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Thanks. Not bad for an electric winch price wise. I definitely don't want to drag it over land anymore. I am thinking of putting the separated trailer in the water and get my boat on it. Then pull the trailer with the boat up the 8 ft area somehow until I can attach it to my vehicle. Possibly using that electronic winch so my car isn't involved at all and use dolly wheels (2 larger/wide ones) instead of the the trailer jack wheel. The trailer and the boat probably weigh 350 lbs total. That might make getting it through the sand easier for either me or the electronic winch. I want it to be a simple process just to avoid the manually lifting of the boat on the trailer and not drag it up over sand/dirt. I do this about 6 or 7 times a summer.

A-Jay - Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately this is the only place I go with my boat and it's family owned. About a mile long and only has smallmouth. Not too unusual to pick up about 100 in a full day of fishing over the summer. Mostly small ones but still incredibly fun. A few 3 to 4 lbers in there too. We are talking only about a 8' where it would be safe to have my SUV wheels on solid ground. Maybe attach a 2 wheel dolly to the trailer and not use the jack wheel for the short pull using a winch strap in between my car and the trailer? It's a not deep sand - might sink 3 or 4 inches. The trailer is about 8ft from the water where the car is safe to pull. The problem is there is about a foot or so incline coming back out a few feet from the sand - not real even. I could dig at it to make more even I suppose but still wouldn't be comfortable getting my vehicle that close to the sand.

Starting to prep for the late Spring/Summer... So I go to a private lake with no ramp. I can back my AWD SUV but it has a couple foot drop off near the water and there is a fake beach there. One year I backed up too far to retrieve my boat and got a bit stuck. Moving forward I have been just stopping 6 or 7 feet short and rolling my unattached trailer into the water and pulling it back up empty myself. Not too bad. Retrieving though has been the challenge. I have been dragging the boat up on the beach, attaching a rope from the boat to the trailer and dragging them both up with my SUV until I get it to a flat spot. 2 problems - I don't want to drag my boat on land anymore and I still have to lift it up on my trailer. It has a custom mod on the front so it's kind of heavy to do so. Been looking at extensions of 6 ft for the trailer but I don't think that would work too well because of the drop off. Or could that work? Worried the weight of the boat on an extension that long might cause too much stress on the ball/hitch. Then a light bulb went on.... Couldn't I just get the boat on the trailer in the water then attach an 8 to 10 ft strap from the trailer to my hitch (where I put the pin in) and pull them both up that way? I only need to go up about 15 feet to get on a flat spot. Anyone else do this successfully? Any issues with it? I realize the trailer front wheel could get stuck or possibly bend? I would go slow so I think it would straighten itself out. I have a 1542 Tracker Jon boat and it's about 200 lbs with the front mod for the bow mount trolling motor. I remove the casting deck and empty the boat before retrieval. Appreciate any input. It takes me about 30 minutes or so to do the retrieval manually and it's not fun on the back.

Had one - traded it in for another Avid X 6'6 MLF. 2 reasons I traded it. A known expert (Tom) on here said he was missing some fish on it - hard to set the hook. I found I was missing some smaller bass on it with spinners too. A definite difference using the same spinner on the different rods. I did have success on the ned with it with some decent SMB. The other reason I traded it in was because it's bottom up to screw the reel in. I kept loosening it with the way I casted I guess - my hand position on it - I cast left handed. I found the avid-x more comfortable and was top down for the reel. I wasn't missing fish with it, even the smaller ones. Now I have 2 avid-x spinning rods. St. Croix had fantastic customer service. I could just send it back in and essentially upgraded for a few more $). The victory was light and felt good. The xf wasn't for me.

Glad you finally got it. Hope it works better for you. My second Avid x 6’6”mlf arrives tomorrow (replacement of the victory 6’10mlxf). St. Croix was great in the exchange. Should be a fun summer of fishing.

Yep. They were helpful - even though I got an email saying I had to contact the retailer if not bought from them directly. I called and they said - hogwash- we will take care of you. FYI - The Avid-X is perfect for me. So light and easy to cast. I did not miss many fish at all and even hooked some small ones without a problem. Looking forward to another matching one. The 6'6" MLF was in stock so he wasn't concerned about me getting it before the end of June. I am definitely a St. Croix fan at this point. The Victory model I went for wasn't quite what I wanted but they really did right by me.

I called and am exchanging my victory 6'6"MLXF for another Avid-x 6'6"MLF. Liked it better and was catching everything on it. The Victory Rod is very light and good, but I did notice I couldn't set the hook on the spinners. No trouble with the Ned but spinners were a problem and the SMB love them in the lake I go to. St. Croix customer support was fantastic and started the shipping process of my new rod because I told them I was shipping the old one out tomorrow morning. They did say a few days delay on the shipping. Next trip over the 4th weekend, so hopefully it arrives before them. Plus $40 but I caught so many consistently on the axid-x and it was extremely comfortable to cast.

