Lloyd3 nice to see some trout pictures.
I have been fly fishing since I was 14 and now next month I will be 71 and cast right handed and reel left. I have used Hardy reels and Orvis reels made by Hardy and even Scientific Anglers system reels that were made by Hardy. All were reversible.
You play the fish on the rod and reel the slack, and setting up the drag is important.
On a few of my heavy duty reels for steelhead and salmon, they have a clutch plate and one has an anti-reverse handle that would let you get your knuckles banged up. The others when a large fish is on, you have to palm the reel.
When my eyes were good I used to love refinishing old bamboo rly rods with silk thread. Your hands had to be smooth or else you would fray the silk and ruin it. I made bamboo rods from blanks and later made graphite rods from blanks. Right now I have rods from 1 weight to 9 weight in graphite and 3-6 weight in bamboo. The smallest being a 5'9" Orvis Ultralight Fly that is fun to use. I used to have an 8' Orvis Nymph rod that was too much like a buggy whip but it protected 8x tippets, but hard to cast.

David