Anchoring

[Swamp Girl]

I never anchor. I try to catch the most active fish, so perpetual movement serves me. I don't work an area. I work the lake/pond/bog.

 

It doesn't take much of a breeze to move my lightweight canoe. Heck, the bass move my canoe too, which serves my fishing strategy of "Perpetual Motion Fishing(TM)."

[Big Hands]

It's not unusual for me to use an anchor at times. Sometimes using the TM into the wind puts me at a difficult angle to fish the way I want to. Sometimes I just want to stay put in one spot and may need to re-rig. I fish more using the TM most days.

[Susky River Rat]

This hasn’t been talked about but, people will used drift chain /anchor in the susky to control their drift speed. It’s supposed to drag across the bottom but not actually get stuck. That clangs and bangs off the bottom and doesn’t seem to affect those guys catching fish. My buddies grandfather doesn’t even have a TM he uses this technique of controlling it. It’s not that he couldn’t have one he just doesn’t want one.

[padlin]

In the weedy ponds I fish I find I need to anchor a lot in the canoe, it’s hard to fish weeds while getting blown around, which doesn’t take much breeze. Sometimes I want to drift, if it’s in the right direction. And sometimes I’ll drop my smaller 3 lb anchor to just drift slowly. The anchor being a short lead filled pipe it doesn’t get hung up in the stump roots.

[Bankbeater]

If the bass are relating to some type of structure like a hump or creek bed I want to stay where I can hit that structure with a cast.  If the bass are relating to vegetation that is spread out then the anchor doesn't get used that much because I want to drift through the weeds and cast at mats. 

[Catt]

I've been known to sit on structure in18' of water for hours on end. Power poles are useless & relying on the trolling motor will kill your batteries.

[Swamp Girl]

2 hours ago, padlin said:

In the weedy ponds I fish I find I need to anchor a lot in the canoe, it’s hard to fish weeds while getting blown around, which doesn’t take much breeze. Sometimes I want to drift, if it’s in the right direction. And sometimes I’ll drop my smaller 3 lb anchor to just drift slowly. The anchor being a short lead filled pipe it doesn’t get hung up in the stump roots.

 

If I want to work an area for a little bit, I'd paddle my canoe atop the thickest weeds, which usually hold it in place. I also fish the days with less wind, but an anchor would let me fish the windier days. Hmmm.

[LrgmouthShad]

38 minutes ago, Catt said:

I've been known to sit on structure in18' of water for hours on end. Power poles are useless & relying on the trolling motor will kill your batteries.

I’ve done that regularly. The problem is… sometimes I don’t pick the right spot. I saw so much bait and bass and nice looking structure on one spot on Shearon Harris that I sat on it for 3-4 hours and never got a bite. On Badin in the summer I sat on one spot for 4, but I actually caught fish off that one

[Catt]

28 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

I sat on it for 3-4 hours and never got a bite.

 

Amateur ?

 

At night I will sit on structure for 8-10 hours.

[LrgmouthShad]

8 minutes ago, Catt said:

 

Amateur ?

 

At night I will sit on structure for 8-10 hours.

Okay now that’s patience. Or faith. Or craziness. It’s something

[Catt]

31 minutes ago, LrgmouthShad said:

Okay now that’s patience. Or faith. Or craziness. It’s something

 

It's confidence in knowing my body of water.

[LrgmouthShad]

1 minute ago, Catt said:

 

It's confidence in knowing my body of water.

Kudos. When you talked in the past about walking the shoreline of most of Toledo, that’s when I realized “Yeah okay, this guy is dedicated”

 

I won’t be in one place long enough to figure out a body of water to that extent, I think. Not for a while at least

[WRB]

Anchoring at night is a big advantage in the wind. You know where you are all the time and can look for lures, tie knots etc, etc.

Take a page from the trophy bass anglers and guides who use live shad or crawdads, they all anchor to have a still quite boat to present their baits.

I prefer to be mobile but there are times anchoring is preferred.

Tom

[softwateronly]

I almost always anchor.  Trying to pick apart weeds on breaklines with bottom contact presentations are only successful for me when I know where I am and where the transitions are.  Anchoring is my only way.  If you fish clear water submergent grass, it seems the only way to be thorough.  

 

scott

[padon]

anchoring is a lost art. our lakes are fairly deep right of the bank in alot of cases. i have spot lock but talons do you no good in15 or 20 feet. if its windy i find i can position beyyer and cause less disturbance by anchoring than using spot lock. for true control 3 anchors are really beneficial.

[stratos4me]

Bill Murphy (In Pursuit of Giant Bass) always fished on a double anchor setup with a very high scope. He's proof that done correctly, anchoring can be extremely productive on trophy fish.

