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Left hand/right hand

6K views 30 replies 18 participants last post by  OkieDokie 
#1 ·
Do most of you guys cast with either hand up. I am new to this and cast with my left hand up , then strip with my left hand and reel with my right. Any one else out there like me?? Thinking I need to learn to be ambidextrous!!! I have some difficulty managing my running line.
 
#2 ·
Probably the best thing I ever did was learning to cast both hands up when I started spey casting. A caster is so much better prepared regardless of the water direction, wind direction or surrounding obstacles when you can cast either hand up.

I am naturally a right handed caster. Due to muscle memory from single hand casting, I was often over powering my top hand push and not using enough bottom hand pull. It was suggested to me to try casting left hand up. Although awkward at first, it really helped overcome the muscle memory and the bonus was could cast both hands up. Lots of people cast cackhanded, but that gets harder to do with longer lines. Interestingly enough, I have worked on my left handed casting so much, I may actually be more comfortable casting left hand up now than right.
 
#3 ·
It can be really helpful to learn to cast with both hands for many reasons. For me it's tough with a bad shoulder. I can't lift up and tend to drop the loop especially after several cast and fatigue sets in. I have figured out a way to single spey and others off my left shoulder using my right hand. Not as powerful but works well. Snake rolls are a little tougher but will work as well.

It was shown to me that many people can learn to cast with their non dominate hand quite easily due to the fact there are no bad habits or muscle memory.

Dan
 
#4 ·
Cast and strip with either hand, can reel with both hands but all my reels are set to left hand retrieve. When fishing the swing for the most part I hold the rod with my right hand and strip with my left that way I don't have to change hands to reel.

Ian
 
#5 ·
I grew up left-handed but learned to single-hand right handed. Once I got into spey, it made sense to use either hand up, depending on the situation. I'm comfortable casting with my left hand up.

Like you, though, I cannot seem to manage my running line with my right hand. I have to switch hands if I need to reel in or strip. There are only so many new tricks an old dog can learn, I think....
 
#7 ·
When I taught myself to cast left-handed I told myself I would learn to strip the other way after I got my left-handed casts down - concentrating on the important stuff first. But then I got so used to casting and fishing that way I never bothered. While learning to cast both ways has some clear advantages, and is virtually mandatory if you use a long enough line, which way you strip and which hand you hold the loops under the vast majority of conditions has hardly any advantages. So usually I strip the same way both directions and the loops are in my left hand both ways, so bottom or top hand depending. In special cases I transfer my loops to my right hand (bottom) when casting left handed, and sometime the reverse. But I find it only matters in special cases where the wind is blowing the loops into the reel in a weird way. When the shooting line starts tangling on the reel every cast you will know it’s time to think about it. Otherwise how you strip and hold it makes little difference. So I’d say learn to cast left-handed for sure, but there is no fundamental requirement to strip in mirror image as well. Whatever works.

Casting with both hands up is a whole different story. Once you get comfortable with it you will never go back to cack-handed.
 
#8 ·
Do most of you guys cast with either hand up. I am new to this and cast with my left hand up , then strip with my left hand and reel with my right. Any one else out there like me?? Thinking I need to learn to be ambidextrous!!! I have some difficulty managing my running line.



it may be the best thing that you can do to cast when the wind kicks-up - certainly has been for me. Then just route running line through your lower hand, feathering it past the reel and directly into the first guide as it goes out.
 
#9 ·
Reel with my left hand, because that's how I've always done it. Right hand up is my strong side, and I've got most of my casts dialed both off the right shoulder and cack handed. This summer and fall I'm working on casting mid belly lines and left hand up; a lot of the good swinging runs I fish tend to be river right, so I'd like to have a solid right hand snake and left hand single for those.
 
#11 ·
Cack handed means casting with your arms crossed, or off your non-dominant shoulder with your dominant hand up. Typically, in a right hand up grip, your D-loop would be forming on your right side. But there are some scenarios (ie- wind blowing from right to left, trees or brush on your right side) where you need to form your D-loop off your left shoulder. You'll need flip your setup and casting stroke 180 degrees, and you can accomplish that by either switching your grip to left hand up, or keeping your hands the same and forming the D-loop with your arms crossed (cack) and the rod tip off the left shoulder. Neither is inherently better than the other, but they both take some practice to get used to, and you should eventually try to learn both ways.
 
#12 ·
Yeah, “cack-handed” means casting with the same hand configuration (in most cases right handed) off the opposite shoulder of your upper hand. As unch said above, your hands end up crossed over in front of you which is the potential down side of casting that way.

Casting “left handed” would in contrast mean casting in mirror image of right-hand, so with your left hand on top on the left side. Seems like a lot of folks only do cack-handed because they are “right handed and it feels weird” doing a left handed cast. While there are definitely lots of “old hands” who have been casting cack handed just fine for a decade or more, most people who learn the other way feel that it gives them more space and comfort casting off their non-dominant shoulder. Some might also argue more power. If you try to do a single spey with a longish line cack handed you might hurt yourself.:eek: I have heard that in the very beginning there were a few people at Speyorama that cast cack handed. I don’t know if this is true, but you don’t see it these days.

Personally, now that I’m %100 neutral about which way feels “best” I DO feel a bit safer casting a big heavy fly on a big nasty sink tip left handed rather than cack handed, but that is a whole other issue and also probably just my perception of things.
 
