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Post by edenangler on May 14, 2006 8:46:17 GMT -5
Hello all!
Whilst watching a few fishing programmes on discovery this morning, I've again noticed that saltwater fly anglers - indeed most types of saltwater anglers - usually have their reels set to right-hand wind, rather than the usual left hand wind that freshwater anglers favour (right handers anyway).
Anyone know why this is the case? As a right handed angler, I grip the rod in my right hand. I would find it a right pain keep swapping hands to get line on the reel!
Cheers,
Matt
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MJB
Full Member
Posts: 174
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Post by MJB on May 14, 2006 8:48:37 GMT -5
Do they?
Most of the swffers I know are set up left handed.
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Post by edenangler on May 14, 2006 9:00:33 GMT -5
I'm just going off what I've seen on tv. It is probably more the multiplier/fixed spool boys than the fly anglers to be honest. I know if I did swff - which I dont - I would set up LH as normal.
But I just can't see the sense in trying to crank in 500lb of angry game fish with the reel set opposite hand - there must be a reason for it?
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MJB
Full Member
Posts: 174
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Post by MJB on May 14, 2006 12:55:18 GMT -5
Interestingly (probably quite boringly really), when I used to bait fish from the shore I would use a fixed spool reel left handed, but a multiplier was always wound with my right.
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Post by Gordon on May 14, 2006 13:33:03 GMT -5
There is no logical justification for right handers using RHW. This is a hangover from the days when "gentlemen" dd not use their left hand as it was considered somewhat sinister, when being left-handed was a sin worse than pederasty or socialism. Lefty Kreh claims that a right hander could never wind fast enough with the left hand. Which as we all know is nonsense, unless you have been brought up to do things all cack-handed
Basically manufacturers set up their machines in the early 20th century to make reels to cater for 19th century prejudices and then considered it was too much effort to change. Which means that users of multipliers are stuck with winding the wrong way - although there is now a limited range of LHW multipliers.
As far as I am aware only dyed in the wool, tweed clad, traditionalists still use RHW in Britain - of course the far more conservative Americans continue to do so.
The problem is that out-dated technological solutions often hang around for many years, even though they are notoriously inefficient (like the QWERTY keyboard for instance).
Gordon
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Post by jan on May 15, 2006 1:48:58 GMT -5
big game SWFF fishers usually set up their reels with the stronger hand on the reel - its one of the few parts of fly fishing where you may be cranking in several hundred yards of line during the fight more than once - i started out cranking left handed as per my freshwater setups but recently changed all my salt water outfits to right hand wind after a couple of trips abroad - cant see the point for average fish but for tarpon and similar its definately an advantage.
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Post by simmel on May 15, 2006 2:29:17 GMT -5
When I was deep sea bait fishing, all my multipliers were set up RHW, in fact I don't think there was a LHW available then.
With this type of fishing most of the work is done with the reel needing only one short cast to get the line in the water. I'm buggered if I can cast a fly rod with my left hand, so all my fly reel are LHW. ;D
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Post by Sewinbasher on May 15, 2006 4:08:25 GMT -5
When I was deep sea bait fishing, all my multipliers were set up RHW, in fact I don't think there was a LHW available then. With this type of fishing most of the work is done with the reel needing only one short cast to get the line in the water. I'm buggered if I can cast a fly rod with my left hand, so all my fly reel are LHW. ;D I managed to get a Polikansky 50lb and Penn Senator 9/0 both with LHW that were fine for most big game fishing. For smaller fish including salmon spinning I used one of the Abu LHW models. The reason that I needed to do this is that my strongest arm is my right arm and believe me you can't fight big fish, especially tuna and sailfish, on your weak arm unless you rely totally on harness. |
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Post by sagefly on May 15, 2006 4:23:01 GMT -5
I don't really agree with a lot of this thread but you can choose to wind with any hand that you want to, it is a matter of personal preference.
SB I am right handed and used to fish 80lb stand up for yellowfin, pacific bigeye, bluefin, various billfish on a pro boat out of Greenwall Pt in Aus, I always wind right handed. It may be habit but it is also conditioning, since I was 4 I have fished with the rod/handline in my left hand and wound in with the right hand.
