# SA-DIY ANCHOR SETUP ADVICE



## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

As a novice to both yakking and fishing I am slowly building my confidence up. To date I've mainly been catching squid mainly seacliff/marino areas (nowhere near as succesful as some of the guys on here, you know who you are  ). I am now looking at targeting some FISH and now want to go to the next level and now look for and anchor on spots.

Ive been looking on this forum for ideas on setup I have recently bought the Hobie anchor trolley kit, should be interesting drilling holes into the yak for the first time :?

I have tried my hand at a DIY setup and would like your opinion if you think this works plus if I have missed anything would appreciate your advice.

I have bought a grapnel anchor and rope from binks and had a cable holder in the shed that the anchor rope is wrapped around. I've also bolted on a cleat tie the anchor off and áttached a crab float and a length of bungee with a caribiner that I can attach to anchor trolley.

I am sure of missed something really obvious so would appreciate your comments on what else I need to do


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## BIGKEV (Aug 18, 2007)

Looks the goods. Have you tried it yet? Will that float hold the rope and cable holder above water? I'm assuming the rope would be fairly buoyant, so it shouldn't really be an issue.....

Good to see lots of others advice in the DIY section being used to good effect.


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## solatree (May 30, 2008)

Well done DMB - it looks pretty good. All the essential elements seem to be there. 
A couple of thoughts though (1) your bungy looks pretty thin. See how it goes - it needs to absorb the shock of your kayak pulling against the anchor as it the kayak moves with wind, tide and swell. The bungy needs to be of similar strength to your anchor chord. So you might need to perhaps get some thicker stuff - but as I said, see how it goes. (2) check your break away system works ok - the way it looks in the picture, I'm not sure you will get enough strain on the cable tie to break it. It looks like the stain might be taken by the anchor rope. I have a ring attached to my anchor rope which I attach to my breakaway link so that the breakaway link (I use 30lb nylon - not a cable tie) takes the full strain of the anchor. That way I can be sure that I can break it when I need to - I carry spare 30lb nylon to replace it on a trip if I need to. Hope these thoughts help.


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## Tim71 (Nov 27, 2013)

What Andrew said..
I have only used my yak a handful of times and anchor a couple times. I doubled up the bungy and use same break away he suggested. You will want it to break when required.


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## Pedrosunnycoast (Dec 20, 2013)

Hi DMB,
Don't know if your fishing reefy areas, but a small float a meter up from anchor keeps rope out of reef.
Also look at threading bungee through anchor trolly and attaching it beside you with a slip knot, quick release if you hook up on big fish, mark your original spot on gps first.


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## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Looks great. I had the same rope but have downsized to thinner variety but still strong. Leaves the final product less bulky. Would be very interested in where you got the crab float. I am using handline reel with floatation inserted. I will take photo and upload in a min.


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## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Photos of my set up. Not my ideas. Borrowed from Chris and another who I cant recall now.


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## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

BIGKEV said:


> Looks the goods. Have you tried it yet? Will that float hold the rope and cable holder above water? I'm assuming the rope would be fairly buoyant, so it shouldn't really be an issue.....
> 
> Good to see lots of others advice in the DIY section being used to good effect.


Not tried it out yet i hoping the float will do what its mean to


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## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

solatree said:


> Well done DMB - it looks pretty good. All the essential elements seem to be there.
> A couple of thoughts though (1) your bungy looks pretty thin. See how it goes - it needs to absorb the shock of your kayak pulling against the anchor as it the kayak moves with wind, tide and swell. The bungy needs to be of similar strength to your anchor chord. So you might need to perhaps get some thicker stuff - but as I said, see how it goes. (2) check your break away system works ok - the way it looks in the picture, I'm not sure you will get enough strain on the cable tie to break it. It looks like the stain might be taken by the anchor rope. I have a ring attached to my anchor rope which I attach to my breakaway link so that the breakaway link (I use 30lb nylon - not a cable tie) takes the full strain of the anchor. That way I can be sure that I can break it when I need to - I carry spare 30lb nylon to replace it on a trip if I need to. Hope these thoughts help.


Solatree thanks for the advice I think your right with regards to the bungee will give it a go and see how if it does the job. Also make you right with regards to the cable tie will change that thanks again appreciate the advice


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## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

Geoffw said:


> Looks great. I had the same rope but have downsized to thinner variety but still strong. Leaves the final product less bulky. Would be very interested in where you got the crab float. I am using handline reel with floatation inserted. I will take photo and upload in a min.


