Reel handle side

[fshrmanms 0]

rod dominant hand (right) reel left

[ditz2 0]

Reel with weak hand. Hold over from my spinning reel days of reeling with the left hand. I hate holding the rod in my weak hand. I have spent many hours with a bait casting outfit but it just never felt natural to me.

[Stevester 0]

I hold my rod in my right hand and reel with the left. Also a holdover from my youthful spinning days. With regards to Mike's point about not fighting off the reel, I didn't do it much until I started fishing for salmon and steelhead in the Lake Ontario tribs. When you get a big enough fish in moving water you learn to use the drag on your reel if you want to land them. Oh, and you also learn to keep your fingers away from the spinning reel handle.

 

Steve

[oldtrout58 0]

I cast right, reel left. The old coots at the casting ponds always admonished me for the error in my ways.

 

Now, they're in the ground...I miss being told I'm doing it all wrong.☺

[Steeldrifter 0]

I'm right handed- I cast with my right and reel with my left.

[Tailing looper 0]

I'm right-handed and cast right/reel right. I used to reel lefty until I started doing a lot of saltwater fly fishing where a good percentage of the fish are put on the reel. I set up my salty stuff to reel righty and eventually changed all my reels to right hand retrieve.

 

Tight lines,

Bob

[ROTW 0]

I am predominantly left handed so I cast with left and reel with right. However, I fairly ambidextrous, so depending on the situation, I might cast right then switch to left hand for the right hand retrieve.

[Sundance 0]

When I learned in the late 1940's, I was taught to cast right handed and reel right handed. We learned to switch the rod to the left hand after hooking a fish. It is so quick and so automatic after all these years I can't change.

 

BTW Playing smaller fish it does not matter much, but if you fly fish for steelhead or salmon you MUST play the fish on the reel. You would have a hell of a time landing a big steelhead or silver salmon by stripping line. Burnt fingers! Many guys out here (Oregon) use leather guards just to palm a screaming reel.

[DrinkSmokeFish 0]

Right handed - Cast right, reel right.

[mjkirshner 0]

I am predominantly left handed so I cast with left and reel with right. However, I fairly ambidextrous, so depending on the situation, I might cast right then switch to left hand for the right hand retrieve.

Ditto. I cast with either depending on wind or the direction I'm trying to go, but I am stronger with my left. I double-haul better left-handed, but roll cast better with my right. All my reels are set up for right hand retrieve, and I don't think I've ever even tried to reel with the left. I can't throw left-handed, but I can't write or play racket sports right-handed, although I golf right-handed. I'm a mess...

[Philly 0]

Legacy of my youth and spin fishing. Cast with my right, reel with my left.

[eastern fly 0]

Reel handle right. Left handed.

Same here

[Goduster 0]

Right handed cast with right reel with left,with the exception of bait casting then it right, right, never felt comfortable reeling a bait caster with my left hand

[vjc 0]

I started with bait casting, not for fishing but target competition and it was cast right and reel right. So when I started fly casting cast right reel right felt natural and that's what I did for almost 60 years. Never played fish from the reel except when spin fishing. Then I started to fish for steelhead. Whole different game. I did the cast right reel right for the first season but soon found out it is a lot smarter to cast right reel left since you'll be playing them from the reel and switching hands is just one more way to let a nice one get away.