# anchor rope



## syddie (Dec 3, 2007)

How much anchor rope and what size do people carry?
Also what methods are used to stow the rope to prevent tangling?
Do you use a length of chain on the rope at the anchor?

Ken


----------



## ausbass (Feb 15, 2007)

Rope: Polypropelene (floats, UV resistant and resisitant to rot/mildew) 3-4mm
Length: depends on depth fishing in and current.
Weight: as above, though more to do with weight of kayak and current/wind
Storage: Coil the rope nice and neatly and hold wraps together with a homemade or bought velcro wrap.
Maybe some stonger rope or some plastic hose around the leader of the anchor could prevent chaffe, if thats what your worried about.


----------



## L3GACY (Sep 2, 2007)

I think the purpose of the chain is to help the anchor sit more horizontal on the bottom. I also think there are very few yakkers that bother with it. I havent had any problems with my anchor holding the bottom yet and i dont use chain... if that's what you're worried about of course.


----------



## Guest (Jan 26, 2008)

I don't think there are any hard and fast rules on rope thickness or even materials. Polyprop, polyester & nylon are all quite good (so long as you avoid the bottom-dollar go-lo grade stuff) but any one of these can come to grief on a sharp reef, especially if wind and or current is pushing your yak fairly hard. I got around this by using a 5 metre trace of clothesline wire, which is nylon coated and thus protected from rust. The wire is about 3 - 4mm I think and the nylon covering is at least 2mm thick. It's pliable, coils nicely and is as tough as nails. I wouldn't use a chain from a kayak. Too heavy, too noisy and too much bother.

As for length, that's entirely up to you, and should be determined by where you intend to fish coupled with what you can comfortably carry. On the topic of anchors, give some thought to installing an anchor trolley on your kayak if you don't already have one. These really help in allowing you to adjust the position of your kayak with respect to the anchor line, and make it a hell of a lot more convenient for deploying and retrieving your anchor.


----------



## Sparra (Nov 3, 2007)

I have an anchor trolly on my yak but haven't used it yet...How do you guys attach the actual rope to the trolly,do you just tie it off on the ring or does it just go through the ring and then tie off on a cleat on the yak????If you use the same length to ancor all the time then a clip tied to the rope at the required length would work but otherwise I can't seem to work it out...
Cheers...Sparra


----------



## Guest (Jan 26, 2008)

Use the ring only is my suggestion. If you tie it to a cleat, I figure you'll negate it's purpose. By all means tie any remaining length to a cleat once it is deployed if you want to, but you shouldn't need to.


----------



## Duane (Oct 20, 2007)

5thofNovember said:


> I got around this by using a 5 metre trace of clothesline wire, which is nylon coated and thus protected from rust. The wire is about 3 - 4mm I think and the nylon covering is at least 2mm thick. It's pliable, coils nicely and is as tough as nails.


I would Inspect this stuff quite regularly, it has a habit of starting to rust on the inside and breaking when loaded.

Here's my anchor set up, it's relatively new and still needs some minor tuning, but it does the job of holding me, even in reasonable currents.


----------



## Dodge (Oct 12, 2005)

occy said:


> A little tip if I may. Tie three knots in the rope at the anchor end (at one metre intervals) to warn you it's about to come aboard.


Occy a good idea mate, and along the same lines is use telltales instead of knots.

Get another rope in different colour and cut a 60-100mm section and unravel, then weave a number of strands through the lays on your anchor rope where you would tie the knot, leaving ends halfway out either side and which are highly visible....this is a method of marking anchor lines that had to pass through a capstan where knots would jamb it up


----------



## kingfisher111 (Jun 13, 2006)

Occy and Richo are right on the money. Perfect deploy for all situations. Fishing in very fast current requires a successful deployment every time and Occys description will deliver that with practice. Getting caught side on to the current with no line left to feed out has to be avoided at all cost. If the current has even a couple of seconds to load water pressure against the side of your yak it will have you over in the blink of an eye. 
I found even 1 metre of chain made a huge difference to being able to hold at anchor in fast water, I use a 3.2kg grapnel, and run a 100ft rope of 4mm with another 100ft to clip on for the times I just can't hold properly. Safe anchoring  Steve.


----------



## tacmik (Dec 21, 2007)

One thing I did with my anchor was to tie the rope to the bottom of the anchor. I then zip tied it to the top. It works like it is atttached to the top but if it gets hung up on a rock or something, I can snap the zip tie and pull it up backwards and it will usually come loose so you don't lose it.


----------



## Bartek (Dec 12, 2007)

occy said:


> Yeh OK, I admit I have puny little arms, and kids used to kick sand in my face when I was at the beach. But I reckon people place too much emphasis on body image these days amnyway. At least I don't have thighs that swish when I walk like some on here. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: )


Surely if you don't have the thighs that swish then your arms shouldn't be little & puny unless your using an electric motor on your yak????


----------



## Rick (Dec 19, 2006)

Each to his own I guess, I use a 4mm rope wound onto a piece of pool noodle which acts as a float just incase I have to ditch it & for an anchor 1metre of chain in a loop this hold reasonably well on sand, weed and rock and I think it would be almost impossible get it stuck and not be able to retrieve it.