#14 ·
To be clear, casting off the down-wind shoulder is how you deal with wind, and both casting cack handed and casting with that side hand up does that just fine. Casting off the down-wind shoulder becomes virtually mandatory if the wind is blowing hard enough - there is no alternative and you MUST be able to do it if you want to fish. But how you do it, “regular” or cack handed is a different question.

It’s cool he made you start that way! Might be better if all instructors did that, and only suggest cack handed if the students had trouble. But probably they know many people find it difficult at first and don’t want to waste too much time getting people started. I like to tell people that the “weirdness” they feel when they first try to cast left handed is the same weirdness they felt when they first learned to cast since none of the muscle memory you have developed is at all applicable. So you have to start from scratch on that side, but it is just as doable. But many people DO seem to have the feeling that it is harder even than that. I don’t know where the full truth lies, but as for me I find I can learn things on both sides. It helps to try to keep in mind what it felt like the first time you picked up a rod - THAT is the right comparison, NOT what it feels like in comparison to your already developed dominant side.
 
#15 ·
I cast and strip from both sides. What made my learning to cast with non dominant hand up was just changing my stance so that I was standing with my left foot forward for left hand up. Then the rest of the cast just falls into place. What was kinda weird was the stripping.
 
#21 ·
I've tried both upper hand and lower hand to hold the running line loops ... my preference, regardless of which upper hand I use is always the bottom hand. I find the running line stays out of the way more.
I've found to start with a long loop and progressively get shorter. The other way for sinking running lines. First long loop is held by my little finger, next loop is the ring finger, next is the middle and so on.

Keep it all slow and steady, no rushing. Let the rod do the work, just concentrate on your motions. Know where your target is, where your hands are and show your top hand how high your ear is and introduce your bottom hand to your chest :hihi:

Have fun :):)


Mike
 
#25 ·
One thing I don't recall seeing much discussion of in the cackhanded debates that come up from time to time --


I am a strong believer that effective casting results from casting efficiency, and efficiency is to a great degree a function of good ergonomics. Well, a cackhanded cast has very different body position, thus, different ergonomics to manage. So, if you want to cast cack- instead of switch- handed, you are basically doubling the numbers of casts you must learn. That's even if you believe effective ergonomics are possible for cackhanded casts,which, for touch and go casts, I question is possible. Switching hands, it may seem awkward at first, but the casts off either shoulder should be mirror images of the other. Establish correct form on one side, you can focus on mirroring it.

I admit this is probably not as big a consideration with really short (skagit heads) cast sustained anchor. And, in the case of injury, well you do what you gotta do to manage.



One weird thing -- I've noticed that since starting speycasting, my ability to use my weak (left, in my case) hand in everyday situations has improved quite a bit. Something is going on in terms of training/conditioning/re-wiring brain pathways.
 
#27 ·
There is a interesting story, possibly apocryphal, about Simon Gawesworth that when he decided to learn to switch up he went cold turkey and forced himself for two years to only cast left handed for everything. I don’t know if this is actually true, but I have heard that from multiple sources including people who knew him. But that is a Mr. Miyagi methodology for learning for sure! Also a dash of the dread pirate Roberts in there. :chuckle:
 
#28 ·
Im a leftie but I cast single and two hand right hand. Play hockey right hand, shoot right hand. Im almost 75% there on casting leftie. It takes work to learn to be proficient casting both ways. I find if I switch it up at the last second, set my anchor and go without thinking my left handed casts are pretty good. When Im trying to work on it and paying attention to every detail my casts fall apart more often. Same with left hand cackhanded casts. Heat of the moment? Wonderful. Paying attention to every move? Not so much. I think if you are very proficient either way you can get the job done cleanly and efficiently in enough situations to not worry too much abut being ambidextrous.
 
#30 ·
I'm one of those old guys that is left handed throwing a baseball, swinging a golf club but write right handed probably since schools made students write with right hands. I have always cast right handed even as a kid with a spinning rod. Don't think I'm ambidextrous, just muscle memory imprinted. When learning to spey cast I forced myself to spey cast both hands up and glad I did. Another benefit from this is casting single hand spey and overhead left handed became easy where before I didn't pursue it as it was so awkward. Casting single hand rods with either hand can be an advantage just as with 2 handers.
 
#31 ·
Really screwed up in handedness here. Baseball, bowling, shovels, axes, and frisbies go left handed, Foot balls, golf, racquet sports, batting, and archery I'm right handed. Single handed casting has always been right handed unless need dictates otherwise.

My initial spey readings suggested one alternate hands when conditions were not mandating one hand or the other up top. I took that to heart switching the top hand at every other opportunity and do equally well with either hand up top. Just stay aware of the wind and respond accordingly.

I can do wimpy cack handed casts, but can't muscle the serious push/pull efforts for distance that I'm capable of with the proper hand on top.

All of my reels are rigged for left-hand wind and most line management and stripping is with my left hand. I prefer to avoid stripping and like longer bellies such that I lift and cast near all of the line I typically fish.

If forced into stripping, I reach up to the stripping guide and haul line as far to the rear as my reach allows. With the rod out as far as possible to the front, I move at least 6 feet of line with each individual motion. With my last build, I actually placed my stripping guide about 8 inches further up the rod, so I can move a bit more line with each motion.

My loops are always captured and retained by the uppermost casting hand.

I find it interesting that many well known casters never fully developed their potential and are cack handed. Also, a show of hands from the audience at a recent clave surprisingly showed about 65% of casters are cack handed.
 
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