Thanks to RU-vidrs and their helpful comments and my own experience, I have got my anchor working pretty good for me now. Here's where I stand, or should I say, stop, with my current kayak anchor situation.
I really like your style - calm and clear instruction with no distracting background music or noise. Your suggestions are also some of the best I've ever seen. Thanks so much for putting so much thought and effort into sharing your ideas. You are great!
I have been researching kayaks for the past couple of months and couldn't decide what kind I needed. I was sold on a touring kayak. Then you had to go mess that all up for me. I am glad you did. I am leaving my house in about 15 minutes to go pick up my own Spitfire 8. Your rig is better than the $2k yaks I see for fishing. A tip: Don't cut the excess off. Grab that part with pliers and spin it until it comes off. It will leave a smooth edge that can't scratch you. Little electricians trick.
Idk if anyones mentioned it yet, but Instead of a zip tie, i use 15lb test line to tight the line to the shaft. Much easier to break when the anchor gets snagged.
One time the anchor sunk into the sand pretty deep and I broke the zip tie getting it out. I pulled the rope with a quick jerk and that was enough to break it. I had to tie it back up with fishing line. I bring a spare zip tie with me nowadays in case it happens again.
Hey Z.. Just bought a beat up three man sit on top plastic kayak for 60 bucks and I am loving your vids on all the stuff you did to your little go gett'em fishing rig This is exactly what I want to build little by little. I am in Puerto Rico and it sucks trying to get anything here as no one wants to ship from the states to here. The stores like Home Depot don't carry all the products they do in their US stores.. So your low down fixes and ideas are perfect. I am going to also use this kayak as a spearfishing rig somewhat and a surf fishing boat too I am going to watch every single vid you have made as I love all the ergonomic systems you have going on there. I am now looking for a vid on your rudder system and pontoons.. all very cool.
I got the Kayak yesterday and added the anchor trolly and skeg mount. I havent finished the skeg yet. I was trying to cut a fish shaped one out of plexi and cracked it both times. Gotta get another sheet. I did my skeg mount a little different. I threaded male fittings right into the side of my boat. It was a pain but it looks real nice. Just got back from a 4 mile paddle on a river around here with a couple friends. I see exactly why you wanted the skeg. This thing does a 360 with ever beer sip
great ideas! Ive just bought my first kayak and still in the setting up stages and was wondering how well these fold up anchors worked. I'm glad I found this video it's been very helpful, thanks for sharing. Dave.
I have used a small 4" zip tie now for a while and has saved me many times when caught up in the weeds here in the bay. However, the the bolt added to the top of the anchor is an excellent idea when fishing over sandy areas and does make a difference. I cut off the head of the bolt and ground it into a slight bullet shape. This is a simple yet great observation. Anything to help make things easier, safer, and more efficient in a kayak out on the bay is a plus. Thanks for the tip. I owe you a beer for that one...
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience! I am just getting into kayaking and plan to use it for fishing primarily. I just purchased the same anchor. Your bolt idea is going to save me a lot of frustration! I like your presentation as well. This video is invaluable to me. I've subscribed to your channel and looking forward to learning more!
Sounds like a logical solution. Thanks for taking the time demonstrating your findings. I have the exact style anchor and I notice that I drift out of place, if it gets to windy. I will definitely implement this on my anchor.
When I had my small sailboat, I was taught to use a 1) baby Danforth with folding downward blades 2) 4 feet of stainless chain to hold the Danforth shaft parallel to the bottom and 3) a small 2-5lb mushroom anchor holding the chain also relatively flat. This rode a little up and down as any current or winds pulled the boats as a mini shock absorber. The main line went from the mushroom chain ring up to the boat. This was shown to me by Bahamas and Caribbean sailors who used larger versions for ocean cruising vessels. They also had "twin" rigs to double the bow lines at 45 degree angles to hold during overnight wind shifts. Hope this helps. Great ideas for car-toppers!
Props on that kayak, very impressive. I'd like to point out that you will never have another issue with your line coming off of the cleat if you learn to tie it off properly. Just search on youtube for tying a cleat hitch
I found using a short length of chain acts as a welcome shock absorber in rougher weather where just using rope would snatch too much in a slight swell or gusty wind, i usualy fish in about 15 to 30ft of water though, using the method of a breakoff with the zip tie as you have makes retrieval very easy though. Exellent video as usual bud.
Thanks for the great tip on the anchor issue. I couldn't figure out why I couldn't get hooked up properly on the sandy/clay bottom. Here on South Padre Island our bay is primarily clay-like and makes it hell just trying to anchor down properly with out slipping around.
Another great video and great tip with the weight in front of the anchor. I would suggest not running your entire line through the O-ring on your trolley. Try making a loop at the point you want to tie off and run that loop through your ring. Then you can make a half hitch on your boat. When you want to disconnect quick you just undo the half hitch and then you dont have to fool with all the line having to run through the ring. Just a thought! Thanks again for the great videos.
