Right- or Left-Handed Fishing Reels: Which Is Right for You?

Most spinning reels allow you to swap the handle from right to left as desired, but baitcasting reels have the crank permanently affixed to one side or the other. And while largely a matter of choice, there are good reasons for right-handed anglers to fish a left-handed reel.

Few anglers are ambidextrous, but plenty has learned to fish a left-handed spinning reel and a right-handed baitcaster.

The reasons for that swap are very old school. Not long ago, left-handed baitcasting reels were as rare as 10-pound bass. As a result, anglers got used to cranking left-handed on spinning tackle, while switching hands after each cast with their baitcasting tackle.

Chances are, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You’ve probably mastered the baitcasting shuffle: put the reel in your right hand, depress the spool release, make your cast, apply thumb pressure as needed, let your lure hit the water, and swap the reel to your off-hand, turning the crank with your dominant hand.

Should you stick with this technique?

Should you switch to left-handed baitcasters?

Let’s dig into the details to find out.

Right- and Left-Handed Spinning Tackle

Most anglers keep their spinning reels set up left-handed.

Spinning reels place the cranking handle on a gear that’s behind the spool and more or less inline with the reel seat on the body.

Internal gearing drives the spool, but the drag and other reel components like the bail, drag adjustment, and line roller are typically built into the spool. This design allows the cranking handle to be unscrewed and swapped to the other side of the reel body, allowing you to easily switch between left- and right-handed cranking.

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Most spinning reels come from the factory with the cranking handle on the left side of the reel body, meaning that grab line with your forefinger, open the bail, cast, close the bail, and start cranking with your left hand, using your right hand on the rod to work your lure, set your hook, and fight your fish.

A left-handed spinning reel allows you to control the rod with your dominant hand, providing greater power and control.

Some anglers swap sides, but if you take a careful look around the next time you’re on the water, you’ll notice that the vast majority of fishermen keep their spinning tackle left handed.

Your right-hand controls the cast; your left turns the crank.

Personally, after a lifetime spent casting right handed and cranking left handed, I’m not going to swap my spinning reels, and neither will most anglers.

The problem comes when you switch between spinning and baitcasting tackle, as most of us do.

Right- and Left-Handed Baitcasting Tackle

Baitcasting reels are very different in design from spinning reels.

A baitcaster has a cranking handle on one side of the body, typically with the drag knob beneath the handle for easy access during a fight.

On the other side of the reel, you’ll typically find the braking mechanism that regulates spool speed to prevent backlashing.

Those critical guts can’t be moved; they’re built in on the non-cranking side of the reel.

As a result, baitcasting reels come in right- and left-handed models.

Right-handed reels will have the crank on the right; left-handed reels will place it on the left.

In either case, they’re permanently where they’ve been placed by the factory, and that can cause problems that range from nothing more than inefficiency to downright failure if you haven’t mastered the “baitcaster swap.”

Right-handed reels dominate the market

Right-handed baitcasters still dominate the market.

As you’d expect given that most people – including most anglers – are right-hand dominant, reel manufacturers set up the majority of their reels with the cranking handle on the right side.

Until relatively recently, many baitcasters weren’t offered in left-handed options.

With a left-handed reel, casting is dead simple.

For instance, when I started fishing, your spinning tackle came from the factory left handed, but your baitcaster came right handed.

That took some adjustment.

The idea was that when you fished with your baitcaster, you cast right-handed to control the spool and gain dominant-hand accuracy, and then you swapped hands at the cast, palming the reel in your left hand and cranking with your right.

That shuffle became second nature to most of us – but it’s an inefficient way to fish.

Think about it: every time you cast, that hand swapping costs you a second or two. And during that split second, you’re not ready to react to a strike.

Trust me, that has and will continue to result in lost bass.

Right-handed anglers switch to southpaw

You can see how intuitively obvious a left-handed reel is when casting and working a lure.

The solution is simple: buy a left-handed baitcaster.

With the cranking handle on the left, you simply palm the reel, cast as you normally would, and start cranking with your left. No swapping, no pausing, and no blink-your-eyes and you’ve missed it bass.

As more and more right-handed anglers have figured this out, the range of baitcasting reels available in left-handed options has exploded, covering the market. And now it’s unusual to find a reel that isn’t available in both right- and left-handed versions.

Right- or Left-Handed Reels: Which Is Right for You?

If you’ve already mastered the “baitcasting shuffle” and it doesn’t bother you an iota, leave good enough alone.

But if you’re uncomfortable with that swap, or you’re thinking about buying your first baitcaster after a few years of fishing spinning tackle, it’s absolutely worth considering a left-handed reel.

You’ll cast better, be much more familiar with fighting right-handed and cranking left-handed, and generally find the transition to (and between) your reels much more comfortable.

The only caveat that comes with this advice is that if you regularly borrow tackle from your fishing buddies, and they fish right-handed baitcasters, you’ll have a devil of time ditching your left-handed habits!