I tried the same thing, but got mine at home depot, it ended up in the trash after the spring not pulling the cord in anymore. I've been using the big game system for about two years now and nothing really beats it to this day..
And amozon has them on sale for 10.29 today..wooot

Tried a few retractable (spring) loaded reels and all broke after less than a season. Just can't use spring steel without it rusting. A manual crank reel like the dive reel is your best bet.

Gator - I think you have the better setup and it's clean. I thought most people added an extra 5 foot (or whatever is required) of line so that the reel can still hold the length it came with. They do a splice the way yakfin's video showed......it would be an easy way for you to get another 5ish feet.

Question for those who use such systems.....do you expect the reel to actually retrieve the anchor or do you assist it by hand?

some good techniques being used in that video IMO. thanks for sharing. mounting the on the hi-lo seat would not work for me though especially on a windy day. i gotta say, i do like jrbgator's set up much better.

Thanks for the great link Yak FinAddic!
I use a 5# down rigger ball for my anchor...it works great!

Well, I got my zig zag cleat and my big game retractor, but I'm so fickle that I can't think of where I want to permanently attach this cleat to

After using the Flexi brand dog leash a few times, durability was my main concern with them and now this Minky clothes line. They aren't made to secure anchors. I bet after time, the spring mechanism within the casing will eventually fail. I ended up going with the Magna Lift system too. It's heavy duty and intended to raise and lower weapons and other heavy equipment to and from treestands. The plastic casing is very durable.

The only downside is the rope length, only 30'. You lose about 5' of rope from mounting point to the bow/stern where your anchor sits. It still leaves 25' of length, which is plenty for me. I don't often fish in depths more than that.

I also prefer the zig zag cleat for more support. I installed 2 of them, on each end of my yak. I love having the dual (bow/stern) anchor system.

Few pics of my setup:

After I bought mine I ran across a thread about using a heavy duty dive reel. The upside was WAY more line, like 150' worth! There are a bunch on eBay but I'm not sure which one is the best. They're cheap enough to compete with the clothesline reel though.