More control through practice and conditioning.
Basically whatever floats your boat!!!!
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Post by flytire on May 15, 2006 5:09:18 GMT -5
Ive heard that for salt water fly fishining for larger game species, you want to reel with the strongest\dominant hand. Right for right handers and left for left handers. Hope that helps!
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Post by sagefly on May 15, 2006 8:25:34 GMT -5
I dont think that you can buy a 130lb reel with LHW?
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Post by Gordon on May 15, 2006 14:14:30 GMT -5
I remain to be convinced by the stronger hand/arm argument. In this case French ultra-light spinners (who often use modified fly rods) would wind with the right hand as they wind in kilometers of line during a days fishing. They don't because it is inherently more efficient not to lose time changing the rod from one hand to the other.
Furthermore, your average desk-bound angler who has booked a bug game holiday is probably going to have serious fitness issues whichever hand he uses...time to invent a training machine for the angler's gym
All the arguments about the necessity of winding with the casting hand appear to be a posterori justifactions of a faut accompli. People use RHW multipliers because manufacturers don't make LHW models. I still believe that the origin of this is rooted in ancient prejudice in which doing anything with the left hand was considered unbefitting for a gentleman, as uncouth as using a maggot or a wet fly. LHW was reserved strictly for the lower classes engaged in coarse angling. The Avon style trotting reels and the Nottingham-style centre pins were set up for LHW - how very undignified.
Gordon - an inveterate LHW reeler
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Post by enfieldspares on May 15, 2006 16:30:54 GMT -5
Eyewash! The reason for RHW is that when moving along a pool or similar the handle does not snag on the angler's clothing or equipment if the rod is being carried in the right hand.
Also it is easier if the fish is to be played entirely off the reel.
This applies even more so to double handed rods.
However if handlining then the LHW reel on a single handed rod has great merit as there is, as EDENANGLER says no need to swap hands....until of course you have to net the fish...
As regards centrepin reels it is easier to cast "Nottingham Style" or similar methods, when holding the rod in the right hand with a reel that has the cage on the right hand side and is, therefore, LHW.
This is because as the rod hand is IN FRONT OF THE REEL, the spool if "set" for RHW can be more easily braked with the little finger whilst beginning the cast.
However with a reel either with (or without) a lever brake that is braked by use of the forefinger, where the the rod hand is BEHIND THE REEL, then indeed, these reels are usually RHW!
Also with a LHW centrepin, with the "Bickerdike" removed it is easier to perform a "Thomas Slip Cast" as the rod does not have to be turned through 180 degrees as it would do with a RHW reel.
The argument about being "ungentlemanly" I don't believe has any merit. The great Victorain anglers such as Cholmondley-Pennel being very much all-rounders.
The Victorian and Edwardian sportsman was more concerned about what worked best for him, not what looked best!
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Post by Gordon on May 15, 2006 18:47:14 GMT -5
The "snagging on clothing" argument is rather weak Surely any clothing that is going to cause problems with a mere reel handle is going to be hoplessly entangled in brambles, briars and barbed wire!
Why is it easier to play a fish off the reel with RHW? As far as I am concerned the inverse is true. The one thing I don't want to be doing when playing a fish is swappping rod from one hand to the other. And I would always hold the net in the left hand...as it is the rod that brings the fish to an immobile net I prefer to use my right hand for the rod.
Could you rephrase the paragraphs about the use of a centrepin reel as they confuse me...it would sem that LHW is easier except that you then seem to say that it is best to use RHW...?
I think we should not neglect sociological factors when analysing the history and techniques of angling. Certainly the whole ethos of the classic chalkstream dry fly and the fanatical rejection of the nymph by so many anglers should be seen in the context of upper middle class English society of that period. And the use of the left-hand was a strong social taboo, as generations of left-handers who suffered beatings and other cruel punishments to persuade them to use their proper hand.
And once a technology, or technological standard, is established it is incredibly resistant to change. Which is why computers in the UK are sold with a QWERTY keyboard which was specifically designed to make typing more difficult.
Gordon
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