Hello from the mountains of SW Virginia,
I will be staying on Kiawah island the week of July 5-12. Planning on bringing my yak down since I have hardly been able to use it here in the monsoon rain forest rivers in Virginia. In my on going pursuit of learning to fish y’alls water in but one week out of the year, last year’s lesson was I think I need an anchor on my yak. I paddled up some of the creeks off the Kiawah river near the bridge the last hour or so of an incoming tide…waited for the tide to start going out at the mouths of the creeks with the thought that the bait fish would wash down and the BIG fish would be there waiting…lesson learned last year was that there current of the falling tide is much stronger than I anticipated and could not hold my position long enough to fish these spots good…do y’all use an anchor…if so, will a milk jug with sand work or should I get one of the pronged ones?
ANY help is GREATLY appreciated,
Thanks,
Tim
Kayak fished for the first time Sat. Had a blast, but caught nothing. I cannot imagine trying to fish w/out an anchor. I used mine all day. I was in a 14 ft sea kayak. Hope this helps.
An anchor makes fishing much easier and productive because you don’t have to wedge your boat in the grass or stick the paddle in the mud. I originally set mine up with just a cleat on the front of the cockpit but this was not ideal. Due to the limited manuverability in my cockpit I could only fish in one direction and that was dictated by the wind and current. I finally overcame this when I set it up with 4 short pieces of bungee material and a stainless ring. Run 2 3’ sections of bungee between eyelets you mount on your yak. Fasten one end above the water line on the outside of the boat from the cockpit to as far as you can reach forward then one from the cockpit to as far as you can reach aft. Do the same on both sides of the yak then get a stainless openable ring like rock climbers use. Hook the ring on the section of bungee that will allow you to face into the wind and current and hook your anchor line through it after you have deployed it and hooked up. Mount a cleat on either side of your yak in the middle and you are all set. Sorry for the long post, hope it helps.
Cayman
P.S. I recently added a sea anchor to the other end of my anchor rope line so I can use either. This has greatly increased my productivity when searching for fish.
I have rigged an anchor on my yak for river fishing around my home,in current it got very unstable and would get hooked on rocks on the bottom and almost caused catstophe once so that was the end of my anchoring.
The way I rigged mine was: I ran a loop of rope from the bow and stern grab loops connected by an ‘O’ ring where the anchor is attached to another length of rope. This way I can move the ring fore or aft depending on which way I want to face to fish from the cockpit. It works well, just not in my application on smallmouth rivers. I think it would be good on a sand bottom though. I just wasn’t sure if if it would cause the same unstableness I got in river current…the creeks I was fishing last year looked mighty “snakey”…I DO NOT want to flip my boat out there,especially by myself.
As Indiana Jones once said " I hate snakes"
Thanks,
Tim
Its all pure saltwater “TL”, no snakes in saltwater here.Just like swimming in the ocean.
Hey Short Dogg,
Really? I just assumed…isn’t there a creek back in there called snake creek? I could have sworn that last year when I was down there paddling that I could see little heads sticking up out of the water near the shore…turtles? Short dogg, you helped me out last year,maybe the year before that too on our annual trip down there. This spring has been really bass ackwards for me…constant rains have made my favorite smallmouth rivers unfishable. Trip to Hatteras last week was a blow out with about everything that could go wrong DID go wrong. I’m thinking that my usual blanked status down there MAY turn around this year. Also want to try Folly pier a morning or two. Just looking forward to be down there again…
Thanks,
Tim
Mrs. Jimislesc has discovered my heavy river decoy anchors. She ties 3 to a short bow line and 3 on a short stern line. She chooses the anchor based on where she wants the bow to point.
Jimislesc
Edited by - Jimislesc on 07/08/2003 09:14:50 AM
I use a small mushroom anchor on approx 10 ft of rope… Its really great for stalking reds in skinny water…Just toss it out when you see a tail or wake…Definetly better than drifting, I’ve run over quite a few fish before I got my anchor…
Sea Pro 21" Bay w/ 115 Yammi