----------



## Guest (Jan 27, 2008)

Indeed Rick - as always when it comes to kayak fishing, there's more than one hundred ways to skin a cat. I've anchored my kayak in numerous ways in a variety of places with a myriad of weighting devices. Almost all of them have worked pretty well. Thankfully, a kayak is usually pretty easy to anchor in most circumstances.


----------



## Rick (Dec 19, 2006)

How topical I have never had an anchor problem until this morning. Incredibly my anchor rope tangled/ wrapped around my rudder three times, before I noticed it! 
I was on the Minamurra having and nothing morning so decided to anchor up to try & burley up some blackfish.

I was in shallow water about 1.5m deep using my river anchor line which is only 10 m long. I connected to the guy line which I then used to pull the anchor line to the rear of the yak. Any way there was a bit of wind and I guess I was moving around. This didn't worry me because I was onto some good sized blackfish and a few just legal bream. Anyway two hours later when I tried to pull the guy line to bring the anchor rope to me. It did not budge and because of the wind & water movement I could not raise my rudder. In the end I dragged myself to the shore to untangle the anchor line.

Should modify my guy line so I can not pull the anchor line all the way to the rear. (unfortunatley this is often the best place for me to site the anchor.
Has anyone else had this problem or wasthe tangle aone in a million fluke?


----------



## Guest (Jan 28, 2008)

Might be worth trying an anchor trolley Rick. It might prevent that from happening. Best of all, you can rig it from your standard sitting position and then just relay it towards the bow or stern, wherever you want it.


----------



## Rick (Dec 19, 2006)

Thank you for the words of wisdom 5thofNovember; unfortunately I did a bad job of explaining the problem.
Reading my post I must have had a mental block. This morning the tide and wind were going in opposite directions. Plus where I wrote guy line I should have wrote anchor trolley rope. So after the yak did the 3 laps around the anchor rope. I had the anchor rope around the rudder so I could not relay the trolley from the stern to where I could reach the anchor rope. I clip my anchor rope and its float to the trolley rope. Nothing like that has ever happened to me and conservatively I think I would have put out the anchor in a similar fashion more than 50 times

I will shortly contemplate the problem a little more with another VB while I BBQ one of the fish that caused me to stay in the same place for so long.
In future if I have the anchor rope set to the stern I will certainly try and pay more attention to where the wind is taking me.


----------



## murd (Jan 27, 2008)

I might put my 2-bobs worth in here. Go to Whitworth's and pick up a 100m coil of 'PES' Rope - 100% cord polyester, very strong (negligible stretch) and only about 2mm thick. It will cost about $31.95. Its a million times better than that 3 strand yellow or blue stuff most people use, just more expensive.

I have 50m of it coiled around one of those orange 'extension lead savers' you pick up at Big W for a few bucks. But, to make the thing float, cut 2 lengths of styrofoam the length of the 'saver' and glue/silastic them back to back (not where the handles are.) When you get the 'saver' you'll clearly see where you need to attach the foam to. The beauty of this is that its very light and portable and the 'saver' has oodles of areas to tie off/connect things to etc. I initially tried a large plastic fishing spool but found it too heavy and cumbersome.

When anchoring over a reef I use one of those pool salt bags or anything comprising the same material (cut down in size) with about a 1.2 kilo of chain wired inside it from end to end (to spread the bag). You will be surprised how easily the chain/bag catches on to the rocky bottom. If you find you can't pull it off when you decide to leave, do what I do. Let the line out about 10m. Paddle as hard as you can and go over the anchor bag. Keep going until you come to the end of the rope. Keep going and miraculously, the bag will be free! Having 'non-stretch' cord makes this work.

Problems with the bag - useless on sand, can come loose if the yak is moving around a lot in the wind (shock cord down near the bag can help overcome this - make sure it is attached so that at a given point in its stretch, the actual rope comes into play), the bag will eventually wear out.

Main advantage though, is that you will never be permanently connected to the ocean floor! And if you're wondering why I make the 'saver' float, its so I can toss the whole lot overboard if I hook onto something extra large whilst at anchor (but you need something that will auto release from the yak once its thrown - that's another post, however.

Enjoy, Rick D


----------



## goanywhere (Feb 22, 2011)

I use 50 metres of 4mm polyester rope on an empty plastic rope spool with pool noodles forced into the centre hole. I tie off my anchor line to a snap hook using a slip knot like a 'mooring hitch'.


----------



## john316 (Jan 15, 2009)

my take on the anchor rope... I have used good quality silver rope but took it off and changed it for a softer option. I found that the harder and stiffer rope was harder to keep tidy and was also more likely to tangle. The rope I am now using is soft, coils easily and is cheap enough to be able to replace it at the first sign of damage. It is a 20 metre length that I bought at Bunnings. I have a loop tied into the end of the rope which is clipped to the anchor trolley and also to a float with a second short length of rope. The anchor and the drogue both stay in the rear well of the kayak ready for use whenever needed. In open water I would usually use the drogue so the anchor is at the bottom with the drogue easily to hand.

















By preference I use a short length of chain and have found that it improves the anchors efficency.









In the beginning I remember wondering what some of the gizmos were that other people talked about in kayak jargon. This last photo shows the anchor rope extended to the rear extremity of the trolley for any newcommers who may not know what a trolley does.









My preference is to keep the anchor for shallower water and to use the drogue where the water is deep. There are some dangers associated with deep water and swell while using an anchor which can be avoided with a well positioned drogue.

John


----------

