed. I can still remember back to the early 1970s when I switched to my left hand...everything just seemed so synchronized, and after the next few days of fishing and casting my left hand was as competent at cranking as my right hand had been. Most importantly, line-hand coordination is enhanced for all aspects...fighting fish, casting, line control, etc. In 1978 when I was appointed as Director of Fenwick’s Montana Fly Fishing Schools I switched most of the School’s 40 fly reels to left hand wind. With 10 to 12 weekly Schools each summer with many hundreds of students, over my many years at the Schools reeling with the left hand was never an issue for students with a dominant right hand. I maintained a few right hand crank reels for left handed students.

Please don’t take my post as an attempt to convince experienced fly fishers to switch. Instead, I write this for beginner fly fishers as food for thought.

Best, Bob


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 17:15 • #8 
Guide
Joined: 07/22/20
Posts: 128
Location: US-CA
Phil-a-Flex wrote:
I get the satisfaction of rehabbing an old flyreel and putting it back in circulation

I totally agree, taking old cruddy reels, disassembling them, cleaning and repairing them, lubing them, and making them "sing" has been my pandemic shutdown therapy.

I tried keeping some vintage reels RHW but soon gave up and switched all to LHW. Not because RHW was awkward, it got confusing remembering if I picked up a LHW or RHW reel on any given day so decided to standardize to LHW.

Although I can cast with either hand, they cast differently, almost like two different casters with different personalities. If I want power/distance, it's the right hand, delicacy/presentation and accuracy, the left hand.


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 19:53 • #9 
Guide
Joined: 04/04/13
Posts: 197
Location: Central Maryland
If God and the Hardy Brothers had intended people to wind with their left hand, they wouldn't have made so many RHW Perfects. :)

I'm somewhat indifferent as to handedness (throw left, bat right) but I've cast primarily with my right arm (I can and do cast left handed when it's more convenient) but I've always used RHW reels.

When I started fishing for steelhead in 80's, I thought it would be better to use LHW because I could get my hand on the reel faster. That turned out not to be the case. Twenty years of switching hands to reel had ingrained the habit so much that it didn't take a conscious thought to do so. I found myself hooking a fish, switching hands automatically, desperately trying to find the handle before realizing it wasn't there, and then switching the rod back to my right hand. I soon went back to RHW.

Lefty Kreh believed it was important to crank with your dominant hand. I don't know if he was right, but I have had several people tell me they use LHW for freshwater and RHW for larger saltwater fish for that reason. That's way to confusing for my feeble mind. I'll just stick with RHW.


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Post 28 Jun 2022, 20:34 • #10 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
Many years ago when I lived in NYC I bought a Penn Jigmaster for boat fishing in the saltwater surrounding the city.

I was dismayed to not find a LHW version so I bought a RHW reel and called Penn to ask about options and they offered to convert it for $13.00.

I'll never forget the mate on the first trip I took with that reel who kept insisting I was doing it all wrong and his shock when he finally grasped he was looking at what may have been a one of kind Jigmaster.

Yup, I still have it! ;)


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Post 29 Jun 2022, 07:46 • #11 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 04/20/07
Posts: 8920
Location: US-ME
viewtopic.php?f=4&t=56549&hilit=cranking+radius#p267258


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Post 29 Jun 2022, 10:26 • #12 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 07/11/14
Posts: 1784
Location: urban Colorado
fishing this year with an Abu Delta 5, which is RHW only. The conversion to LHW requires fabricating a part out of sheet metal and I haven't had time to look into it..
Much prefer LHW as a rule. The RHW doesn't bother me until playing big fish when I'm not very happy with the rod in my left hand. I find myself switching hands quite a bit. It will be interesting to see if I learn anything by the end of the season..


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Post 29 Jun 2022, 15:03 • #13 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2329
Location: US-IL
I just like the rod staying in my right hand.I most always use a roll cast to pick up the line and haul most of the time the time.My brother is a lefty but can do most things with either hand. I on the other hand am very right dominant as in I have to close my left eye to shoot guns and arrows.Sucks because I had a stroke on my right side over Easter weekend.My brother was always a better athlete and a better fighter.Hey we grew up on the Southside of Chicago.I have no problem with switching hands with a bait caster tho.You lefties have a definite advantage.The Nuns used to try and make left handed kids write rightly.Mever understood it.


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Post 30 Jun 2022, 02:51 • #14 
Guide
Joined: 04/04/13
Posts: 197
Location: Central Maryland
Quote:
The Nuns used to try and make left handed kids write rightly.Mever understood it.

There is some sense in that. In my case, I should have been corrected. I'm decidedly right eyed, and almost everything I do right handed I'm more coordinated at than things I do left handed. (I write left handed, throw left, eat left handed, etc.) I used to shoot left handed. I got a lot better when I switched to right. I can cast with either hand, but I'm better with the right. I wish someone had corrected me when I learned to write.

Even if you're truly ambidextrous, you've probably better off learning to use your right hand for most things, because many tools are made for right handed people (like scissors, some fly tying vise, guitars, etc.) You can get left handed versions of those things, but it's far easier to find (or borrow) the right handed versions.

It's easy enough to check whether a child is left or right eyed, assuming they're old enough to speak. Let them use the hand that matches their visual sidedness.


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Post 30 Jun 2022, 09:06 • #15 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 12/05/06
Posts: 2089
Location: US-PA
the hersh wrote:
...The Nuns used to try and make left handed kids write rightly. Vever understood it.