Appreciate the info. I will have to call too and hope they are more responsive. I have another trip planned in a few weeks. Hope your rod shows up!

Did you just call them and ship the other rod back? I have never done an exchange with them before. Hope you get it in time...I will probably go with another avid x or regular avid. I liked the top tightening on the avid x better than the victory - mine kept getting a little lose with the bottom tightening- the way I hold it and cast with it I suppose. Hopefully not too much cost in doing the exchange.

Hey Tom - I posted about my Victory 6'10MLXF in the other thread. I didn't have too many problems with it landing fish but did notice that I had a little trouble on spinners. It seemed fine with the few fish I landed on the ned rig, but some of the smaller ones on spinners darted out, hit it but I couldn't land them. Keep in mind these were smaller - like 10 to 12" but.... I landed nearly all on the avid x 6'6" MLF setup. I was going to ask you about the exchange process.....I may get another avid instead. Didn't miss many at all on that rod. Caught 90 total a couple of days ago including some 2lbers. It was a great trip.

Just finished an amazing evening/next morning and afternoon lake trip with my new gear. I picked up about 90 SMB on the mile long lake. 2 were over 2 lbs and many in the 12" range, which is pretty good for the lake. Impressions on my new gear. Avid X - 6' 6" MLF with the Vanford 3k - loved it - the feel was great and the casting was very good. Had no trouble hooking anything. I started doing a 2 handed cast with the split grip and got pretty accurate after some practice. I did hit a few shoreline trees due to the extended casting distance. Overall the rod was great and the reel was good. Did use the drag a couple of times and it was good. I did notice the reel made a little noise at various times when reeling in. It went away next cast. Victory 6' 10 MLXF with the procyon 2500. Very similar to the gear above. I was using a Ned on this one for a while and had no trouble hooking some 14-15" SMB. The reel was definitely comparable to the vanford. I did have to tighten the reel on the rod a few times - I think I must move it when I cast as it tightens from the bottom up. I liked the avid x better in that regard as it tightens from above. I didn't have to tighten at all. I did notice I missed a few fish in the afternoon when I switched to a spinner on the victory- could have been they were a little less aggressive mid afternoon, or the issue that Tom had mentioned about it being a little too soft on the top. I did not have the problem with the avid x and caught about 50+ on the spinner - even smaller ones. I had a blast and think I did better because I could cast more accurately and reach about 20ft or so further with my new gear. The water is clear and being further away definitely helped when trying to reach them on shore - they were still in spawn mode. After trying a bunch of different lures and things, I wound up going with a 1/8 spinner and they killed it. I did use the original rapala minnow floater and got 11 on it. The hatch isn't out yet, so the topwater will be a little later in the summer. I did flash the spinner by a 15"er and she followed it but stopped. My boat was too close. She was 8ft deep. I swapped over to my other victory rod that had the ned rig on it. Dropped it about 5 feet further away from my boat. I saw her dart over and grab it. Pretty cool. One of the better fish I caught. Nearly 2 lbs. Overall one of the best trips I had. Summary - Avid x - fantastic. Vanford - great. Victory rod - good. Procyon - great. Lures - Spinner 1/8 killed it 70+ fish on it overall. Ranging from 5" to 17". 11 on the rapala minnow - 7" to 12". 3 on the ned. 10" to 16". Other lures - swimbaits - nothing, jigs - nothing. Apparently these SMB like the shiny stuff the best. They were darting at the spinners like no tomorrow. The rapala floating minnow will be best in the evenings starting in July. I killed them on that late last summer. Happy fishing everyone. So glad the fish in upstate NY have decided to finally get hungry. Next trip in a few weeks.

I won't be if I lose one of five or six 4lbers in the lake. ?

So I purchased the pole type lure retriever from ebay - the guy that makes his own. It's ok, but a little bit of a pain to use. A little difficult to feed the line under the little blue plastic pull tab. I had trouble getting the hook unstuck too. It will be helpful for super shallow snags and the occasional errant casts in the tree. My past trip I was using a ned rig deeper and used a plug knocker (homemade). It saved my lure/hook 2 times - both times I got snagged about 10 feet plus down. I had a spare kids rod that was metal and only 2 feet long or so, so I put new line on the push button reel and added a larger swivel clip and a 3 oz weight. It worked great and was simple to use. The first time out I tried using a kite type holder with a thicker thread and it got tangled up in my fishing line so I would not recommend that. It was windy that day which made it worse. I would definitely recommend using a small kids rod or saw an old rod off and put on a clip with a 3oz weight. I can't believe how well it worked. And then it's easy to just reel it up and set it aside, with no mess or worries. Only cost me about $6 or so for the setup and saved me over that already in just one quick trip.

Were these LMB or SMB that you lost? I hope I don't have the same issue with the 3-4lb SMB I am targeting (far and few between). Is it generally easier to hook one over the other? I will probably use my avid x mf for the ned and the VS610MLXF for topwater with treble hooks (Rapala minnows etc...). Hope I don't have to exchange it. I did get 2 13" on the victory with the ned rig. No issues with those being hooked solidly, but those were smaller fish.

