What anchor now??

[supa29]

if i come out with you i will have to bring my light gear cause of the smallish fish you catch and i got a reputation to upkeep. i would just stick to star anchor it wont let you down. next time on wide cal i will give you some marks further nth it is better but the ledge is where the fish ill be as its gets colder catch 22

get in strap on the belt and hang on the big knobbies are coming and dont leave your rod unattended or it is gone.

[toolman2810]

I have always sworn by danforths shackled the chain to the eye between the flukesthen run the chain up the bar then with a large cable tie strap it to the other eye when you pull the anchor if it is really stuck the cable tie will break then you pull the anchor out the way the flukes went in.

Wade

Sheesh I wish I had read this sugestion an hour ago

[TimiBoy]

I have a Cruisecraft 685, and have been bitching to myself over anchoring troubles. I've read all the posts on this, and will take the following actions;

Reef Pick
- Shorten the tines
- Lead fill
- sharpen the bend

Plough Anchor
- Zip tie

Questions;
Some say the plough is fine anywhere, but doesn't it mess up the reef? I've tried the plough on reef and I skated a mile, but that was in very heavy tide action in the rainbow channel.

I'd love it if I could find a definitive post that said "This is the right anchor for all conditions" but that just isn't going to happen, is it?

[MarkDiver]

If the reef you lost it was the Curtin Artificial Reef off Bulwer (Moreton Island) then I can understand for I have scuba dived there many times - there is a mountain of old tyres there (big as a house) and it is an "anchor eater", once your anchor wriggles down amongst those tyres you will NEVER get it back - it is towards the southern end of the reef - if you want a cheap anchor there are heaps there only 25 metres down.

Yeah, I just salvaged a Danforth, 3 x picks and some chain on the weekend. The artificial reef (including wrecks) LOVE anchors! So, for a cheap anchor contact divers in your area -> it's a win win situation, fisho's get cheap anchors and divers get their tanks refilled with the donations! OK, and some fuel.
I would like to add that anchoring technique plays a role too. When you actually get to the bottom and see how anchors position themselves whether it be around a bommie, landing in a heap, over and under reef etc. it gives you a better understanding of scenarios and why you have to lower them slowly into the water and on a slack tide just reverse slowly till it bites in.

[MarkDiver]

I have a Cruisecraft 685, and have been bitching to myself over anchoring troubles. I've read all the posts on this, and will take the following actions;

Reef Pick
- Shorten the tines
- Lead fill
- sharpen the bend

Plough Anchor
- Zip tie

Questions;
Some say the plough is fine anywhere, but doesn't it mess up the reef? I've tried the plough on reef and I skated a mile, but that was in very heavy tide action in the rainbow channel.

I'd love it if I could find a definitive post that said "This is the right anchor for all conditions" but that just isn't going to happen, is it?

TimiBoy
YES IT DOES MESS UP THE REEF!!!
Unfortunately this does not stop everyone from using the ploughs though. Hot anchoring spots around local islands in our Central Coast region are typical examples. People anchor up to camp on the island perhaps for the day or the night and don't want to lose their boat, so what do you do?? Yip, safest bet is to drop the most reliable anchor. Pop in for a snorkel and you'll see it looks a mess down there, hence no fish either. This is supposed to be the attraction for the kids and non-divers, an easy snorkel around the islands. This just reminded me to write a letter to ?Department? requesting to put in a few permanent mooring bouys but this is a different topic.
Good luck with the PICK please

[finding_time]

All anchors and chain mess up reefs!!! And i doubt that any is better than another!

Ian

[dnej]

And while we are on the subject,what happens to all the lead in a lead filled reef anchor.when it gets stuck down there?
David

[Dean1]

Well ive never thought of a plough messing up the reef more Sarcas would have to hurt just as much and stars the same. My new plough works a treat so im sticking with it! Thanks for the tips Ian!!

[cormorant]

When you guys are talking about tripped plow anchors are you talking about the

-Zip clip on a cheap plow anchor trick or are you talking about ?

