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Right Hand or Left Hand?

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My mom was left-handed; she grew up in the 50's & 60's and said she had a hard time because everything -- sports equipment, notebooks, you name it--was all made for right-handers back then. My dad always told me he "made sure" my sister and I used our right hands for everything from the time we were born onward, and told us to make sure we did the same for our own kids because it was "a right-hander's world". I have since learned that you can "teach yourself" to use either hand. Using your non-dominant hand feels unnatural at first, but it's just a matter of muscle memory. People who have hands amputated or paralyzed make the switch all the time.

As for my two sons -- one is strongly left-handed, and the other is uniformly ambidextrous. What are the odds?

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I don't think of it as an argument, Bob. Just a preference.

 

Exactly. As in some prefer Fords, some prefer Chevys; some prefer blondes, some prefer brunettes; and then sometimes you just have to dance with the one you brought.

Joe

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My mom was left-handed; she grew up in the 50's & 60's and said she had a hard time because everything -- sports equipment, notebooks, you name it--was all made for right-handers back then. My dad always told me he "made sure" my sister and I used our right hands for everything from the time we were born onward, and told us to make sure we did the same for our own kids because it was "a right-hander's world". I have since learned that you can "teach yourself" to use either hand. Using your non-dominant hand feels unnatural at first, but it's just a matter of muscle memory. People who have hands amputated or paralyzed make the switch all the time.

As for my two sons -- one is strongly left-handed, and the other is uniformly ambidextrous. What are the odds?

 

My Mom was left handed and she often talked about the difficulties she had growing up because of it. When she was in elementary school in the 1920's she was forced to write with her right had. When called to black board to write something, the teacher would make her hold the chalk with her right hand. She just could not do it and would switch to her left hand when the teacher was not looking.

Joe

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I am right handed and I wind with my left hand. All my fly reels are "wind with left hand". I started fly fishing about 1989/1990 and honestly I have hardly ever seen a fly reel that came right hand wind unless you specifically buy it because you're a left handed person. Maybe the right hand wind was before my time or something?

 

Yes Steve, I believe RHW was a little before your time. As I stated, I collect vintage fly reels and almost all of the older ones were factory set as RHW and many of them could not be converted over to LHW (though some could). I am glad the newer trend in fly reels is for them to be set up as LHW, though I believe most all of them can be set to wind on which ever side the owner prefers.

Joe

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The funny thing is, I'm right handed, I cast, throw a baseball/football right handed, very right hand dominant, yet with a hockey stick I shoot left handed blink.png

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I'm right handed, left eye dominant. The only thing I can do left handed is shoot clay pigeons, both eyes open. I bird hunt right handed, left eye closed. Told you I was backwards

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Cast left, reel right. Tying thread and scissors in my left, materials in my right. Writing with my right hand looks like pre-K'er. Golf, totally right handed.

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Right hand wind. I tried to convert to LHW back in the 80's and only managed to have to shift rod hands a second time after I realized the handle wasn't where I expected.

 

I can cast with either hand (although prefer the right) so it really doesn't matter one way or the other. Whatever you're used to, I guess.

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With me, fly reels and spinning reels are left hand crank. Baitcasters are right hand crank.

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This topic has been around for years and years.. In the salt, years ago, most of us went with the maxim that you wound your reel with your strong hand since you might just need all the help you can get with a big strong fish that cleans off one or two hundred yards of line then does an about face and comes screaming back towards you - on that first run... and fly reels are not exactly quick to retrieve line... When it came to teaching beginners I found myself preaching that line - and always pointed out that if I handed you a new reel and a big spool of backing... "which hand do you want to fill that reel with?"....

 

Over the years, with more and more anglers showing up fully accustomed to winding with their weak hand... I had to admit that handing them a reel that had the handle where they weren't used to using it... wasn't a great benefit at all. I was finally able to solve that minor problem a year or two ago when I realized that I actually did have two reels for every size rod that I keep on hand (7wt up to a 12wt..) one that wound left handed another that wound right handed... So....

 

One of the questions I ask a client is... what hand do you wind with - and that's how I set up my rods when I know in advance that I'm fishing fly that booking (guys like me consider fly fishing as just one more way to go about things... if I only fished fly anglers.... I'd starve...). Not something I'm supposed to say on a fly forum, but truthful...

 

My best guess is that anglers will still be arguing about this question long after I'm gone.

Capt. Bob, Hats off to you! You are one of only two professional guides who have asked me this question before booking a trip. Today, most new fly reels come off the shelf with left-hand retrieve, so right-hand isn't the norm. It's attention to details like this that help put you at the top of my list of the best of the best saltwater guides. Of course, knowing tarpon behavior as well as anyone I have ever fished with is another. And, I'd be totally inept if I didn't mention your extraordinary knowledge and skill at tying knots and flies. Such knowledge and guiding skill only comes from decades of dedication and experience fishing South Florida waters.

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I think I was probably left handed before starting to school, but by the time I was in high school had become bi-dexterous/semi-ambidextrous. Many things I used only the right hand or only the left hand and many things would use either equally. Normally shoot rifle lefty, handguns with either, shotgun righty, chop wood and swing a bat lefty but hammer or swing a club righty, used to write with either hand, ect. Most tools are designed for right hand use, the exception being the Stanley steel tape measure- if you write right handed, you must hold the tape in your left hand and all the numbers are upside down.

So on fishing, I can cast or reel with either hand, if I think of it, but to change hands in mid cast as required with back handed bait casters or old fly reels is, if not stupid, at very least a wasted motion and lost time from my view point. Because it's easier to cast with my right hand; I have always chosen LHW or converted the reel to LHW or held the thing upside down and reeled it backwards or thrown the reel away. Although for actually fishing bait it isn't that big a deal, since after casting the rod is put down for a while before picking it back up with the other hand and setting the hook or reeling in to check the bait.

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most of us went with the maxim that you wound your reel with your strong hand

One hand is only stronger than the other if you let it be, a milk maid uses both hands to take milk from the cow. It's unnatural to be lopsided, unless you are a lobster.

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most of us went with the maxim that you wound your reel with your strong hand

One hand is only stronger than the other if you let it be, a milk maid uses both hands to take milk from the cow. It's unnatural to be lopsided, unless you are a lobster.

 

Can you hear the buzzer? That sound from the game shows that says, "Wrong answer !!!" tongue.png

Dominate hand/side is natural. Unless a person is required to use both hands, they will always use the strong hand for complex tasks. Your "milkmaid" will get done filling the bucket, then pick it up with her strong hand to carry it to the next cow. dry.png

 

Unless your a weight lifter, one side will always be stronger than the other. It's why people wandering in the wilderness will always walk in a circle. wink.png

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Two reasons why people walk in circles- they have one leg shorter than the other or they have one ear bigger than the other and it tilts their head.

They don't do the circle thing much in the wilderness because hills and rivers etc. throw them off but you can see it in any mall.

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