Perch report 8/27/14

[Russ Hunsaker]

Do youi have a length of chain in front of the anchor? it helps it bite. Also a long enough rope. Let the achor drop till it hits bottom, feed out 2 to 3 times the depth, let the drift pull upp the slack and while it is doing that jerk the rope a few time to get it to bite in. even feed out more line if you need to. this works for me.

Thanks for the advice.

I have 10' of chain on my anchor and it's oversized for my boat. I only have 2 places on the entire lake that I have a hard time getting the anchor to stick. Actually I don't have a problem after the anchor sticks, it's getting it to stick that is the problem. Once I get the anchor to stick it can be a royal pain to get it out so once it's in I have no problem. East of Kelley's and north of Gull Island Shoal are my only problem areas. I have heard others with the same issue in these areas so I've always accepted that it's just a hard rock bottom.

I've been anchoring boats for 30+ years so it's not my technique, I tend to put out more rode than necessary and rarely have a problem except in these 2 areas.

Russ

[wakina]

I have had a similar problem in those areas as well as south of Gull Shoals. I had one of those anchors that has the rode attachment ring that slides down the anchor shaft to the flukes making it easier to retrieve. Seems it was turning over and was on the bottom in the retrieval position. Worked almost every time that I left it down in the right position slowly until contact with the bottom was made then continued to leave out line slowly for another 20ft or so before feeding the rode out in a more timely fashion. An oldtimer said the chain would carry the ring down the shaft of the anchor to the retrieval position if left down to fast. I replaced it with a standard danford type anchor and have had few issues since then. The only reason I replaced it was because I always seem to be in a hurry to get anchored and get to fishing.