Just wondering?

[Norcal Pescador]

Crank with right hand, rod butt in left armpit. Or the rod belt. Right-O, Nessie!

[bluefish69]

Rob

Your right about the rod under the left arm & turn with the right hand. That's the way I was taught. Then came the day when I was trapped & pinned between a wall & live 12" Steam Pipe. Tore up the Left Shoulder pretty good. I was out of work 9 months.

Now the rod goes under my right arm. I lost over 25% of the use of my shoulder.

Mike

[Norcal Pescador]

OUCH!! Sorry to hear that.

[SoCalAngler]

Just to set the record strait I thought we were talking about cranking a reel not fighting a fish. I like to fish longer rods with smaller reels for many applications. Say I'm fishing a surface iron setup, I like a rod around 8' long deckhand style, I'm not a glutton for punishment so no 9'-10' rods for me. Also most of my rods in lighter line tests, 25 lb and under are also 8 footers. I cast out and when I retrieve my iron the rod's butt goes in my right armpit. The same if I'm fishing plastics or even when retrieving live bait. Note to those that don't fish livies often, say your on a long soak and have not been picked up but fish are boiling around or metered, a slow or moderate retrieve can and often will entice strikes. Of course the bait needs to be hooked in such a way that it looks natural when reeling in, like nose hooking. Now depending on the size of the fish hooked dictates where the butt of the rod goes after that. Smaller fish say 20 lbs or less the rod most likely will stay there. Now if the fish are bigger or I have one very PO'ed SOB the rod butt goes in the lower gut/upper groin area for the fight and after a few fish a rod belt is worth every penny.

BMITCH,
It should not take any longer to remove a rods butt out of a belt than it would to remove it from your gut. Maybe you were talking about a harness? Some of the newer harnesses have a quick release for removing the straps from the reel's lugs which aids in stopping what you were talking about. The older design with clips on the straps which go to the lugs can and often do make it harder to get rod out of the harness.

After all is said and done I say fish the way it feels right for you.

[BMITCH]

Just a question for debate. I've seen it fished both ways and with good results either way. I know it's a what feels "right" to each individual. So. Cal. Thanks for the input.
Bob