Will try this for same type anchor I use for bass fishing lakes in my kayak. In rivet I can't use it can get caught in Rock ledges and make hard to retreive and possibly pull my kayak over. Instead I made a drift anchor with 18" of large galvanized chain and covered it with a rubber bicycle tube so it would not hang on anything. If slows me down pretty good and can fish at a slower pace if current not too fast it keeps me in place. I use a retractable dog lease to lower and retreive
ran out of room on my last comment and edited it down too much. That tip was for removing the excess off of zip ties. Leaves a smoother edge and a cleaner look. Anyways..Awesome videos man. I am about 25 videos into your channel and not stopping anytime soon. I'll send you some pics of my rig as it comes together.
Great videos, very informative, fantastic ideas. Was looking at your anchor experiment, and thinking about, matching a round lead weight, that would be threaded through the rope to the anchor. Knots tied to keep it at the anchor. The lead weight off course being heavy enough to tip the handle down, into the sand. Love the videos keep them coming. P.S. maybe a piece of PVC pipe or similar in your float, should stop the rope cutting through the polystyrene and thus help to keep it for years.
Just an FYI, they are called anchor lines. Ropes are for Cowboys, Lines are for sailors. Also attach a lead chain to your anchor, then your anchor line. The chain will help keep the top of your anchor more on the bottom and help dig into the bottom better.
Excellent observation. I' m gooing to "loose" zip tie some 8 oz. pyramid lead weights to rope at the anchor attach point. Idea for loose is so they will spin freely on the rope. The lead shouldnt conduct too much noise I wouldnt think.
The best you could do is 1. Get a shackle for the bottom of the anchor- this will keep your rode (anchor rope) away from getting pinched between the anchor and rocks or debris at the bottom of the lake. 2. Put chain on it, at least 6” past the end of the anchor - this will keep your rode from staffing as your boat/kayak moves around because of the wind. 3. Get a longer rode for crying out loud, you don’t have nearly enough. The rule of thumb is three feet of rode for each foot of depth -for a 10 feet deep pond you need 30 feet of rope, MINIMUM! -this prevents the anchor from being dragged upright.
Thanks for the tip, Nate. That's a good one. Keep in mind, the Spitfire will handle like a bigger yak with a skeg and pontoons. It's hard to beat for the price, but can be wobbly when just used bare bones. Still, a great kayak to get started with. Good luck. Let me know how it goes :)
hello Marty, the nautical term for attaching the rode to the tripping ring is called mousing" the anchor." Those folding grapnels can be very hard to retrieve when set into rock so your idea is a good one, so is the idea of the float and the weight. the grapnel is not a good anchor for grass, but almost nothing is, you need to have either heavy or sharp flukes to penetrate grass. Also, increasing the scope of your anchor rode by letting more out may help your flukes to dig in.
now you know why big ships use anchor chain. Good job on the video. I'm using a 5 lb. steel weight myself. Haven't found the need for a typical anchor just yet and I've been out in some pretty windy conditions. However, I am using a dog leach as my anchor line and It's only 20 feet so if I try to anchor deeper, it ain't gonna happen. Cheers!
We found it was difficult to break a zip tie, takes a lot of pressure when you cant pull at an offset angle from a yak, need real cheapo weak zip ties,then we use 10 foot of light chain.(dog type chain is good) But the main thing is to attach the end of the anchor rope through a 2 inch stainless ring on the anchor trolley itself ( with a float attached) with a stainless quick release hitch to the yak itself at your left hand side, The quick relaese is attached to the yak and the anchor line just has a small spliced loop to attach to the quick release catch, so anotherwords the line can flow out through the ring when buttoned off. The idea is if your hooked up on a big fish you can release the quick release, the rope slides out of the ring and floats in the sea to be recovered after you landed the fish. Also the main drag from an anchor is the use of chain, not the actual anchor itself as all we need is an 4 prong anchor that we twist out of number 8 fencing wire, easy peasy.
The knot you put in the rope should be at the highest point while allowing you to tie off to the cleat and still moving the trolley all the way forward and back without the knot touching the loop in the trolley. The float slides up to the top of the rope every time. P.S. I've had the yak out a couple of times since I posted this and the extra weight of the bolt is working like a charm! I haven't broken loose once, even in high winds :^)
I saw a video of a similar claw anchor but he had a chain on it like you were saying. He had a nifty little quick break though instead of a zip tie which looked well worth the money. Had a set break point and could be reset once you pulled it up.
try a breakaway test on your zipties. they take alot of strain when used on the top of the anchor ( perhaps more than you can lift with the kayak. third reason for the bouy, if you have alot of current or wind the bouy gives you a better angle for the kayak, if you were tied straight to the anchor it pulls your bow down. we use the same system on rivers with serious current( bigger parts )
I wonder how a mushroom anchor works in relation to the other two. I've been using the flat weight with good success in sand and mud, but thought about using a collapsible due to oyster and debris reefs not working well with the flat weight. Love the videos man. Keep up the great work. Love the honest trial and error approach you take.
i'm gonna try using a 2 1/2 - 5 lb. handweight zip tied the bolt would probably be a little light for my purposes i'm fishing in a river that has moderate current, i may have to go to a stake out pole thanks for the tips buddy !
