Do you carry and use an anchor?

[dsiekman]

When I started kayak fishing I always took my anchor with me but never ended up using it. Eventually I got tired of carrying the extra weight around. I used one for the first time fishing the flats in Tampa last week and now I'm debating whether or not to go back to carrying one. What do you do?

Most of my fishing is in the Severn though I'm planning to take the new boat out in the bay.

[archeryrob]

I never use one, I prefer to fish without one. I really wished I would have brought it with me when fishing the flats on the ebb tide though. Schoolies stacked in the channel waiting to ambush shad and we tore them up, but had to paddle all the time to keep from be washed toward the south and just pulled out of that spot. I could have got above them, anchored on the stern and stayed on them.

Normally, I dislike using one.

[kevinfry]

Certain situations demand an anchor. The first time I fished for blue catfish with Bill he had anchor, I did not, He caught many. I caught a few. Last year Moc and I fished for cats and his anchor wouldn't hold....he caught little till he found a spot where his anchor would grab. Some guys like to anchor up for croaker, too.
I keep my anchor simple and easy to pack

[Yak Fish]

You should carry an anchor for safety. If you have a breakdown or something, it'll keep you in one place rather than continue drifting.

[Runnin]

Most of my yak fishing has been river fishing. Anchors rarely come into play except for a few times in summer and early fall. On rivers, anchors can be dangerous if you underestimate the current. I have one , and presume they would come in hany when jigging up stripers, and live lining on the bay,

[JKay]

Rarely. If I'm fishing freshwater and know it's going to be windy, if I remember, I'll take one. Most of the time I forget, and then curse the whole time whilst trying to hold my position over certain structure.

[dsiekman]

You should carry an anchor for safety. If you have a breakdown or something, it'll keep you in one place rather than continue drifting.

Thanks, everyone. Yak Fish, that would be the one concern I would have. However, if fishing the bay, how much anchor rode do you carry? I believe I have about 250' on my powerboat but can't imagine hauling that much around on my kayak.

[Mark]

Neil taught me a lot about using an anchor when I fished with him in Tampa. It's great in that environment and good for his purpose when he has to keep his clients on fish and from drifting off to hither and yon.

However I have never fished with one here either in the bay or in freshwater impoundments. That's because I'm always on the move casting lures or flies, either by current or by my own power. If I want to hit a spot again I merely circle around and come back to it.

I have never thought about the safety aspects of having one to hold me in place but I have never ventured far from shore. Most of my tidal fishing has been in the Severn and Bay spots nearby. I can see an anchor may have application for safety purposes but I don't feel I need it to fish the way I do locally.

[J.A. Veil]

Out of more than 50 trips I made last year, I took the anchor with me only 2 or 3 times. The way I fish, I rarely use one. If I bottom fish for catfish, an anchor helps. Also learning from my Tampa experiences, if I want to fish on a very windy day, having an anchor will help hold position. On the day before the CBKA tourney last fall, I paddled in Eastern Bay under very windy conditions. The anchor helped a bit.

A few weeks ago I posted a temporary anchor trolley design I made up for my Slayer Propel. It attaches in less than a minute and does not require drilling any holes. http://www.snaggedline.com/showthrea...hlight=trolley - see reply 18.

[whenican]

I have an anchor that I use when I want to stay in one place w/o drifting away due to tide or wind. It's good to have when I need it... but sometimes I don't need it.

[KenY]

When fishing for Yellow Perch a few weeks ago, it was a pain to have to paddle, after every cast, back up to the hole where they were stacked up. It was way easier to anchor just down from the hole and cast upstream. Also, the outgoing tide was pushing me faster than I wanted my jigs to move.....the Perch wanted the jigs to barely move and I was going almost 3 knots...

Its also a pain to have to paddle back and reposition when the wind keeps blowing you off fish that are tight on a piece of structure.

I'd rather have one and not have to use it rather than not having one and wishing I did.

[Jambone]

I carry, when planning to anchor, a folding anchor with 100' of rode (parachute cord) wrapped on a YakAttack Sidewinder. I have used it to fish over areas where I've marked a lot of fish piled up or to sit over structure. I think 100' of line will work will up to about 40' on my 14' Pro Angler but I have yet to prove this yet. I figure about a 3-1 scope should work fine for my application. I do not have any chain on my set up, yet. I do drag a bit sometimes but I think I can avoid it if I just lay out a bit more scope.

[buzz]

I have an anchor that I use when I want to stay in one place w/o drifting away due to tide or wind. It's good to have when I need it... but sometimes I don't need it.

+1

Never used to carry one. But one day down at PLO the wind kept pushing me into a jetty. I got so frustrated that I beached... found an old plastic bottle and began filling it with pea gravel. Tied it to my bow line and got back out there fishing. That evening I bought an anchor off the Internet.

[Mmacro]

I carry one... but I've also fished a lot out by Jonas Green and a drag chain works wonders to slow you without stopping you... letting you drift the drop-off with top and bottom rigs.

One thing though... keep a hook knife handy for if you ever need to cut the line in an emergency situation. Rushing water can be really bad. They make them now with replaceable box cutter blades so you don't have to worry so much about salt water dulling the blade.

[dsiekman]

I carry one... but I've also fished a lot out by Jonas Green and a drag chain works wonders to slow you without stopping you... letting you drift the drop-off with top and bottom rigs.

One thing though... keep a hook knife handy for if you ever need to cut the line in an emergency situation. Rushing water can be really bad. They make them now with replaceable box cutter blades so you don't have to worry so much about salt water dulling the blade.

I always keep a CRKT technical rescue knife on my PFD. It's a fixed blade blunt tip and is super sharp. I used it to cut some old 5/8" dock line off my pilings and it took care of that in two or three strokes.