One of the great things about having a yak is the portability of the beast. Beast, you may ask? Yes, when trying to figure out how best to load it on your Explorer with 31” tires and a small suspension lift it does turn into a beast. I’m sure I bring great laughter and joy to quite a few of my neighbors.
With the yak being so portable I quickly found myself unable to just fish. I was forever spending the majority of my time readjusting my location to where I wanted to fish. The wind, the current, or even a bite once in a while would drag me off my location. I needed a way to keep myself put.
Enter the anchor. I Imagine a guy a few years ago, Kronk we’ll call him, was trying to make his way across a river filled with caveman eating monsters or fish in that same river, on a dried out log. While in the middle of the river paddling with his hands he may have looked down and saw a multitude of fish he could catch. Fishing with a cane pole and paddling with one hand I am sure got old really quick. So later that night whilst poking sticks into the fire trying to find a better show to watch, (stick poking the fire was similar to channel surfing now-a-days), he came up with a vine and a big rock. That next day he went out back and rigged it all together. Yeah, I’m sure his buddies were laughing at him and all his work but he was determined to make it work. Later that night while drying out and channel surfing he decided to tie the vine to his log instead of his leg. Especially in deep water. That next morning the anchor was used correctly for the first time in history. Coming home that afternoon with the catch of the village and having his pic chiseled in a rock was undoubtedly on of the highlights of his life.
What did Kronk teach us…. location of tie-off and length of anchor rope is “very” important.
Now there are many types of anchors for many different functions. To us, kayak fishermen, it can be whatever weighs more than your average brick and can be found around the house. Finding something around the house is great, it feels free. You don’t even think about the fact you already bought it a long time ago. Anyway, a length of logging chain or a dumbbell even a kid’s sand pail or empty 2 liter bottle filled with Quickrete, makes a good anchor.
My anchor is a foam covered 3lb dumbbell from Wally-world that someone in my household acquired to use in an effort for weight-loss. My rope is a good 50ft anchor rope from the same place. I first used carabiners or snap rings on each handle beside the seat for my tie off points. Very useful quick disconnect.
For river use I realized this would not work the way I needed it to and would possibly cause my fishing buddies hours of entertainment and re-enactment. Not wanting to endure this emotional abuse once again I hit the inter-web and went to SC kayak fishing and GA kayak fishing websites to research the anchor trolley. (Both sites are to the right on this page)
I will now go through my second install of the anchor trolley. The first one was placed incorrectly and required me to learn a new craft called welding of plastic. I had to fill in the holes of my first attempt. It did work but was not placed correctly to maximize use.
One of the main reasons you see me putting the bungee cord on the stern of my anchor trolley is that if I am on a river in better than slow water and I drop the anchor I don’t want there to be a hard shock to that mount if it gets hung up on a rock. A soft stop as we called it in school would keep it from ripping off after a few jolts.
Now here is an interesting scenario. Let’s say you are in a lake and you are anchored on the deep end of the spectrum, and you hookup with a nice big fish and you need to play the fish and enjoy the sleigh ride. What are you going to do? Waste time weighing anchor? No, what you do is use snap rings or a carabiner and you use it to connect your anchor to your anchor trolley. Then when you need a quick disconnect you just unhook it and let it go onto the water. No, no, no, you wont loose all your rope and anchor, because you have a float of some kind tied onto the other end of your anchor line. I personally have a 1 liter plastic bottle tied off on mine so I can drop it and pick up my anchor later. Just be sure to test your anchor and float before you have to use it. Seeing your float sink below the surface might cause you some concern so make sure you test it first.
The end result…
Be safe out there and God Bless.
Brett
Nice blog. I enjoy kayak fishing alot and enjoy reading about it, thanks.