Rick on Cherokee Put a small rope on your anchor rope with a prusik knot and a small carabiner to attach to the anchor rope on your kayak,quick release and adjustable
The best way to get more heavy on anchor top is addi g some chains with a heavy lead. Also the chain helps u when the botton is ruff a lot,the line dont get cut by time for many fisheries days. Just steel ring from anchor to the chain and other from chain to line. Hope u try it and helps u too. Thks for share
I have the claw anchor but on mine instead of using zip ties I took a short section of rope and tied it on the top and bottom of the anchor with about 15-20" of heavy duty zinc chain going through the rope. I then took my main anchor rope with a brass clip and clip to the chain. So when I set the anchor the chain moves to the shaft part of the anchor and when I pull it out if it's stuck the chain can slide up the small section of rope to the back of the anchor and it pulls out. I should make a video to show how I made it
Take a second line more light and a ring in botton hole anchor. everytime when u wanna go and anchor dont release easily,pull the second line and it realesed from stock botton anchor body.Put both lines together just with 4 or 5 steel rings and not towether to close the anchor. Sorry for my english,im still learning a languaje
I notice you have the anchor rope ultimately cleated to a regular cleat on the boat's rail on one side. Do you find that having it cleated on one side of the boat has an asymmetrical effect on its performance? Or does the anchor trolley position completely control how the boat aligns, regardless of where it ultimately ties up?Where do you keep the anchor on the boat when it's stored? If it scrapes on the bottom it makes a lot of noise, particularly if you also have a chain. Do you think this noise scares the fish? and do you have away around it?Have you tried running the anchor trolley all the way around the bow of the boat, so that you have maybe 300 degrees of alignment choice?Do you ever go offshore where you'd need a longer anchor rope. My rope is 1/2 inch like yours, because I find the smaller ropes tend to tangle. Some people on the internet short some kind of a retractable device made for divers, that has a narrow rope but coils neatly to avoid the tangle. Wondering if you have tried that.
If it's a straight pull on that anchor like you were doing in your demo, that zip tie "(which is a bit too strong to begin with), that straight pull will be very hard to break even a small zip tie.
Why not use a larger sized egg sinker? I love your videos by the way and this is the second time i've watched this one and i just had the idea of using a fairly heavy egg sinker instead of a chain or a bolt. The sinker could be interchangeable too maybe and wouldn't rust due to it being lead, it would also be somewhat more quite and lighter in weight
you might be using way too big a zip tie for the breakaway, try breaking it when its straight under your yak. it takes very little tensile to holld the rope to the eye, perhaps one of the smaller ties you used on the bolt even. all the ziptie needs to do is keep direction of pull the rope puts the muscle on the anchor.
You don't need to connect the chain directly to the anchor. Set it up as line to chain, chain to line, line to anchor, that way you can still use your trip device.
Nice Marty I keep a half dozen zip ties attached to my anchor shaft using......a couple zip ties. Always handy and they stay in place until needed. Just don't snip the attaching ties as it will give you the ability to snug your supply of ties securely as they are removed over time. Does any of that make sense or do I really need to go take a nap?
gordygroover Greetings from Sydney, Australia. That's a great idea. At the moment, my spare cable ties are in the dry compartment up front which on the rare occasion I've needed to use a spare requires more effort than your idea. I'm thinking of storing the spares on the floating anchor rope reel that I made. Gotta love RU-vid for sharing advice
hi bud how's it going . ive not long got in to kayak fishing and bin getting a lot of inspiration from watching your vids. diy and fishing on the kayak. and i enjoy making thing more than going out buying them. was wondering what size and how you would go about making a drift chute ?
im going to try and make one out of a small kids dome tent . it's light and want take up much room . it's the right shape after taking the groundsheet out. bit of sowing for the straps. will see how i go. will let you know .
Very nice video. I have a question. Regarding tying a bolt to the anchor with something that might break (to help you release the anchor in case is stuck) . I can only see this working with the bolt landing on top of the rope. If the opposite happen (50% chance). I don't think you would be able to break the plastic tie. What do you think? Btw, have ever had the need to break the tie to release the anchor?
