Talk to me about anchor setups for a lake boat. Boat is 16.5ft and well under 2500lbs with passengers. Anchor would be for stopping and hanging out somewhere for lunch or a swim. But also as an emergency device in case I have engine troubles and I don't want to run down the trolling motor batteries. Honestly, that situation is pretty unlikely given there are many docks on my bigger lakes to tie up on in an emergency. But better safe than sorry. I would not be using it when actually fishing because the trolling motor GPS spotlock has that covered. Nor would I be likely to camp anywhere overnight, anchor in current, be in saltwater, etc.
The issue is that so much of the advice out there is from morons who obviously don't understand how to anchor or from very experienced boaters who think that everyone is going to be anchoring up somewhere overnight and have to worry about storms or distances to other moored boats.
Local lake bottoms are mud/sand/gravel with some less common rocky sections. I can't see needing to anchor anywhere deeper than 20-30 feet for any of my use cases. I currently have a 15lb sort of mushroom style anchor (looks like this one) that I ended up with somehow. It works well enough, but is kind of a lot to haul around and doesn't hold all that well, though that could also be operator error. I've seen advice suggesting a Chene anchor (sort of a "no wrong side up" variation of a slip ring fluke anchor) as an excellent small boat light anchor. Manufacturer suggestion is either the 5 or 7lb size for a boat like this one, designed for my kind of casual use, claim to not need a chain, and require only a 2-1 line/depth ratio. But holy moses, the reviews are sure bad from the Cabelas crowd. Anchor issue or operator issue?
And is twisted 3 strand really the preferred line for anchoring? I hear that's because it has stretch to it, and I can see that for longer term or stormy anchoring. But is that necessary for my light duty application? It's not like I can't buy three strand, I just hate dealing with it. Braided is so much nicer in the hand and to coil/store.
The issue is that so much of the advice out there is from morons who obviously don't understand how to anchor or from very experienced boaters who think that everyone is going to be anchoring up somewhere overnight and have to worry about storms or distances to other moored boats.
Local lake bottoms are mud/sand/gravel with some less common rocky sections. I can't see needing to anchor anywhere deeper than 20-30 feet for any of my use cases. I currently have a 15lb sort of mushroom style anchor (looks like this one) that I ended up with somehow. It works well enough, but is kind of a lot to haul around and doesn't hold all that well, though that could also be operator error. I've seen advice suggesting a Chene anchor (sort of a "no wrong side up" variation of a slip ring fluke anchor) as an excellent small boat light anchor. Manufacturer suggestion is either the 5 or 7lb size for a boat like this one, designed for my kind of casual use, claim to not need a chain, and require only a 2-1 line/depth ratio. But holy moses, the reviews are sure bad from the Cabelas crowd. Anchor issue or operator issue?
And is twisted 3 strand really the preferred line for anchoring? I hear that's because it has stretch to it, and I can see that for longer term or stormy anchoring. But is that necessary for my light duty application? It's not like I can't buy three strand, I just hate dealing with it. Braided is so much nicer in the hand and to coil/store.