-plow anchors that had the spring and pivot point that actually allowed the shaft to pivot round when a heap of vertical pressure is applied?.

-or are you talking about actually running a seperate trip line and float attached to the shank of the anchor?

After having mates dive and recover a few lost anchors it has just about been 100% the chain getting wrapped under , around or beween rocks more so than the actual anchor wedging itself into oblivion. We now make sure it is droppes slowly so the anchor hit's first, GPS mark that spot and then pay out the anchor rode and mark a couple of GPS points. On recovery we always idle across to the line of the GPS point regardless of wind or tide change before pulling in up on the same line we payed it on. Our theory is that we reverse any of the wrapping around rocks scenarios and so far we have had less anchor loss. We use reef on reef and if we are doing a quick stop as we have less chain on it and plow for other bottoms.

Corm

[Noelm]

not too sure what all the fuss is about, a correct size Reef Pick will hold you on REEF! a correctly sized sand anchor will hold you on SAND, they should not be over lapped, if your Reef/Prong anchor has enough chain, has short prongs of the required thickness, is lowered to the Bottom, not thrown in a heap will not require any Lead (but it won't hurt I guess) all these cable tie methods are just fine, UNTIL you are stuck out one time, in a good blow, with no Power and you want your Anchor to hold, your shabby little cable tie can and will break, leaving you attached to the wrong end of your Anchor, that can get very uncomfortable when you start drifting off into the never never, or worse onto the Rocks, use the right Anchor for the right bottom and you are done.

[finding_time]

not too sure what all the fuss is about, a correct size Reef Pick will hold you on REEF! a correctly sized sand anchor will hold you on SAND, they should not be over lapped, if your Reef/Prong anchor has enough chain, has short prongs of the required thickness, is lowered to the Bottom, not thrown in a heap will not require any Lead (but it won't hurt I guess) all these cable tie methods are just fine, UNTIL you are stuck out one time, in a good blow, with no Power and you want your Anchor to hold, your shabby little cable tie can and will break, leaving you attached to the wrong end of your Anchor, that can get very uncomfortable when you start drifting off into the never never, or worse onto the Rocks, use the right Anchor for the right bottom and you are done.

Noel

The problem we face offshore sunshine coast ( and further noth the more this applies) Is you have patches of rocky reef with large sand/ mud area's around them. you need to position yourself over the fish accurately near enough is definately not good enough and 10-20m can make a HUGE differance to catch rates. When you drop your pick you need it to hold no matter what structure is on the bottom ( mud, sand ,reef) it's no good draging a reef pick till it hooks up as you wont be over the fish, like wise drop a sand pick and you may never see it again. Mooloolahba picks work great over the main reef areas but when you get away from these there no better than a reef pick for ACCURATE anchoring. A tripped plough works very well and imho is the best soloution . Also the cable ties do break but you donot use this method for a overnight camp up!! It's for fishing and if it does giveway you'll notice straight away reset or tie extra cable ties. It is not very differant from a reef pick anyway in this regard as thier prongs open up at the worst times anyway and also the ropes wear through. I guess this is why you ALWAYS have a lookout/ non sleeper offshore at all times !!


Cormorant

I call a tripped plough a plough that has the chain shackled between the flukes then running up the shaft fixed into the normal position with either a brake away rope/ zippy ties/ heavy 400lb mono. this will break if there is enough load and the anchor will be pull out from the flukes end. . This break away is quite strong and many times i've pull the pick with the bouy and the break away is intact but when it's hooked good it does alow removal quickly, you can actually feel the break away give sometimes.

Ian

[tropicrows]

I used a reef pick 25mm shaft with 5 16 mm prongs, and had it setup like Wade suggested, shackled the chain to an eye between the prongs and tied off at the top of the shaft. Never lost it in six years fishing of Adelaide around the tyre reefs (came close a few times). Now I used a mud anchor up here as that what I was told to used, however I'm in the process of making another reek pick.