 

Just for fun, here's my Bill Murphy story:

 

In 1992 when I was 16 I was fishing the main rockpile at Lake Wholford in San Diego. Murphy was set up with his double anchor and his small aluminum boat on the outside rockpile maybe 100 yards away. I caught a fish just under 9lbs and put it in the livewell to weigh at the dock scale before release. Murphy yelled at me for "keeping" the fish. Kind of a punk move for a guy with a stringer of dead 10 pounders on his book cover. Although I saw him occasionally, we never spoke again.

[Standard]

My kayak anchor now consists of a power pole, so I make as much use of it as I can after spending that much money

[stratos4me]

12 minutes ago, Standard said:

My kayak anchor now consists of a power pole, so I make as much use of it as I can after spending that much money

When I fished my kayak I could never get anchoring right. I tried an anchor trolly with a stake out pole for bed fishing and just couldn't get it right. Eventually I gave up and ended up with an ipilot on the bow.

[Standard]

Just now, stratos4me said:

When I fished my kayak I could never get anchoring right. I tried an anchor trolly with a stake out pole for bed fishing and just couldn't get it right. Eventually I gave up and ended up with an ipilot on the bow.

 

I went from an anchor, to an anchor trolley, to power pole.  Been really tempted to bolt a trolling motor up but I fish a lot of rivers.  Power pole works great and I beat the crap out of it.

[WRB]

I was a Pieces Bass club in 1969 when Harvey Nushland* was president of the club. Bill Murphy was a founding member.

Anchoring was being developed that allowed the anchored boat to be trolled back and forth about 75’ with long anchor ropes about 100’ bow and stern without lifting the anchors.

Everyone back then thought Florida LMB wouldn’t Strike lures and used live bait like crawdads, salt water mud suckers, water dogs, Canadian night crawlers and golden shiners. Anchoring was perfect technique for live bait fishing.

San Diego city lakes and county lakes had a 10 hp outboard engine limit and the aluminum boats didn’t have livewells, we used Coleman 55 to 80 qt coolers with aeration spray plumbing to put bass in when traveling. Stringers with a 1# weight were used to keep the bass in the lake alive and heathy while fishing. Still have my “alive stringer” and used it for decades.

We had club tournaments and released healthy bass after weigh in long before B.A.S.S. started releasing bass in lieu of fish fries.

The bass on Murphy’s book were alive.

Bill passed away May 2004, respect his memory.

Tom

*proud to be a Silver Eagle member

[dgkasper58]

On 1/11/2023 at 7:13 AM, TnRiver46 said:

My buddy from Illinois said you can watch the fish reaction easily in Great Lakes canals and the TM scared them but the anchor didn’t most of the time 

 

But yeah I always chill out for a few minutes and re tie lures after I initially drop it 

I am not your buddy that said that, but have you ever been swimming in the water with boats on their big motor cruising around- you hear them 1000+ feet away under water.  Trolling motors no where near as bad but some are worse than others and if you get weeds on the end with non stop ticking.  Both are non stop noise vs 2 plops (I wish I had talons/Powerpoles).

 

I can only imagine what a bass's ear/lateral line go through in a day.

 

I set up the "drift" so I can be as quiet as possible until I get to the spot.

[TnRiver46]

1 minute ago, dgkasper58 said:

I am not your buddy that said that, but have you ever been swimming in the water with boats on their big motor cruising around- you hear them 1000+ feet away under water.  Trolling motors no where near as bad but some are worse than others and if you get weeds on the end with non stop ticking.  Both are non stop noise vs 2 plops (I wish I had talons/Powerpoles).

 

I can only imagine what a bass's ear/lateral line go through in a day.

 

I set up the "drift" so I can be as quiet as possible until I get to the spot.

Sure have, I can hear boats underwater that are too far away to see above the water 

[Gera]

There are swimbaits so large that when they get cast they make so much noise when hitting the water that the sound of an anchor coming down is nothing and still catch fish. 

 

I think we worry so much over everything. 

 

 

[WRB]

Just a note the like Bill Murphy didn’t always anchor. Bill cast and retrieved lures including jigs, spinnerbaits, Crank baits soft plastics. Murphy did anchor to present slow moving presentations like stitching a worm or walking a nose hooked crawdad etc.

Murphy often trolled home made swimbaits and various deep diving crank baits. I can’t remember Bill flipping but incorporated nearly every other presentation.

Tom

[Deleted account]

18 hours ago, Gera said:

the sound of an anchor coming down is nothing

Not sure why gators (amphibs) have so many issues with the sea and anchor detail, all I can think of is they sometimes have embarked Marines, in case you're not sure, this is a how not to do it video...