boat anchor setup

Im looking for a anchor setup for my fisher marine. Post pics of your anchor set-up and maybe it will give me a idea

i've been thinking about one of these, curious if anyone uses one and what they think of it.

that is what i was looking at but i wasnt sure of the durability of it...my anchors are 20lbs

I've got the anchor mount above on my 1236... and I've got 100' of 3/8rope attached to a 4' link of chain, which is attached to an 18lb claw anchor... You'll have no problems with that little beast.

russ, is it on your bow or stern?

russ010 said:

I've got the anchor mount above on my 1236... and I've got 100' of 3/8rope attached to a 4' link of chain, which is attached to an 18lb claw anchor... You'll have no problems with that little beast.

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Holy smokes... I bet you don't drag. :lol:


Someone enlighten me.. what is the purpose of having an anchor chain for the majority of the fresh water that a jon boat would see? I have never used one as I don't want the muddy mess that would wind up in the boat and never had a problem. The lakes around here are mostly mud or gravel bottom, though.

Chain prevents chafing if the line hits something or scrubs on the bottom due to slack line.I use them but I am a safety nut.

my setup is on the stern... and the reason I have a chain is because it helps even more to prevent dragging. we have a lot of soft bottoms, and that anchor would still pull a little in high winds. I don't know why, but it did. I put that chain on there and it has made everything that much easier, not to mention lifting the anchor up out of the mud. But I can throw it in rocks and not worry about the rope getting snagged and cut - but with a 3/8" rope, I doubt it would happen, but it sure does make it easier to pull that bad boy out.

How big is your chain?

Guys use bare 4' lengths of chain around here for drifting stump flats. You can throw two of them out behind the boat and nearly stop it dead in it's tracks in a pretty good wind even without an anchor attached.

I think I used a standard galvanized safety chain that you would normally use for attaching your trailer to your truck... I'll check when I get home. Now that I think about it, it may not be 4' long... I think it's a little shorter

On my 1440mv, I've got a big mushroom anchor on the front & a smaller one for the stern.
about 50-75' of rope on each. I rarely anchor in more than 15' of water, normally in 3-7'.

Always put your primary anchor off the bow, with your bow into the wind. Anchoring stern into the wind is a quick way to swamp a boat if the wind comes up .

When I had my 20' offshore boat, I used a danforth anchor rated for a 30' boat with 12' of heavy galvanized chain & 300' of rope. The chain keeps the anchor & rope parralel to the bottom & decreases the amount of rope needed to anchor in deep water. I could anchor in 100' of water with 200' of rope with this set up. without the chain, I would probably needed 400-600' of rope.

lol. you want to see my anchor? sbc stock exhaust manifold, bout all there good for anyway.

I use to have that Anchor pulley, but they are kind of on the cheap side and will eventually rust. I now have these anchor pulleys on the bow and stern in opposite corners of each other. I use 15lb navy anchors with 25' of 3/8" anchor rope. This is all on a Lowe 1232 jon. Sorry no pics right now.

https://www.cabelas.com/cabelas/en/templates/links/link.jsp?id=0013355011132a&type=product&cmCat=SEARCH_all&returnPage=search-results1.jsp&Ntt=anchor&Ntk=Products&sort=all&_D%3AhasJS=+&N=0&_D%3Asort=+&Nty=1&hasJS=true&_DARGS=%2Fcabelas%2Fen%2Fcommon%2Fsearch%2Fsearch-box.jsp.form1&_dyncharset=ISO-8859-1

An anchor chain helps the anchor hold because it absorbs the impacts of boat motion and allows the anchor to stay in position. I use a 4 foot piece of 3/8" galvanized chain on my anchor which is why I can't use and anchor winch like I originally was thinnking of installing. I was gonna be cool about it and mount the winch under my front deck and run the anchor line through some EMT conduit to the davit and put a couple switches iin, one on the dash and one on the bow.

The chain helps hold the anchor down and in a position where it can dig in to the bottom.

