hey guys, was wondering how you all attach your anchors to your small boats, 14-17'. do you just let it down the sides,front,back on a pulley lock,or? Salt or fresh.

just curious and pictures would be great as well. Thanks!

Before I got my Stryker I had a 14 foot Lund. I had a anchor mount on the front. It worked well but it was a pain in the ass to get off the motor, step over the bench and set the anchor. I always thought that an anchor setup like they have in drift boats would be perfect so you could drop the anchor from the back of the boat. It wouldnt be that hard to do just a couple pulleys and a rope lock.

Although if your only fishing lakes or ponds its not a big deal to cut the motor and step over the seat to drop the anchor. In rivers however sometimes you dont have enough time to cut your motor crawl over the seats and drop the anchor.

If you are using it in a river, my advice is to go heavy on your anchor. I had a 30# in my lund and it wasnt enough to hold me in the river, In my Stryker I have a 50# and it is just enough to hold me moderate current, a 60# would be better but you have to remember that after you let it down you have to pull it back up.

you tie it to the bow and throw it in the water r-tard

Peter, I have a 16 ft lowe that I have a jet on and ran into this same problem. Like Coug said stepping over the middle seat and dropping and anchor while in current is dangerous at times. I went with the same setup that driftboats use, two pulleys and an anchor nest up front. Before I leave I just hang the anchor off of the front of the boat.I use the lee lock rope lock, pretty simple and easy to use.

As for anchors I use a rocking chair style anchor which for me is much lighter and easier to lift and works for my needs. My boat is flat bottomed and is pretty easy to anchor so this works for me.

Sorry no pics.

Fishy

Leelock Anchor systems are wonderful! +1

Captain

I have a 14' Smokercraft. I made my own anchor. Buy a piece of pipe; bend some 12" or so pieces of re-bar; put them in the pipe; fill with lead. When the lead hardens, drill a hole in one of the pipe end and attach an eye-bolt. I tie a rope to the eye-bolt and fling it overboard and just tie it off to a bow cleat. I know a lot of 14' boats don't have cleats but you could always tie it off to the haul-in loop on the bow, wrap your rope around a seat or any place else you can tie it.

Peter,

I run a 16' Lund. I have two anchors. My "everyday" anchor is a 25# pyramid drift boat anchor. The other is a Columbia River style anchor that's also about 25#, but has steel claws to dig into sandy silt river bottoms. I mounted an anchor roller on the bow and lower either anchor from it, and then tie off on a cleat.

I had an anchor winch (Cabella's) on my previous boat. It holds about 50' of 3/8" line maximum. The convenient thing about the winch alternative is that I had it mounted just below the port side gunwhale and could drop anchor from my position near the outboard motor, and crank it up from there as well, instead of stepping over the mid-ship seats to do it all from the bow. It needs a couple pulleys mounted along the gunwhale to keep the anchor line out of the way. Maybe I should get another one of those, for the pyramid anchor anyway.

Sg

Never, ever, anchor a boat from the side.

Yeah, if you anchor off the side in current, you will be only doing that once. I remember doing that on a three day excursion down the nisqually when I was a kid, doh, lucky we were in a huge raft and let go of the rope. Needless to say we spent the rest of the trip drying out stuff (summertime).

Steve

I've even seen that turn out bad on a lake - Forget to pull the anchor, fire up the motor, start running to a different spot. Small boat like that does a quick roll over before you know what the heck is happening.

Good idea for a new thread - Stupid things I have done with a boat.

avid?

That is a way to do it ,I like the pully system idea. The rule I always heard for rivers is if you can't hold your self with oars in the current,it's too fast to anchor in. ALWAYS carry a sharp knife so that if you do get in trouble,you can cut the rope quick as possible.

I've used a Scotty anchor pully/lock system for the past 7 years on my 14' aluminum boat. I'm very happy with it. Just run a rope back to were I sit at the tiller and I can raise and lower it from there. Very sturdy, I step on it, lift the boat with it and it works great.

A neat trick for getting more purchase out of your anchor (larger boats and/or faster currents) in a river type setting, is to use two anchors in series.

For example (working back from bottom to the boat), a claw anchor, 2-4' length of chain, and then a standard DB lead anchor attached to the mainline. Although the setup is a bit unwieldy, you can often get by with less weight using this rig than a single anchor. The lead and chain keep the primary anchor on the bottom and prevent it from levering out and/or giving it more purchase.

Like Stam, this setup works well on a variety of bottom types.

One of the "duh" moments I had was anchoring in current that was too fast and things really got bad when I went forward towards the bow. My boat suddenly became a large kwikfish almost throwing me overboard. Knife...where's the fkn knife?!
Luckily no damage other than lost anchor, some rope, and a bruised ego.
There's a reason why drift boats have a bow that rides above the water. Trying to stay with the weight in the boat towards the stern has its benefits.

I meant it as a compliment?

I'd give some anchor advice...but I think I'll pass on this one

Fish on...

Todd

No chit to that one

Like I said before, I can think of hundreds of worse or more dangerous things to do in a driftboat...

Hell, I've probably done a bunch of them, too.

Fish on...

Todd

P.S. I still aim to retire in the "those that will..." category!

Every time I fish that hole on the sky I still hope I will come up with an anchor rope.