Dominant side, cast and retrieve preference

[4liters]

I'm right handed and use my right hand to cast and wind.

I went out on a trip with all the handles switched over to the left hand side because it does seem logical to do it that way but it felt so awkward I switched them back after about 10 minutes.

[DougieK]

I taught myself to do both after a 3 week trip casting lures a couple of years ago when I came back with clear body dismorphia. Casting left hand on the butt right hand on the reel seat, and winding right handed, meant my right arm was almost always 'pushing' while my left arm was almost always 'pulling'. It's no big deal if you're fishing once a week with light gear but casting 100g lures on a heavy rod for the better part of a month and the differnce in my arms and shoulders was actually visible.

I struggle a big winding fast left handed but largely these are acquirable skills. Casting on both sides, especially with heavy lures, is actually a pretty good workout.

[hanboy]

Funnily enough it seems to be location specific. Australia/NZ/South Africa all cast and wind with the strong arm.

Grew up in Malaysia and through traveling and fishing through Asia I’ve observed most other places almost always strong arm on the rod and reel with the opposite.

[Andrews]

What feels comfortable for me is casting over my right shoulder, holding with my left, releasing my right hand and winding with my dominant right.

I think it's partly because when I land a fish or squid on the pier with either a net or lifting, my preference is using my right hand and going to the right side. Worked so far haha.

[Troy McLure]

I cast and retrieve with my right hand and have swapped on numerous occasions but always come back to the right side because it doesn’t feel so awkward. But I agree that changing hands after casting is awkward.

[SteveoTheTiger]

I swing both ways

My bait rods are setup with the handle on the right and cast them with my right hand. The reason for this is that i actually prefer to fight a fish with the rod in my left hand and reel with the right hand. So seeing as i only need to cast these rods every now and then there is no issue with swapping hands to hold the rod after casting. Most of the time it goes straight into the rod holder anyway.

However, as i cant cast left handed all my casting rods are setup with the handle on the left. So i cast with the right hand and reel with the left and the rod never leaves my right hand. I find this to be the easiest way to keep casting for many casts in a row and after a while you just get used to it. If i hook a fish then i just have to fight it the wrong way round (for me), but you cast a lot more than you catch so i am willing to sacrifice that. And 99% of my lure fishing is for squid which dont really require you to fight them anyway.

[ducky]

I’m a proud switcher. If it’s good enough for Carl jocumsen it’s good enough for me.

With spin and manually closing the bail arm it’s more efficient switching imo.

[mefish]

Natural Molly Dooker
Rod always in left hand - casting , retrieving and landing fish (although seldom). Always reel and net right handed.
What ever is natural and comfortable.

[croe04]

I'm right handed. I used to cast with right hand switch to left and wind sith right.
Then I changed to cast with right and wind with left. Was weird at the start but got use to it now. Much more effective without having to switch hands. Also the dominant hand is stronger so it should be the one holding (fighting) the rod.

I cast with my left and reel with my right, simply because that's the way rods and reels come. I'm actually ambidextrous so I imagine I could do the opposite fine but i've never bothered to try.

Almost all spin reels can changed from right to left or left to right though.

I just gave it a shot and it feels pretty comfortable. I can imagine it being helpful for getting my casts in the right spots as my backhand casts with my left hand are pretty shoddy.

[dezza68]

In the uk sea anglers cast and wind right and freshwater anglers wind left. My theory on this was fishing from a boat in deep water with heavy leads you didn’t want to spend time winding in with your weaker hand.