I am brand new to fishing and have only made it out 4 times before this morning.
Today I planned on fishing all morning. After a few casts (I have a Shakespeare Ugly Stik spinner) I noticed that the handle wasn't properly attached to the reel; instead it was slightly dislodged and at an angle, but still physically connected. So instead of spinning around the normal way, it was spinning around at a weird, difficult-to-put-to-words angle.
So I snapped it back into the reel and kept going.
A few casts later, the handle flew off of my reel completely, kerplunked into the lake, and will never be seen again.
I am very not happy.
Here's what my reel looks like in case anyone can spot something "wrong" with it (as you can see, I'm left-handed and like to reel with my right-hand):
So I ask: what happened here, and how can I prevent it from happening again?