I seems that every year I loose at least one anchor due to getting them hung and it always happens around the Grillage area
I see the guide boats there all the time and they never seem to have an issue but I have seen others that do
What are some of the tricks to keep from loosing an anchor or getting one unstuck
Last week I lost one and had to go buy another and dang if we did not hang that one up first time we used it but was able to get it loose by tying to a stern cleat and pulling it out
I have seen a couple guys use anchor balls and one of the guides talked to me at Reds about the ball(he saw me loose mine that am), will these really help. I thought all they were for was to make it easy to retrieve
Be careful about pulling your anchor from the stern cleat - that’s a good way to pull your stern under. Remember that football player and his friends that sunk their boat off of Florida several years ago and they all drowned? They had tried to pull their anchor with their stern cleat.
Anchor balls do work a lot of times. Last week at the Jetties, we used our anchor ball because our anchor was stuck. After much pulling, we pulled 2 anchors up…ours and one someone had lost. It weren’t yours 'cause it was a bit rusty, but the chain looked good as new. Our boat captain got a nice freebie!
“I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of the general public.”
~my dad
Equipment:
190cc Sea Pro w/130 Johnson
1- 17 year old
1 - 13 year old
1 - wife (The Warden)
Be careful about pulling your anchor from the stern cleat - that’s a good way to pull your stern under. Remember that football player and his friends that sunk their boat off of Florida several years ago and they all drowned? They had tried to pull their anchor with their stern cleat.
Anchor balls do work a lot of times. Last week at the Jetties, we used our anchor ball because our anchor was stuck. After much pulling, we pulled 2 anchors up…ours and one someone had lost. It weren’t yours 'cause it was a bit rusty, but the chain looked good as new. Our boat captain got a nice freebie!
“I am constantly amazed at the stupidity of the general public.”
~my dad
Equipment:
190cc Sea Pro w/130 Johnson
1- 17 year old
1 - 13 year old
1 - wife (The Warden)
ECFC
Yea learned that the hard way several years back, had one hung at same spot and before I knew it guy with me had tied it to stern cleat before I saw what he did. Boat was in that hard current and he was standing their looking dumbfounded and I was telling him to cut the rope, idiot was TRYING to untie from cleat while stern was going LOWER AND LOWER. I grabbed the filed knife for bait and cut and he still thought we could have saved the anchor till I explained to him the anchor was not my worry it was the (**() BOAT:smiley:
I knew there was some way to rig one up so I will do that
Be careful in heavy current pulling the anchor when its cleated at the front as well!
Anchored at the Grillage several years ago in the McKee 14 (by myself with the dog) and pulled forward to relieve the anchor line pressure to pull it loose/in, when it looped back under the boat and caught around the spinning prop.
Cut the motor right away and ran forward as the boat began to swing around and pull. Cut the anchor line and luckily it all came off the motor before I was pulled under. Whew! Once more anchor to the Grillage & Jetties, but went home safe.
Will pull forward to the side of the anchor line in the future.
After all the anchors ive lost over the years out at the grillage i dont even fish there anymore. I see so many boats lined up every morning out there. I havent lost one yet at dynamite hole and seem to catch more there anyways. How well does that ziptie trick work? A friend of mine does that and said it works wonders, gets it back everytime. I can only imagine what that giant anchor reef looks like.
For a danforth, we zip tie up the anchor the same way, you just have to leave enough slack in the chain for the tines to fall each direction. We drilled a hole at the bottom, shackled there, then zip tied up to the normal place to hook the shackle. I will take some pictures when I get to the boat again. It works well, you might have to beef up the zip ties if you use your ball a lot to drag the anchor around like we do. We kept breaking the smaller ties so we went to the ones about 1/2in diameter.
Here is a link to another option for using a danforth anchor. Once I switched over to rigging my anchor this way I never had problems or lost another anchor. The cable just ensures that the anchor can pull backwards regardless how the anchor lands on the bottom. (cable/chain on top or on bottom) Certainly not my idea but thought I would share.