I had both success and failure using the zip tie method and 3 feet of anchor chain on my last trip in very rough bottom. The 1st time the anchor got snagged, the zip tie broke and the anchor released as per his explanation. I replaced the zip tie and moved into even rougher bottom. The wind / current moved me heaps and the anchor chain jammed between two boulders. I had to cut off that anchor. Now I'm planning to use no chain, but a short piece of concrete reinforcing steel held in place with 3 zip ties. If the bar gets caught, then hopefully the zip ties will release the rope and anchor. To be continued......
Cut you zip tie in half .I have lost 4 of them because zip tie would not break . Lure 11.5 was going to tip first . I switched to mushroom anchor and have not got anchor stuck for years now .
Hey Zoffinger take that idea:put a pvc pipe inside u flotter line anchor so the line cannot destroy a flotter,runns inside the pvc and it can take more life. Thks for share.
Then the zip ties snap and release the rope. You lose the bolt but not your anchor. Remember, when it gets snagged, you wind up all the slack so the anchor rope is all but vertical. Those zip ties break quite easily at that angle.
I have same anchor in I have it tied wrong thanks for video naw I know how tie it down just in case it gets snag under water so I can take it out if get stuck
okay, have a question for you. (understand this is an oldie; but I just found your channel, so its new for me!) I got a couple of anchors like you use in this video, and did the mod with the plastic zip tie. Great idea! We got 100 foot ropes for each boat. Seems like an awful lot of rope. Is that too much, and how do I deal with the excess? Also, how do you store your anchor and line when not in use?
The amount of rope you use will be around seven times the average depth, at the longest. Minimum might be 3x. So, if the water is 3 feet deep, you'd want at least about 25ft. This example works for me and the places I fish, which are generally very shallow. That in turn makes stowing the line easy. If you need 100ft, then you're in territory I've seldom fished and I haven't tackled stowing that much line yet.
+zoffinger I reckon that makes sense. We are completely new at this. Hoping to fish along the salt marsh areas on the Ga cost below Savannah. I guess I may shorten them to 50' or may even wait till we are out there in a few weeks and see what the depths are looking like and then shorten.
I should of written; 'So, if the water is 3 feet deep, you'd want 9 feet of line on calm days, 21 feet on windy days and about 4 feet of line to tie to a cleat (thus the 25ft total) That's just me talking, though. There have been days when I forgot to bring my anchor and improvised with a rock tied to some paracord! Which, btw is what I eventually switched to from the larger 1/2 inch nylon rope. That'll make stowing more line easier.
All you had to do was shortened the anchor stem. The the anchor wasn't biting because the stem was too long, shorten the stem, increase the angle on the blades problem solved.
bbcasting I've used 1/2 inch polyester rope and skinny paracord. I like the big poly rope because it feels better and you can weave the ends into loops and such, but those nasty treble hooks get caught in the poly way more than the paracord. It doesn't take much to pull these small anchors free, so I don't feel breaking strength is an issue, unless you plan to fish deep water with rocky bottoms.
I had a rope from Dollar Tree in my hand today, but I didn't buy it because I didn't want to attach a cheap rope to my $14.00 anchor. I'll be fishing saltwater bays that are generally 15 feet or less. What do you think of the retractable dog leash line idea?
bbcasting I've never tried the retractable leash idea mainly because I can easily stow the rope when it's folded up and I'm afraid of what the saltwater environment would do to the mechanism. Maybe nothing, but the simple rope worked flawlessly and I never felt compelled to complicate it. Again, could be a sweet idea if you fish deep water and need lots of line.
bbcasting That Dollar Tree rope would be much better than a retractable dog leash. For starters the dog leash isn't designed for the stress of anchoring. While it doesn't seem like it, even in calm water and a small boat like a kayak there is a lot of stress placed on anchor line. A dog leash is only designed for a couple of hundred pounds at most whereas even cheap rope can withstand much greater force than that. Even para cord would be an improvement. Also, the retractable mechanism isn't designed for that application. You said you would use it in salt water. Salt water is extremely corrosive, it will eat up that rope and retractor in no time. Do yourself a favor and buy the proper equipment. You will be far better off and it will save you money and frustration in the future.
Still doing it wrong, the float should not move on the line. It should be fixed on te line a little distance from the kayak. 2 reasons for float: 1st you can unclip from anchor if fighting big fish, 2nd and main reason, if fishing in areas with swells, the float creates an angle or corner, as the swell passes underneath the kayak the float will be pulled down underneath the surface preventing the swell and achor to drag the kayak down. Another tip is to make to first meter or so, that runs from your pulley system to the main line that will run to you float and the your anchor, to make that bungee cord. that removes some of the shock when swells passes underneath you. Remember the rule the bigger the swell the further the float should be from you. Maybe not as important in the estuary type fishing you do, but in the big seas in South Africa you can't use that rig of yours.