Hi Geoff with regards to the crab float i got it from BCF also I was in Binks the other day and pretty sure they had them there also. Thanks for the pics of your setup always good to see what other people do.


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## Geoffw (Jan 23, 2011)

Thanks dmb. I must have a look.


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

I second Solatree on the breakaway. I used to have a rope pass through a cable tie like that and I had a hell of a time breaking it in a strong tidal current at American River. By instead having tension first go to the breakaway and using strong nylon, you won't have it break when anchoring normally (especially with the shock cord) but you'll be able to bust it from the side without flipping. I still like to hook the anchor rope over something on the yak forward of me when I need to give it a jerk though, so there's less force rocking the boat.

I like the big caribiner, it looks easy to unclip one handed when you need to chase a biggun


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## Squidley (May 8, 2010)

You can see in Geoff's pics how he's tied a loop (which the breakaway's tied through) in the rope near the top of the anchor and the bit between the loop and the bottom of the anchor has some slack in it. This way the tension's always on the breakaway, and it'll break with the same force no matter what angle the rope is to the anchor.


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## laneends (Jan 25, 2013)

If you have to break the tie, try to maneuver yak to opposite side rope was laying, it wont break as easily if you are pulling along length of anchor still. having the loose loop suggested helps but you will have to make sure tie is strong enough not to break under normal pull. The less stretch in the anchor rope itself the easier to break. As you are using an anchor trolley there will be some buffer stretch in that as well as that bungy. Additional pull to break it can be achieved by paddling in the opposite direction using momentum of yak. Dry test in the back yard

If you fish strong tidal areas and find anchor drags, feed some chain onto the line above anchor and tie it to avoid slipping. Run anchor rope through chain rather than tying more terminal knots. The idea is the rope needs to be horizontal on sea bed to make grapnels effective. weight here is more effective than increased anchor weight.

To retrieve feed around a forward point eg rod holder. The idea is to avoid side pulling and twisting behind, which are both dangerous in strong tide and choppy conditions.


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## cheaterparts (Jul 3, 2010)

laneends said:


> If you have to break the tie, try to maneuver yak to opposite side rope was laying, it wont break as easily if you are pulling along length of anchor still. having the loose loop suggested helps but you will have to make sure tie is strong enough not to break under normal pull.


I agree with Laneends - every time I have to break the cable tie I let out some more rope , turn the yak , tie off the rope and paddle hard back over the anchor 
the weight of the rope pulling tight as you paddle over the anchor snaps the tie much easier than trying to do it by hand



laneends said:


> If you fish strong tidal areas and find anchor drags, feed some chain onto the line above anchor and tie it to avoid slipping. Run anchor rope through chain rather than tying more terminal knots. The idea is the rope needs to be horizontal on sea bed to make grapnels effective. weight here is more effective than increased anchor weight.












the chain above the anchor works better than just being attached to the anchor as it bellies the rope down - this changes the angle of pull like letting out a lot more rope
by the way this is my light weight anchor a 1.5 Kg with some chain - for heavy tide flows I use a 2.5 with a piece of 10 mm chain about 1.5 meters above the anchor



laneends said:


> to retrieve feed around a forward point eg rod holder. The idea is to avoid side pulling and twisting behind, which are both dangerous in strong tide and choppy conditions.


I also agree by taking the rope over a forward point will turn the yak into the wind or tide flow you also sit straight and upright making the balance easier

These things have been learnt over some time fishing fairly high tide flows and all work


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## laneends (Jan 25, 2013)

cheaterparts said:


> the weight of the rope pulling tight as you paddle over the anchor snaps the tie much easier than trying to do it by hand


same principle as a 4x4 snatch em strap, any stretch may even work for you in this instance

I also have an additional weight on a D shackle that i can slide down the line if I find it dragging after deployment. Catches at head of chain and is most effective there.


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## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

Squidley said:


> You can see in Geoff's pics how he's tied a loop (which the breakaway's tied through) in the rope near the top of the anchor and the bit between the loop and the bottom of the anchor has some slack in it. This way the tension's always on the breakaway, and it'll break with the same force no matter what angle the rope is to the anchor.


cheers Squidlley appreciate the advice


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## dmb (Dec 11, 2013)

cheers guys thanks for the advice


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