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No bites & lost an anchor

912 views 13 replies 8 participants last post by  Salmonid 
#1 ·

Last week the anchor was not grabbing right. SO this past Monday night I did find a 3 ft. section of chain and about 30 ft of rope, so last evening when it cooled of a little I added those on to my anchor set up I believed I had the problem solved.

Tuesday morning my grandson and I got to the ramp early to see if we could net some shad before we got the boat in the water. No luck with that idea. We headed straight downriver , marked fish as i had hoped put out the anchor and it Held! We were getting our rods baited up, a tow came in and pulled a barge out. Our boat was rocked but not too bad. Fished for about 20 minutes . No bites so ready to check out a different spot. The anchor was hung in a cable, could not free it,I had to cut the anchor rope! We did use the back anchor which did not hold very well. Tried a total of 5 spots, same results NO ACTION at all!!

I just cannot understand why no bites at places I used to catch fish in the past!trying to get my grandson to enjoy catfishing but hours & ours in a boat with nothing to going on is not helping!
 
#4 ·
Norb, me and Backupbait ( Randy) were out today, put in at Public landing, fished hard all day long, (11 hrs) it was all we could do to cover 20 miles of water and land 13 fish, no pattern, a mix of channels and blues, all small ( only 2 over 5 lbs) because both are in full spawning mode right now, fish were 1 here, 1 there, we had 9 rods out all day with fresh and frozen shad, and skipjacks, no preferences btw, water is 79 degrees, you really need to wait another two weeks before the channels start showing back up and another week or so after that the blues will start to get back in the game. There was NOTHING in any of our normal places....so don't get frustrated its happening to everyone right now... bummer on the anchor too. there are several ways to unleash anchors from cables, I assume you could feel it give and take?? sometimes you can run up or down river and it will slide along until you get to a enough slack to pull it to surface, other times you pull it real hard and let it spring back down straight down , that is the best approach, works after a few times almost always when on a cable, another is to have 1 really solid cleat on the boat and use the boat to break it loose by circling it with all the rope out trying to pull it from different angles, if that doesn't work, with careful tact, use the boat motor to pull of break the rope free. I always get a anchor rope with either 200 or 300 lbs breaking strength, that way it will snap before it sinks the boat, LOL now that you have to replace anchor, look at eh Neversnags, when the tie breaks the anchor pulls from upside down and should have came loose, just sayin.. hang in there buddy... if you haven't threatened to sell all your stuff at least 2-3 times during the Ohio River cat season, you haven't been hitting it hard enough......
 
#5 ·
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Thanks Mark for the information on the spawn. I may back off on going after some. I did run the motor every way to try to free the anchor. Every time the bow of the boat start to bend down. That is when I Knew I had to cut the rope. Just having a hard time get up beat about wetting a line right now.




QUOTE="Salmonid, post: 2189096, member: 677"]Norb, me and Backupbait ( Randy) were out today, put in at Public landing, fished hard all day long, (11 hrs) it was all we could do to cover 20 miles of water and land 13 fish, no pattern, a mix of channels and blues, all small ( only 2 over 5 lbs) because both are in full spawning mode right now, fish were 1 here, 1 there, we had 9 rods out all day with fresh and frozen shad, and skipjacks, no preferences btw, water is 79 degrees, you really need to wait another two weeks before the channels start showing back up and another week or so after that the blues will start to get back in the game. There was NOTHING in any of our normal places....so don't get frustrated its happening to everyone right now... bummer on the anchor too. there are several ways to unleash anchors from cables, I assume you could feel it give and take?? sometimes you can run up or down river and it will slide along until you get to a enough slack to pull it to surface, other times you pull it real hard and let it spring back down straight down , that is the best approach, works after a few times almost always when on a cable, another is to have 1 really solid cleat on the boat and use the boat to break it loose by circling it with all the rope out trying to pull it from different angles, if that doesn't work, with careful tact, use the boat motor to pull of break the rope free. I always get a anchor rope with either 200 or 300 lbs breaking strength, that way it will snap before it sinks the boat, LOL now that you have to replace anchor, look at eh Neversnags, when the tie breaks the anchor pulls from upside down and should have came loose, just sayin.. hang in there buddy... if you haven't threatened to sell all your stuff at least 2-3 times during the Ohio River cat season, you haven't been hitting it hard enough......[/QUOTE]
 
#7 ·
Years ago we started making river anchors so we didn't loose a bunch of money in the snags, Coffee cans or 1 gal kids bucket with 2 ft of chain set in concrete. These use weight and not flukes to hold you in place. We were taught to Never anchor over the transom, good way to get your boat swamped. Have enough rode to allow your boat to ride in the current.
 
#9 ·
I just got a 20# anchor with around 70 ft
Of rope. So should not have problem again. We will be trying d on different spots in the future. Just not sure when I will try again.
that's the right attitude, now when you go back out give then heck. and don't forget the chain. it will help the anchor to stay put. it acts kinda like a bungee for your anchor.
sherman
 
#10 ·
Anchoring on the river : concrete is your friend , 50lb sack of concrete is $4 ,9 in blocks are $3. Square is better than round . round rolls . Find an old plastic tub , or dig a hole in the back yard, line it with a garbage bag and pour your own anchors . sack of cement ,and 2-3 ft of chain zig zagged thru the middle. Know what the Army Corp of engineers anchors all those no wake bouys with , a coupla cement blocks .
Rope : my boat is 15 ft. I use at least 100ft of 3/8 polypro rope. The Coast Guard teaches the proper anchor set is at 7 to 1 ratio. So 70 ft of rope for 10 ft of depth . Sounds long but you're fighting current, wind, wake,and who knows what on the bottom . I 'll loop it in especially snaggy spots, keep the knot at the boat end, then untie when snagged , at least get the rope back.I put an old antifreeze jug , with my boat number on the rope too. then i can un hook and come back to it when need be . CHASMO is right NEVER tie to the transom , or rear clete !! Thats what the bow loop is for.I use a 6ft loop or leader tied to the bow loop , run the anchor line thru it ,then clete the anchor line off up front. You can also steer while at anchor with the motor.
 
#12 ·
a concrete block is a great anchor. we use to fish Manistee lake in Michigan. and tried several different anchors in the muck bottom. but when the wind started moving so did we. we switched to using a concrete block and we stayed put. the block would dig into the muck on the bottom and hold us. we tried using river anchors, navy anchors, home made anchors, fluke anchors and they all pulled loose when the wind would get going. the concrete block would hold us but was a real bear to get loose from the bottom. at times it took 2 of us to pull it loose from being buried in the muck bottom. and it takes a lot of power to bring in a large block. so if you try a concrete block start with a smaller block. and if you do lose a block you've just added a little fish cover.
sherman
 
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