Pro Anchor

[Kelly]

I just picked up a Pro Anchor at the Mpls Boat Show. How well does this anchor hold and what are your thoughts on it? Was it worth the $79 bucks, I fish all big water and hav'nt found an anchor yet that will hold.

[Dave in Walker]

Kelly, I bought one last summer, use it on an 18 foot boat and at first was disappointed. I emailed the company to tell them of my disappointment and they gave me a tip which helped a lot. Drop the anchor and keep it on a tight line as it descends, after it hits bottom, back off a bit and give it a quick snap, that will flip the anchor on its side then it will take a set into the bottom, have a lot of rope, I carry 125 feet, and in tough conditions tie it off on your bow eye to keep the angle low, it will work most of the time, remember I said most not all Yet to have the perfect anchor, I've tried many and this is the best so far

[BigDave2]

A suggestion to help with the Pro Anchor is to add a float about one foot above the anchor on the line, tie a knot to keep in place. This will always keep the ring at the top of the anchor. I used the Vexliar float off of their ice transducer. After doing this and following the above advice on how to set I have not had trouble holding!

[BlackSilver]

I use a Richter anchor which resembles the Pro Anchor design.

The Richter is the best anchor I've ever had in the boat, except it sure brings up a lot of salad if you anchor near weeds! Based on the similarity, I'd expect it will work well for you.

SET the hook!!!

Hans

[eyewitness]

Forgot who makes these, but I bought a 3' long attachment rope that is a bungee rope of sorts that goes between your anchor and the rope. This is like a shock absorber that gives when your boat is going up and down pulling at your anchor. It really works well. I run a standard large hooh type anchor with this and I can be out in 3'5' rollers and hold very well. It's only 20 bucks. I would recommend it to anyone. It's the only thing I've found that works with a minimum of hassle. If anyone else can remember who makes them throw it out there, I just can't think of it right now.

[Rickk]

hummmm if you had a 6' chain with a 2- 3 foot shock cord attached close to the anchor in one of the links and the other in a link near the other end of the chain would that work as well? perhaps the chain might mess up setting this type of anchor though,..

[Rickk]

that came to mind because I had a dog that was pretty rambunctious and would run to the end of his chain when he was tied out,...I added a shock cord to help ease the fact he never learned where the end of the chain was,....

[REW]

Anchoring in general requires several things to hold well.
1. An anchor that will take a decent set in the bottom,
2. Something to keep it parallel to the bottom, so that it doesn't pull up. That something for many folks including myself is a 3 foot piece of chain, that I keep permenantly attached to the anchor.
3. An anchor rope with some give. The advice about the bungee cord will work. However a simpler and equally effective method is to simply use nylon rope. For maximum stretch - a 1/2 inch anchor rope works very well. If, for heavy seas, and 40 foot bottoms - as are often found on Mille Lacs and other lakes - a 125-250 foot rope work great. The general rule from the Coast Guard is to use a 5-1 ratio for moderate seas and a 7-1 ratio for heavy seas.

With a 7-1 ratio -- this means that for a 40 foot depth - you need to have out 280 feet of rope.

I think that you will find that too many folks try to put out 50 feet of anchor rope in a 40 foot bottom, and wonder why their anchor won't hold.

The only way that you can get an anchor to hold with a very short leash is to have a very heavy weight. I do know that there a couple of launches on Mille Lacs that us an electric winch on the front of the boat and use a 300 lb piece of scrap iron for an anchor. They like to anchor up short on rock reefs, and don't like to have much anchor rope out - so that they can hold a very tight position.

Bottom line, if you use a 100 foot piece of 1/2 inch nylon anchor rope - you will find that it has about 5 feet of stretch with a reasonable force. This allows you to reasonably work 5 foot swells, without pulling the anchor out of the bottom.

Take care

REW

[Walteye]

I was given an anchor called "the Flying Anchor" by a charter captain that has yet to fail me, without a chain attached. I am not sure if this is the anchor that you are referring to, but this anchor looks like a bat wing, but the main difference is that the leading points on the anchor flukes are bent down, and basically dig themselves into bottom when dragged, thus locking the anchor into the bottom. I don't know where this captain purchased this anchor, and I have yet to see it in any catalog. Works very well for me, and I always go 3 to 1 on the anchor rope, even in 100' water, in moderate swells/waves (3 feet).