Well....I ordered the procyon lt 2500 on May 5th from Gander. I saved $10 but had to wait about 30 days? And it was in stock. Should arrive any day now....Says by June 3rd. Never again. So I did get to fish 2 weeks ago with my new rods and the vanford 3k. I used a bps johnny morris 1k on the victory rod and the vanford on the avidx. It was too early in upstate NY on the small lake. Water still too cold. I did manage 3 13"ers which is on the larger size for the lake. Super fun with the extra sensitivity. 2 were on the victory and 1 was on the avidx. Using weedless ned on the bottom around 12 ft or so. I had to essentially re-learn how to cast. Prior to these rods I was using 5'6" ultra-light gear and had muscle everything to get good distance. Both rods were great for casting - just a quick flick and it went quite a distance. This will help in the summer for topwater when they jump at the hatch. I will definitely be able to reach about 50ft further than before and with more accuracy. The vanford is really good and 6:4 retrieve is unreal. I do have to slow it down a bit when using swimbaits. So...I can't review the procyon yet, but will in 8 days IF it ever arrives. The kicker was they wouldn't let me cancel early on either because it was "released" to the warehouse. I expect to get more fish as they should finally be in spawn mode. It was in the 40's at night this past week up there but back to about 80 or so this week.

I researched and got lots of help from the kind folks here. I wound up using a kids fishing rod - all metal that was about 2 ft long. It was just a push button kind reel. Put new line on it. Put on a 3oz weight and a larger clip - to attach my line to. The knocker style. I used it a couple of weeks ago and it saved me 2 times in about 15ft of water. Easy and out of the way when finished. Just reel it up and set it aside when done. I even used it for the shallow snags and found it much easier than using a pole type (which I bought for tree snags ? ). I tried using the weight on a kite string type of setup but it got twisted in my rod line and was a pain. Definitely happy with the weight and clip on a small rod. And it really works. I was pleasantly surprised. And since I had the rod already, the cost was about $6.

I have 2 pair. Cheaper Panama Jacks in Amber and Fly Fisherman in blue with green tint. Both are pretty good - very comfortable. The Blue with Green is great for the day when the sun is bright and the amber ones are phenomenal for evening driving and evening fishing. Things are brighter but clearer.

Thanks! My rods are ML and 6'10" and 6'6". Fast and XFast. I should be good to switch spools for almost any type of SMB fishing. I do have some ultra-light stuff but casting distance was an issue.

I just ordered one from Dawai. Wound up being $31 total. I should get it in about about 10 days. Hopefully before my outing on the 21st. At least there is a small chance. Do most folks swap spools for different types of line? The lake I go to is topwater crazy in the summer but spring and fall the bigger ones are on the drop offs. Guess I should stop spending money now....Well, maybe I will call Shimano and see about another spool for the Vanford....

I finally have 2 good rods and reels. Looking for a spare spool for this model PCNLT2500D-CXH? I saw some others in the past mention alliexpress. Are those good? And it's hard for me to find the exact model if they are. Any help would be appreciated. Looks like I wouldn't get it in time for my first outing but I would like to have it for outing #2. The other spare spool I am looking for is the for the vanford C3000XG. I realize that would be tough to come by so the DAIWA is where I am looking first.

I just upgraded my gear after extensive research and landed with the St. Croix 6' 6" Avid X ML F. It has micro guides (which some folks don't like). I haven't used it much though yet! The regular Axid would be good IMHO too. I got mine for about 180. MF might suit you well in those models if you are worried about backbone. I went ML because the majority of fish I catch are 1lb or so, with a few up to 3 - 4lb. There are other good options that are cheaper in the St. Croix line - like the premiere. And possibly the mojo bass - highly rated around here.

Thanks for checking that out. I think the Procyon LT will be just what I was looking for. Similar to the Vanford in many ways - at least that's what I am hoping and for about $50+ less. Definitely meets my light-weight criteria and that was a must. I spend almost the entire day on the lake when I go (actually - almost 2 days solid only taking a break to sleep and eat).

Thanks. I have to wait about a week or more for the procyon to get here. Heading to the lake on the 21st with all my new gear. I have some 8-12' suspending shad raps I plan to use with this rod and ned.

Thanks for the info. Most of the fish are smaller and I catch in numbers. I am hopeful this setup should be easy to cast good distances while keeping fatigue to a minimum. Typically I use 6 lb mono for my smaller rapala original floater and other light top water. I may try 6 lb fluoro for Ned to reach some of the elusive 3 to 4 lbers sitting at 20 ft. I think I will pair my Avid-x 6’6” MLF with the vanford 3k for top water. Mono And the Victory 6’10” MLXF with the Daiwa Procyon 2500 for the deeper stuff. Fluoro.

Ok. Thanks. Appreciate it. Will do. I will probably give an update on all my new gear. Impressions etc...2 rods and 2 reels that should be way better than my previous gear.