When Fishing With Kids, Handedness Matters

Mia always leads with her left hand.

This has been the first year that Mia has taken any real interest at all in fishing. Standing still, holding the fishing rod, being patient, have all been hard for her. With a lack of focus, and her constant need to run around in an effort to make sense of her surroundings (running provides her with sensory inputs that calm her overactive nervous system down), learning the basics of fishing has been a challenge for Mia. But as the years have progressed, she has made progress.

Now, when I tell Mia that “let's do this”, she comes over to me and watches intently as I show her the technique of casting. I hover over her and put her right hand on the rod, while her eyes are fixated on my hand as my finger heads for, and presses that little button. She loves to push buttons because they usually reward her with glorious lights or songs. So she tries to find the correlation between this button and what we’re doing here. There is no obvious cause and effect (no lights, no music, no sound at all), so to her there is no reason why we should be pushing this button.

I cast out with our right hands, showing her how I let go of the button, the lure flying in the air and splashing in the water. I take her left hand and place it on what I expect to be the reel handle, but it’s not there. We switch gears and adjust to get our right hand on the reel handle, but by now she has grown agitated and wants to let go of the reel. I let her, because the last thing I want to do is to force her to do something she doesn’t want. If I did, fishing would be no fun at all. Mia stands with me still, watching my hand reel, and looking up to watch the top water frog lure we’re using swimming towards us on the water’s surface, fascinated by it’s movement and ability to create ripples on the water.

We try again, and still the reeling is a no go. I know exactly what the issue is, and it kills me that I didn’t even take into consideration such an important factor for fishing on Mia’s part.

She’s a southpaw!

Mia loves momma's rod and reel! And momma loves her camera tripod! :)

When I bought her this setup, my excitement for memories to be made, the visions of mom and daughter catching one glorious fish after another on a perfect summer day, clouded my mind during purchase time. In the allure of getting out there and fishing with my girly, I never once considered to look for a left handed reel setup.  I wanted to smack myself, I’ve known for four years that she’s left handed. Heck, even all of my reel setups are left handed, because it’s just more comfortable.

So, as a test I put Mia’s rod down, and pick up mine because it, again, is set up for a lefty. I flip the bail, cast out, and flip the bail back over. I proceed to hand the rod to Mia in her right hand, with her left on the reel handle. We cast our lure out, and reached for the handle, which was now on the correct side, and……..SHE GETS IT!!! The movement is fluid, smooth, not at all foreign as with her right hand!

So, I decided to go out and find her a new rod set up for a left handed kiddo. What did I find in the way of kids left handed rod/combo packs? NOTHING! Yep, frustrating. As I searched and searched, I got to thinking about how the market dwindled in this area, and I wondered why. Most children develop a preference of handedness around the age of three. Mia was predominately left handed at the age of two, this was obvious because she was grasping anything she wanted with that hand. And if kids haven’t show a preference by then, they start showing it in the early school years.

A typical mom/daughter moment on one of our outings! <3

So why then, are these rods that are aimed for children in the range of 3-6 years old, fashioned with the current characters of the hottest cartoons and animated movies, only aimed at right handed kids? Do these companies not take into account that hand preference is developed early on? It is most likely an oversight, since only 10% of the worlds population is left handed.

So, to fix this need for a setup for little lefty, I found a Zebco Dock Demon rod for $10. It’s about the same length as any child size rod, 30'”, and it did come with a reel, but of course, it’s right handed, and not at all interchangeable. But, this setup does allow me something her pretty purple Dora rod did not. The ability to switch up reels.

The local retailer we went to had no stock of small closed face reels when I picked up the rod, so our hunt for a reel continues. In the meantime, Mia has become quite smitten with momma’s rod and reel set up, so her learning on how to cast and reel will continue until her setup is complete!