Anchor

[Patrick1]

I have an 18ft alum Polarkraft, I would to know what anchor is recommended for Perch fishing. I am on lake St-Clair, its about 20ft and the bottom is mud and weeds (no rocks).

[bfish]

chene for me when I use to anchor.

Spotlock has ended my anchoring days

[Hot Runr Guy]

Don't be surprised if one of the responses mentions having 3 of these anchors, and 500' of this chain,,,,,

HRG

[Lazy Ike]

Originally Posted by Hot Runr Guy

Don't be surprised if one of the responses mentions having 3 of these anchors, and 500' of this chain,,,,,

HRG

I wonder who?

[last chance]

I use a similar anchor to the chene. it has the fluke style with the sliding ring for raising the anchor.

[Donscs]

I’ve been using a Fortress anchor with some chain for years on Lake St. Clair. They are a bit pricey compared to others but they work great.

[Marty59]

Originally Posted by Donscs

I’ve been using a Fortress anchor with some chain for years on Lake St. Clair. They are a bit pricey compared to others but they work great.

I fish lake St Clair all the time and use the Digger Anchor 15 with 5' of chain and a roll of 100' rope on board. I don't necessarily let it all out....depending on depth. Most spots on the lake are less than 15'. You may get by with a Digger 12.

Also works well down in Lake Erie.

https://www.amazon.com/Extreme-Max-3...a-605725304093

Marty

[gbin]

I think fluke-style anchors are most often recommended for small boats over soft bottoms. Folks above have already suggested a few such.

Gerry

[Wallychowder]

I use a white anchor, its an old Johnson !

[REW]

Some years ago, the head boat on some of the big lakes got tired of being blown off their spots when fishing rock piles.

So, they went over to an auto parts junk yard and picked up V-8 engine blocks and placed them on their bow. They used an electric winch to raise and lower the engine block anchor - Very effective indeed - no matter the bottom structure.

For your use a 28 lb navy anchor and 250 feet of nylon rope works well.

But, 28 lbs is tough to lift and drop multiple times in the day. So, another option is to use several 10 lb navy anchors or similar that are daisy chained together with 50 foot sections of nylon rope. then, only use the number of anchors and lengths of rope necessary to hold your rig in the current conditions.

Other folks use the very very lightweight large water spike anchors - with a5-10 foot section hookes to the anchor to insure that the anchor will deploy. Again multiple 50 foot sections of nylon anchor rope work well to be able to use just as much rope as is needed to hold the boat on the lake for the conditions being experienced. The one disadvantage of the large water spike is that most folks will disassemble it for storage when it is top side. But it is a very effective, very light weight anchor that does an outstanding job on a muc bottom. On a rocky bottom - not so much.

I often fished the mississippi river with my buddy who had a great boat. The mississippi, often has some pretty good current, so a good anchor is necessary, when fishing wing dams and similar fish holding spots. So, he used a large water spike with 5-10 feet of chain and it worked very very well. However, we were fishing the river one day and were having great luck. It came time to move and he asked me to lift the anchor. So, I went to the bow of the boat and began to lift the anchor. However, it would not come. Based on how the anchor rope was acting we both figured that when the anchor was being deployed, the anchor worked its way down river in the current, before hooking up to the bottom and during its way down river, it slid underneath an underriver cable or pipeline that was crossing the river. As a result, when lifting the anchor rope, I could feet the rope come tight on the anchor and then with a significant lift, something was coming up with it for a very short amount and then it would come no more. So my buddy motored up as close to vertical on the rope as we could get and then I reached down as far as I could and cut the anchor rope with my fillet knife. The river swallowed another anchor that day. So, the next day, I stopped over to the marine store and picked up a new anchor for the boat. Since I had dropped it at that spot, I felt responsible. We never lost it again.

What ever you do, do NOT use a snap to attach an anchor rope to an anchor chain. Never use a snap to attach a chain to an anchor. When I first started fishing, I lost 3 anchors, before I learned that snaps are not the best way to connect an anchor rope to an anchor. Rather, use an anchor clevis.

For example:
https://www.amazon.com/Shackle-Clevi.../dp/B01FOQK5KE

To connect a piece of chain to an anchor, use a chain connecting link to connect the chain to the anchor:

https://www.fleetfarm.com/detail/pee...necting%20link

For the rope, I use 50 foot lengths of 3/8th nylon rope. Then, I braid a 1 foot diameter loop at each end of the anchor rope. If using it for an anchor rope, One loop works nicely to connect to a boat cleat and the other end with its loop works well with an anchor clevis connection. If I need more than 50 feet of rope, I will simply use an anchor clevis connect one rope loop to the next rope loop. If the waves are running 4 feet, and I need to stay in place to avoid being blown into the rocks, I will add an additional navy anchor at each of the rope junction points. That way, the next anchor up the line will hold the rope of the first anchor close to the bottom to avoid having the storm pull the anchor from the bottom. Easy, simple and very effective.

---------------------------
But, at the end of the day, use the anchor that works well for you, for your boat, and for the conditions that you fish with respect to wind and waves.

Finally, to improve anchor holding conditions in terrible wind and wave conditions, consider the use of a stretch link between the boat and the anchor rope.
In this set up, one puts a loop in the anchor line about 10 feet from the boat. Then a stretch link is connected to that loop and to a cleat on the boat. That way, when a big wave comes up, the stretch link stretches but doesn't pull the anchor, and then, when the wave subsides, the stretch link pulls the boat back to its original spot. The use of a stretch link allows a boat owner to use much smaller and lighter anchors in bad conditions, because the stretch link accommodates the surge from the waves. Note: The surge link is ineffective in a river situation, with heavy current because the current is constant. In that case, the anchor is dropped, the stretch link is stretched out and if the anchor does not hold, down the river you go.

For example:
https://www.anchorshock.com/store/c1..._Products.html

or:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/12422465786...Cclp%3A2047675

You can also use these shock lines for tying up at the dock, when the dock is exposed to the wind. The shock lines reduce strain on the dock, on the boat cleats, and the boat, because when the waves and wind come the shock lines absorb the surge and return the boat to its original position.