Anchoring a fishing boat can cause a lot of problems for land rats. When fishing, a good anchor holding is one of the most important success factors.
Anchors can be very different. Comparing the folding anchor (in the photo on the left) with a self-made "Danforth" anchor” it turns out, that the latter is the surest.
In fact, anchoring the boat seems like a child's play – anchor for water, sit back comfortably and you can fish. Ah, if it were so! Practice proves it, that many of the less experienced colleagues have serious problems, to keep the boat in place. Anchors are very different. I hope, that basic information on the "behavior" of individual types of anchors in the water will allow you to avoid many unnecessary stresses. The so-called folding trebles are the most popular among anglers. They have a relatively heavy body and four arms. The greatest thing about these anchors is just that, that when folded, they take up little space in the boat. The biggest disadvantage of all these types of anchors is this, that their arms are not digging into the ground quite badly. At least one thing, and much more often as many as two arms always stick out uselessly above the bottom. These anchors often drop, when the water current is a little faster or the wind blows stronger – they do not give the boat a certain "support". It can even happen with a hard gravel or clay bottom, that the collapsible anchor will not hold the boat at all. Many anglers also use self-made treble hooks, mostly cast in concrete. Such "kamiory" are very impractical, too heavy, and with stronger winds or water currents also not very reliable, because they don't go to the bottom. For this reason, they can only be recommended as an emergency solution when fishing in small inland waters.
Better anchor
We will avoid all these problems by choosing a completely different one, (much better in my opinion) the anchor. I mean the "Danforth" type anchor, also called lamellar. It has two extending at an angle from the body of the plate, that always stick to the ground. The greater the tension on the cable, the more surely this anchor sticks to the bottom. Thanks to this, it holds the boat very firmly in one place. After putting both tiles together, this anchor does not take up much space in the boat. In addition to the anchor, the line is also important. If the anchor is really supposed to hold the boat firmly, it is important to, make a line, at least near the anchor, it was lying on the bottom. Therefore, it is very practical to connect the rope with the anchor with a piece of heavy chain (at least two meters in length). We will achieve a similar effect using the "sinking rope", that is, a cable pre-loaded with lead. It can be bought from time to time at nautical stores. As you surely have already noticed, just lowering the anchor to the bottom is not always enough to be able to fish effectively (still in the same place). So let's try to reflect, what may await us by the water. The ideal conditions are the complete absence of water current and flaut. You only need to mark the fishery you want, back the boat a little, lower the anchor in the bow and return to the selected place. Finally, tighten the rope slightly and tie it tightly. Unfortunately, this type of "silence" by the water is extremely rare. Much more often the boat is exposed to the water current, wind or both. During active spinning, it is even quite beneficial. We lower the anchor into the water and let the boat dance on the waves and go downstream, enough, as far as its length allows.
Compare the Danforth type anchor with the foldable anchor. Danforth anchor” connected to the rope through a piece of chain (holding the line on the bottom) it probably hits the bottom. So much the better, the tighter the line is.
Only at most two of the four arms of the folding anchor will hit the bottom. With a stronger line tension, the anchor likes to let go sometimes and the boat pulls it over the bottom. Second line (blue in the photo) tied to the end of the anchor is very helpful when lifting the anchor, especially, when it hits the bottom very hard.
Releasing the line
Thanks to this, we are able to penetrate a much larger area of the fishery, than if you only get stoned in one place. If there are no bites at all for a while, we let go the most normally in the world 10-15 meters of cable, we wait for it to tighten and start spinning again. Please pay attention, that there is no need to pull the anchor out of the water here. With a very long line, we can fish a large acreage of water in this way.
Fishing while dropping the line is something between drift fishing, and fishing from an anchored boat. This method is mainly used when fishing for pike in large waters. In addition to the many advantages, however, releasing the anchor line also has a disadvantage – makes it impossible to precisely fish for a strictly selected place.
For ground fishing for eels and quiet feeding fish, the method of releasing the line is unlikely to apply. With this type of fishing, the boat must be stationary in one place, which with water current or wind is possible only after placing two anchors.
In order to successfully catch the "zander hole", you need very precise anchoring. The first step, what we need to do is the precise marking of the fishery. Then we sail a little under the "bearing force" of the boat (water current or wind) and we put the first anchor from the bow. We put more lines into the water, to get us a little below the planned place, we can even go back there right away. The next step is to place the second anchor from the stern. Dropping the stern anchor line and selecting the bow anchor line move there, where we wanted to stand.
After such an anchoring, the boat is not allowed to move a centimeter.
Other possibilities
When using only one anchor, we should always put it from the bow. Deciding to use two anchors appears, that the other must always be attached to the stern. However, it turns out, that there are other possibilities as well!
If we want to position ourselves perfectly against the current or wind, and most of the time we want, we can lower the anchors diagonally, for example, the front left side of the boat, while the rear is on the right (or vice versa). However, if for some reason we plan to position ourselves transversely to the wind or current, we have to put both anchors into the water from the windward side or from the side, from which the current pushes the boat.
A drifting anchor
If we feel like it or we do not know the new fishery very well, we can also drift fishing with the anchor! You take care, that it is impossible? And yet, yes, and I'll explain everything. For example, we fish at a depth of twelve meters, by the way, however, we want to find an attractive edge slope or a perch hill. So we allow, so that the wind would freely drift our boat. First, however, we lower the anchor vertically to the bottom, and then we raise it by 2-3 meters and tie it to a circle on the bow. When we swim over a shallower place, the anchor catches the bottom and the boat stops. At the time, when we feel it, we just let go of the necessary amount of line and we anchor ourselves like this, as it should be. During drift fishing, the anchor also acts as an 'early warning system'” in front of the approaching shallows, which considering the fever of the fight, effectively prevents uncontrolled landing of boats on the shore.
Precautions
Always take out the anchors in the reverse order, in which we lowered them to the bottom – first we pull out the rear anchor, and then the bow. You can believe me, that this is no invention, but the usual precaution. For example, when the engine is running, you only need a moment of inattention, rear anchor line to rotate around the rotating bolt! After removing the bow anchor first, the boat always starts turning.
No driving force (after all, sometimes you go fishing without oars) we would immediately be reliant on the mercy of fate, and this sometimes ends very tragically.
Let us not forget, that water as an element does not tolerate any errors.
For the same reasons, we should always clean the anchor lines very carefully, and not throw them to the bottom of the boat. Those few minutes, which we devote to this may even save our lives in an exceptional situation – for example when to our boat, standing in the middle of the fairway, a speeding barge is approaching.
With clear line ends, taking the anchor out is a matter of only a few seconds.
After that, all you have to do is start the engine or take a little oars.
The anchors are quite expensive to buy. No wonder then, that we are nervous, when the anchor and the line fall into the water by mistake, or when we have to make a decision to cut the line, because we are towing the fish of our life and it is not possible to remove the anchor. If you want to avoid such unpleasant situations, it is enough to connect to the anchor on the other line (long enough) a small buoy or an ordinary plastic bottle. The buoy will show, where to look for the anchor, and then it can be easily pulled out on the auxiliary cord. In addition, the presence of a buoy on the surface of the water makes it easier to visualize, where the rope is and you can avoid this "dangerous" place when hauling a large fish.