The habit (pardon the pun) of trying to "make left handed kids write rightly" got started because of fountain pen nibs. If you have a fountain pen handy (I do because I like them), try writing as a southpaw would and you'll se that the nib gets pushed versus pulled across the paper like it does when writing with your right hand. That can clog the nib with paper.

If this practice continued into the ball point pen era, I guess it's must have been hard for the nuns to break old habits... ;)


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Post 30 Jun 2022, 11:00 • #16 
Guide
Joined: 04/04/13
Posts: 197
Location: Central Maryland
Even with ball point pens (or pencils), lefties are smearing what they just wrote with the edge of of their hand. I came home from school every day with a blackened hand edge, and my work was often unreadable. It's not just fountain pens. Writing from left to right very much favors right handers. Cultures that write right to left (such as Chinese) hold their brushes (and probably pens now) by the end and don't rest their hand on the page to write.


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Post 30 Jun 2022, 16:41 • #17 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 02/27/16
Posts: 2329
Location: US-IL
I really freaked out the nuns,i am very dyslexic .In first grade i wrote my name and everything else right to left and the letters backwards.A mirror image.I spent days and days at the University of Chicago being tested.Then after a few weeks i wrote in the "right"direction but still made some letters backwards here and there.I still have some issues such as backing up a trailer or getting on the wrong side of a tape measure .That is still a tuff one as i work with a lot of fractions in my trade.I still don't know if i can work again but i am able to cast a fly rod and tie flies thank God although pretty glitchy so far.


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Post 01 Jul 2022, 03:27 • #18 
Glass Fanatic
Joined: 06/24/11
Posts: 1144
Location: Belgium
Left handed and prefer left hand wind and switching hands. No problem switching top hand on double handed rod and spinning I tend to cast right handed like Bulldog. Like Bulldog I do a lot with my line hand (the right) and somewhat strangely I really have diffculty hauling well with my left (dominant) hand if I am casting right handed.

Just broke down, cleaned and relubricated a Centaure Fly Multiplier (late 1940's French reel). It's designed to be right hand wind so no converting it. Probably will never use it but it's nice to have it purring. Recently acquired a fixed spool spinning reel, half bail, from the same company. Amazing quality coupled with somewhat quirky design.


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Post 07 Nov 2022, 16:05 • #19 
Sport
Joined: 12/15/17
Posts: 59
Location: SW Idaho
I am right handed, though I can make a cast with my left if needed. My first fly reel was Pflueger 1495 that went on my first rod, a Fenwick 856. A few years later I bought a Ambassadeur 156 to put a sinking tip line on. They both came as right hand wind, and I never thought about changing them. It has never been a problem switching the rod to my left hand to fight a fish.
About 12 years ago I bought a 4wt outfit from LL Bean and it came left hand wind. I tried, really, I tried to use it. It just was never comfortable.


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Post 10 Nov 2022, 00:04 • #20 
Sport
Joined: 02/08/14
Posts: 26
Location: US-TN
I changed to lhw years ago but you now have me thinking I should try rhw again. I fished that way for years switching the rod to my left hand and winding right after the cast. Should be fun.

Thanks,
Mike


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Post 12 Nov 2022, 18:01 • #21 
Master Guide
Joined: 02/07/18
Posts: 428
Location: US-MA
I'm a lefty that reels LHW, but still have a few reels setup for RHW as I went through a phase where I did not want to switch hands, but for saltwater fishing I wanted to be able to reel in a more coordinated way with my dominant hand. Most trout I run across are not put on the reel anyway and are stripped in.

I bat left, golf left, shoot left (Redington shotgun still has a RH safety?!?!) and cannot seem to use a RH baitcaster (was dying to get a Abu 7001 LH for salt). I think it comes down to not only reeling, but playing the fish with the rod that is more comfortable to you too. For some reason I feel like I have more ability to control larger fish like stripers and blues with the rod held in my right hand, especially if you have change change rod from one side to the other to apply pressure or direct fish.


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Post 13 Nov 2022, 09:26 • #22 
Sport
Joined: 12/15/17
Posts: 59
Location: SW Idaho
giogio wrote:
Like Bulldog I do a lot with my line hand (the right) and somewhat strangely I really have diffculty hauling well with my left (dominant) hand if I am casting right handed.


I have this same experience. My right hand does not know how to haul well, hence my left handed casts are limited. My right hand also does not do a very good job of guiding the line back onto the reel, but loves to turn the crank.


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Post 13 Nov 2022, 16:36 • #23 
Guide
Joined: 03/02/14
Posts: 144
Location: US-peripatetic
When I first started fly fishing, I was taught that the reel should be right hand retrieve, even if you’re right handed-it was “tradition,” just the way it was. I’m right handed, but learned to fish the way it was supposed to be done, RH. Later on, when I was working as a riverguide in the 80’s, I thought how much more effective it would be to switch to LH retrieve, so I changed my reels over…Then was completely shocked by how difficult changing over was-after many years of doing it the traditional “correct way.” I also taught myself to cast left handed, but admit I only occasionally cast that way.
So I’ll agree to each his/her own. However, I think if the reel can maintain the ability to change, it should be maintained to do so, if possible, but it seems there are more reels nowadays sold/utilized LH than right, probably since most people are R handed, so maybe LH makes the most sense.


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