Fly reel question

[Dondi12 0]

Wow! My dumb question sure triggered a lot of responses! Thanks guys. Going back to my OP, I took my reel apart and couldn't figure out how to switch it over so I just stripped all the line off and re-wound it back on the other way. But, now when I strip line there is no clicking sound but when I right hand reel in the excess line it makes the clicking sound. I guess I'll just have to get used to it. BTW my reel is a Bass Pro Shop model CV2 I bought it a few years ago with the rod as a package. 3wt 7'9" I'm still learning to cast this rod. I find it more difficult than my 5wt 8' Redington.

[Gene L 0]

I'd suggest taking it to Bass Pro and let them show you how to switch it over. They may not know how if it's a few years old. Reversing the line alone won't take care of it, your drag will be working when you don't need it to.

[vicrider 0]

Adam, you can't join the elite 100% club if you fish wet flies or streamers. That rarified air is restricted to those who ONLY use dry flies. Says so in the book.

 

Mike, that water you picture is some of my favorite but I don't like flipping. Never have except on rare occasions. I'd much rather back up a bit and pitch my baits into pockets and holes. One of my favorite is to drop a jig & pig on a lily pad and twitch until the water starts to move under it. To do this I use left handed bait casting reels with a flipping switch. I pitch right handed and fish often blow up on the first drop and I set the hook and reel left handed. Now about bait casting where you cast and reel like a spinnerbait or crankbait I use right handed baitcasting reels and cast right and switch. I've tried using one of my several left handed reels for this but it's just not comfortable. After years of doing this I switch hands with the rod before lure even hits water and never think about it.

 

Then we go to spinning and fly and I have to have the crank on the left. I have 3 left handed Hardy Perfects and picked up a good deal on a right handed one. Thought I'd make it work. Nope, goes on the market since it just ain't right to reel below the rod except with the left hand. I suppose any way a guy learned young would carry him thru but since I started on right handed knuckle busters 60 years ago it's too late for me to change. And if a person just starting with modern bait casting reels with tension spools, magnets, spool control blocks on pins, and is complaining about backlashes I can only say...HAHAHAHAHA

[Adam Saarinen 0]

Ok! I'll just have to be a part time member! The year could be very boring otherwise! And if that book is called the bybel? Then i'm not even interested & that propaganda is not even permited on this site!

[mikechell 0]

Vic's joking, Adam .... as I hope you are.

[vicrider 0]

Yeppirs I am...but I could direct you to a board with some people who wouldn't be. LOL And I take Adam's response the same way. And that book is the Gosh Darn Truth by I-onlyfishdry. Mike, what I'm not kiddin' about is how much I miss the water we used to have up north. Here in western OK we have some good bass fishing but the small reservoirs and ponds are all damned up clay valleys. NO LILY PADS! UGH. NO REEDS (another of my most beloved fishing). NO FLOATING BOGS. All of those were prime for not only pitching but also throwing big poppers up next to them with my 9wt.

 

My biggest fly rod bass to date came in WI throwing a bug next to floating bog. Popper barely sucked down and thought it was a bluegill until I tried to pull fly away. Spent next several minutes fighting that fish while he dove under the bog. Landed him and was probably taking a push at 5.5#s and tho I've caught bigger never on a fly. NOW, you know what reel was on that rod back in those years (40-50 years ago)? An automatic. Yep, a Garcia or Martin automatic. Still the best reel for use in a boat for fish that you know aren't going to make long runs but sure keeps control of line instead of ending up in bottom of boat and getting stepped on. Just the other day I dug one of my old automatics out and the WF9BB taper still looks good. Am going to put it on one of my old Shakespeare Wonderods and reminisce out at the ponds when kid takes me out in the boat.

[hairwing 0]

...cast right reel right.

 

No-one is going to convince me to switch hands because I might lose some control going from one hand to the other. I say "boloney".

 

By all means, do what you feel good doing and not what someone else tells you to do.

 

I have seen to many who switch because they figure it's the right way and the result I see is a spastic crank on the handle.

[mikechell 0]

The only time I will try to convince someone to switch the way they reel is when I see a spinning reel above the rod.

[dpshr 0]

Amen, mikechell.

[Fisherboy0301 0]

The only time I will try to convince someone to switch the way they reel is when I see a spinning reel above the rod.

It's times when I see that, that I wish I carried a paintball gun...

[Capt Bob LeMay 0]

Read just about every post and all have valid points of view. I'm one of those salty types who didn't pick up a fly rod until long after I'd learned to use every other kind of gear (with an early exception back in the days when most fly gear that I saw still had automatic reels for lift and lay bug fishing in Alabama....). Matter of fact I actually built my first fly rod before I learned to use it (I was with a competitive club that had the fly as one of several categories to fish...). No, that first rod wasn't very satisfactory - but it was a start.... My bible as I learned was Lefty Kreh's first book on the subject of saltwater fly fishing (and I still have it all those years later....).

 

For guys like me a fly rod is just one more way to get after the fish. In some situations nothing beats a fly rod -in others it's definitely the hard way to go about it.... The good news for the fish is that fly gear is the most difficult way to fish - but it's also the most satisfying. What hand you reel with is a minor point - unless you're going after fish bigger than you are... In that scenario I'd argue every time that your strong hand on the reel is the way to go.