Where I fish is 99% mud bottom at both lakes, so I use a 12# mushroom anchor, with 3/8" polyrope attached to it. What I did was run the rope through the eye of the anchor twice, then tie a couple good knots (nothing pretty) because I never learned to back-splice line. After I got the knots done I used 12# test Yo-Zuri fishing line and wrapped it real well up the length of the line above the eye, then placed some shink wrap over the line and applied some heat with my wife's blow dryer. I used the shrink wrap to prevent the line from pulling loose, and have not had one problem in the 3 years I've been using it. I also have a 15# mushroom anchor that I did the same way, only I used a rope thimble through the anchor eye and then did the line the same way using the shrink tubing. The 15# anchor is in my garage somewhere and I didn't want to dig for it so there's no pic of it.

12# anchor with shrink tubing:


The reason I went to the method I use now is due to losing two anchors at KY Lake when I had my Tracker rig. I bought the pre-rigged anchor clip at Walmart and both times (two seperate trips) the clip apparently was against something on the bottom (log, rock, etc) and caused the clip to open, releasing the anchor. I highly recommend to not use the clip method on an anchor. I now use this line with the pre-rigged clip for my bow line on the boat:

Pre-rigged (store-bought) anchor line with carabiner-style clip:

I have a rig like Grizzly posted mounted on the bow of the Minnow Bucket, and it works great so far. I don't use an anchor chain on my 15# mushroom anchor, as I rarely anchor in deep water, and my understanding of the chain was to weight the top of the anchor, causing it to lay sideways and grip. I don't have this problem in 30' and shallower water. I do allow enough rope so that when the rope tightens up, I am well away from the anchor's location, allowing it to lay down.

Waterwings, your anchor clip may not have been against anything under the water. I have used these clips to pull freon drums up on rooftops. I would clip them on at ground level, climb the ladder, and when I would pull the rope the clips would come off. I played around with it and found out that if you swivel the clip around to the right position on the freon drum handle, (anchor eye), pulling on the rope unhooks the clip. It all depends on how the clip has swiveled while the rope was slack.

Henry Hefner said:

I have a rig like Grizzly posted mounted on the bow of the Minnow Bucket, and it works great so far. I don't use an anchor chain on my 15# mushroom anchor, as I rarely anchor in deep water, and my understanding of the chain was to weight the top of the anchor, causing it to lay sideways and grip. I don't have this problem in 30' and shallower water. I do allow enough rope so that when the rope tightens up, I am well away from the anchor's location, allowing it to lay down.

Waterwings, your anchor clip may not have been against anything under the water. I have used these clips to pull freon drums up on rooftops. I would clip them on at ground level, climb the ladder, and when I would pull the rope the clips would come off. I played around with it and found out that if you swivel the clip around to the right position on the freon drum handle, (anchor eye), pulling on the rope unhooks the clip. It all depends on how the clip has swiveled while the rope was slack.

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That occuring does make sense, and just might be what happened. After losing the second anchor I quit using the clips, and went to my jury-rigged method. No problems so far. . I've thought about installing sometype of anchor retrieval system on the bow of my rig, and besides not wanting to drill holes, plus have a trip hazard (I enter and leave the boat from the bow just about 100% of the time), I fish in shallow water and pulling it up by hand is no problem. Plus, it gives me some a little exercise and a reason to get out of the pedastal seat for awhile.

I have two 15lb Navy Anchors rigged with 100' of 1/4" line. One on the bow and one on the stern. I dont have problems drifting. No fancy anchor thingys, I just walk back and forth or make my fishing partner work one of the anchors.

i just added a second anchor to my boat, and man is it great. what a difference on boat control. i have a 75' rope & 12lb mushroom on the bow, which i set first, 20yards or so upwind of my desired spot. drift down to my desired spot or use my TM, tie off the bow anchor and then drop another mushroom straight out of the stern. i only have 25' or rope for the stern anchor, and works great for me, as the only time i use two anchors is when i have 2 people in boat and want to stay parallel to shore.