Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Reels are the hottest topic for TackleTour. Everyone wants to know what the latest and greatest is and how they compare to the old guard. What's the best for light stuff, or what's your suggestion for heavy cover. Do we really need different retrieve ratios? It's all in here.

Speaking of casting reels only... do you reel with your right or left hand?

I reel with my right hand
451
43%
I reel with my left hand
597
57%
 
Total votes: 1048

Dam0007
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Dam0007 » Sun Dec 30, 2018 9:40 pm

Righty, reel lefty. Grew up fishing this way. Rod in dominate hand.... I keep poking fun on Daiwa reps because model after model they screw all the lefty guys stateside. New Tat 150 for example only 1 gear ratio in lefty. Would be a legit 5:1 cranking reel, oh but wait I don’t use righty reels... Their excuse is they are not popular my response to that is because you don’t sell them!!! (The average consumer walking into a Cabelas or DSG doesn’t know about Digitaka or some JDM site.) How can people be brand loyal if your company doesnt cater all aspects.
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Blacktail 8541
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Blacktail 8541 » Sun Jan 27, 2019 7:16 am

I reel and cast with both hands. I prefer a right hand reel for bait casters and a left hand reel for spinning gear.
The thing is though that I cast a lot more with my right hand and switch the rod over to my left hand with bait casters. Not always, but enough. Trying to use my left hand more though to educate my left thumb.

DanTheFireman
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by DanTheFireman » Tue Feb 05, 2019 5:25 am

I cast right, reel left both baitcasting and spinning. Surfing I'm a lefty (goofy foot, right foot forward), write right handed but throw a ball with my left. Man, I'm all screwed up.
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Edward78 » Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:12 am

Right handed but reel with my left, just makes sense

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tackletown
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by tackletown » Fri Mar 15, 2019 5:45 pm

I am right handed but reel with my Left Hand. It just makes more scents to control the rod with your strongest arm. And it,s faster also.

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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by edwelch1 » Fri May 03, 2019 10:48 am

Righty and I reel with my left. It's how my dad fishes, so naturally all of the rods were set up that way when I was a toddler and starting to learn how to fish. He said that he originally reeled with his right hand as a kid, but when he started fishing from a boat with a tiller motor, he switched to reeling lefty so that he could have one hand on the tiller controls and still be jigging with his right hand.
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scrapiron
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by scrapiron » Tue Jun 11, 2019 7:06 am

Righty, reel with the left. Looking at the poll, I thought it would be reversed. Interesting.

My father-in-law got me into casting and he uses right handed casting reels. It took a little bit for me to 'get it' since I used spinning reels since I was a kid. Now it feels second nature, but there are times when I wonder.. left handed casting reel, how would that feel.....

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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by hokiehi » Sun Jul 07, 2019 10:56 am

I'm a righty casting and lefty spinning. I have a very unique grip on my rod that lets me get away with reeling righty that was developed from my first reel being a bantam mag 1000 with the spool release on the side. I'd have to hold the spool with my left thumb while hitting the free spool with my right thumb, then swap thumbs to cast. Both hands would be in contact with the reel when i was casting and this continued once i got more current casting reels. I didn't realize that it was a weird way to hold a reel until a buddy looked at me and went "how do you get any distance casting like that?"

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bwjay
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by bwjay » Mon Jul 08, 2019 11:18 am

I'm a righty and I fished spinning reels with left hand retrieve my whole life. Seemed only right to use left hand retrieve baitcasting reels. You perform hooksets and feel bites and structure contact with your dominant hand/arm. Why would you do anything different? The only thing you're doing with the retrieve hand is turning a knob/lever which requires basically no finesse or sensitivity whatsoever. Seemed obvious to me. It looks like the only downside of left hand retrieve is reel availability (for some reels) and being able to share with rightys that use the WRONG side retrieve. ;) :)

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Shimano man
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Shimano man » Tue Sep 10, 2019 9:44 am

Lefty!

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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by HKN » Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:04 am

Prefer reeling wirh left but I'm ok with right also...have both

CheezusCrust
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by CheezusCrust » Fri Jan 31, 2020 11:47 am

I never understood why people reel left handed.Most people are right handed so have better control over their right hand than their left hand.It's common sense.So holding your handle knobs and adjusting reeling speed should be managed by the right hand since it's a more complex activity than holding the rod and reel and moving the rod altogether.It's like skateboarding you should put your strong leg in front and push with your weaker leg if you do the opposite you are what we call a "mongo pusher".Maybe we should call lefties "mongo reelers" lol

SteveSchmelzle
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by SteveSchmelzle » Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:50 pm

most would consider setting the hook, working jerk baits, etc, a little more complex than grabbing handles.
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Jeffbro999
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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Jeffbro999 » Sun Feb 02, 2020 8:06 am

SteveSchmelzle wrote:
Sat Feb 01, 2020 8:50 pm
most would consider setting the hook, working jerk baits, etc, a little more complex than grabbing handles.
Was thinking the same thing, how is it harder to spin your hand in a circle than to work a topwater or jerkbait with any kind of rhythm? I don’t care which hand people use, and think it’s funny how people try to justify it like it’s a competition :lol:

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Re: Reeling Demographics... are you a righty or lefty

Post by Bozo Miller » Mon May 18, 2020 9:19 pm

Right hand dominate, cast, and also reel with my right. Read a book many years ago by Lefty Kregh, he said always reel with your dominate hand. In them days (early 60's) most reels were made right handed. Started out with a Zebco 303 by the way. Been doing it every since.

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