Special fishing reel for client with no use of fingers

The client is spinally injured C5 C6 and has no use of his fingers. He broke his neck l7 years ago following a fall whilst fishing.
He remains passionate about fishing, and has designed and had made a belt with a leather cup attached to help him to cast. However the tiny handle on the fishing reel is impossible for him. A modified handle he can manage is requested. He also feels the need for some form of braking on the reel for when the fish makes its initial bid for freedom.
(Some reels may have this feature, and might be adapted?)

SOLUTION

The client can forcibly wrap his left hand around the handgrip of a fishing rod, nestling the end of the rod in the leather cup mentioned above.

l. Multiplier spinning reel.
In this metal reel, the spool is driven by hand crank through a train of gears. There is a brake on the spool, applied by depressing a small knob.
Firstly, the brake engagement knob was greatly enlarged to enable it to be operated by a sharp blow from the right hand.
Secondly, the hand crank was discarded and replaced by the device shown in the drawing “Handle 2”. The wooden handle shown in this drawing could be eased into client’s permanently clenched right hand, nestling between fingers and palm and adjusted to the best inclination. The system was very promising after a dry run.
2. Direct drive metal reel.
The device developed above was adapted to this reel by simply making a shortened crank (item 3) which dispensed with the central drive hole. This item was then bolted to the metal reel.
3. Direct drive wooden reel.
With minor modifications, the hardware in item 2 was suitable for screwing to the wooden reel, to replace the original.