Hey all looking at a new anchor for my 14' aluminum mostly sandy bottom conditions. Have been looking at the digger anchor and am open to any feed back good or bad or maybe a better idea. Thanks in advance.
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Hey all looking at a new anchor for my 14' aluminum mostly sandy bottom conditions. Have been looking at the digger anchor and am open to any feed back good or bad or maybe a better idea. Thanks in advance.
I am far too cheap to buy an anchor. Well.... one maybe but id be cranky after getting it snagged forty feet down in some rocks. I just fill a flower pot with concrete and put a steel eye in before it sets up. Should I get it jammed up or someone need to borrow it its no biggie.
Or just tie a rope to an old merc
I had a very nice Forsythe anchor given to me one Father's day. I had it for a whole year until it snagged up on a dead head in the Otonabee. I nearly popped a 'roid trying to free that thing. As far as I know,it's still there. From then on,I use a paint can full of cement with a U-bolt sunk in it. It cheap, doesn't hang up nearly as much and is an excellent dragger for slow back trolling.
Or better yet a plastic pail full of concrete so it won't mark things up. Four liters is normally enough for smaller lakes. I use a cutoff two liter pop bottle for a 12 ' but I'm not out in high wind or fast water.
I use a Javex bottle filled with sand. It doesn't scratch the boat, and if I need more weight, I just add another bottle.
They are great for places where you have to carry in as well....Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogger
I just picked one up at crappy tire today. Didn't realize how expense they are. $68 for a 28Lb Navy Anchor. Ah well bit the bullet.
Dad being in the mining business had his shop guys make up a nice one. Got a used up drill bit from one of their pieces of gear, 4 chunks of round steel welded off it on an angle, and a looped U shape piece welded ontop to tie off of.
Worked like a charm.
A 28lb Navy is a big anchor for a small boat.....
The Maintenance dept at GM Oshawa used to make some nice anchors as well, back in the fifties.
Be sure to secure the rope to it before you throw it over the side?:)Quote:
Originally Posted by TurkeyRookie
Yike...28lbs?? Thats craaaazy heavy. No need for that much weight. A heavier anchor doesnt mean it holds better either....just sayin.
For most sitations all I need is 15lbs to anchor my 16ft boat. If its pure and, i'll use a danforth thats much lighter.
S.
28lbs?!?!
I use a 7lb grapnel from west marine and it stops my 1760 no problem
Guess some of us are just stronger....
:joker:
It was literally, the last one in the aisle.
There was another guy looking at it, and talking to his wife "I don't know if it's big enough" so I Just grabbed it.
Posession is 9/10 of the law :)
That guy is the doctor whos going to fix your hernia. Lol.Quote:
Originally Posted by TurkeyRookie
lol after snagging the anchor, he's now the Dr who WAS going to fix it :)Quote:
Originally Posted by oaknut
Besides, anchor duties belong to the person in the front, good thing my wife is strong :)
I bought the same anchor but it must of been on sale, I don't think i paid that much, any how I fish Lake Erie on a sand bottom and my old 15 pounder was just ok but that 28 pound keeps me planted pretty good, don't let anybody tell you it's too heavy, my boats 17 feet and better heavy than too light.
I used to find (back when using a larger boat) that it was great to have two anchors, one big and the other smaller. Used the small one most of the time, sometimes both...
X2 on the bucket filled with concrete.
I use an old container that hockey pucks came in and I use an eye bolt or a piece of thick cable to make a loop with so that when it sets up you can tie a rope to it. I do make a slight cone at the top of the bucket with the concrete so that weeds come off easier when I am pulling it up.
I have two 15lbs Navy anchors and have to bury them in the sand off Grenadier Island (St Lawrence) or they do not keep our 22ft pontoon in place. I need one those sand digger anchors like the cuddies use, they hold really well in sand.
I'm a member of a boat club that operates in a large river that flows at about 7 knots. While anchoring our work boat (20 foot pontoon) in the center of the river, one of the old time members showed me a trick that worked so well i wouldn't have believed it if i hadn't seen it. He simply placed an additional small weight, maybe 2 lbs, about 4 ft in front of a standard danforth anchor that had about a 3ft length of chain between the anchor and the main line. He chucked that thing out in approx 30ft of water and that anchor stuck so hard the boat didn't move for over 45 minutes. I couldn't believe it because my own previous attempts to anchor my own 19ft boat in the same area simply did not work. I couldn't make it stick, even with 75ft of line out.
Now, I'm a diver and I was there to find missing mooring blocks. I dove down following the anchor line to the bottom where i could see how that anchor had stuck. That small weight in front caused the anchor to pull straight back rather than up, causing the flukes to dig in solid. The pontoon had to be motored up river to release the anchor. Simply proves that weight is not the key to anchoring and that a small anchor can hold back a lot of boat if its rigged right.
Remember that a good rule of thumb is to have 5 times the depth out, so in 15 fow you should run about 75' on a bigger boat. A bruce generally holds better than a danforth imo. A little tinny I agree with the Tide detergent bottle full of sand..... can't go wrong.
I have one you can have for free, pick up in Burlington.
And if you use plastic rope instead of nylon it will float when you forget to tie the end to the boat.....
A properly designed anchor doesn't have to be HEAVY to hold a boat in place. I constructed mine from scrap : Re-bar (a sliding shaft with 3 flukes) . It grabs instantly (except on smooth rock-bottom) . In case it should be difficult to free I just reverse the pull (180 degrees) and slide the O-ring against the anchor-head and there-fore dislodge the anchor . --- I've never weighed it but don't think it weighs even 10 lbs. --- I made up a bow-mount as well (45 degree tilt) . As soon as the rope is loosened the anchor drops into the water . --- Any-one could fashion one inexpensively with a welder .
I forgot to mention that I fish in the Bay of Quinte a lot ; it get's pretty rough there but the anchor always did it's job .
I have a 16' Crestliner. I found a 16# mushroom on a yellow rope that was cut off a couple feet below the water line over 25 years ago. I tied a new rope to the old one, tied off to my dad's boat and played around with different angles and speeds and popped that sucker free!
I have been using it with my boat since '99 and have never gotten it stuck again. It holds my boat just fine, 98% of the time. When it doesn't or when I want the boat to stop swinging, I have a 10-12# navy anchor I throw off the transom.
Another good tip is to add 6-10 feet of 5/16 or 3/8" chain between the rope and the anchor. That keeps the pull on the anchor sideways unless the wave are really ripping and rolling. In that kind of weather, though, I am usually on shore dreaming about better fishing days.
If you add chain, you can always use it to attract smallmouth. Remove the anchor and send out the chain with a suitable amount of rope so that the chain drags and bounces along the bottom. The noise and silt that is stirred up will attract the curiosity of nearby smallmouth which will generally come in to investigate the disturbance.