How much anchor rope

[blaxland]

Hi Raiders, I have recently upgraded to a 5Mtr+ boat with the ambition of fishing a bit further out but mostly inshore. I see a lot of spots are deep and was wondering what length of anchor rope the experienced fishos use and if you would tie two together or purchase a continues length. I am happy to drift but would also like to float a bait down the  trail.

Cheers Billy

 

[recurve]

I have 100m and anchor in 30m - 40m now and again. But I think the best kit for deeper water fishing is a drogue or sea anchor. But you need a good one with a decent circumference. I have one from NZ called a hand brake. It’s awesone. Just do lots of drifts over the area you want. It really slows you down. If current is still too fast or if i want to slow down more or try to go more with the current than the wind I use a second drogue  

If I want to do a deep burley then I usually only anchor deep if it is not to swelly. The rule is suppose to be 5x the length of anchor line to the depth. But I just do 2.5 and anchor in good weather. 

Everyone will no doubt have there own preferences  But this seems to work for me.

Also Drogues allow you to fairly well control which way your boat is going to face  

 

[rickmarlin62]

we work off three times the to length   use plenty of heavy chain  pick anchor to suit where you are anchoring and on what you are anchoring...blade anchor for sand   I use a mooloolaba pick style for reef    search will reveal more detail...rick

[blaxland]

20 hours ago, recurve said:

I have 100m and anchor in 30m - 40m now and again. But I think the best kit for deeper water fishing is a drogue or sea anchor. But you need a good one with a decent circumference. I have one from NZ called a hand brake. It’s awesone. Just do lots of drifts over the area you want. It really slows you down. If current is still too fast or if i want to slow down more or try to go more with the current than the wind I use a second drogue  

If I want to do a deep burley then I usually only anchor deep if it is not to swelly. The rule is suppose to be 5x the length of anchor line to the depth. But I just do 2.5 and anchor in good weather. 

Everyone will no doubt have there own preferences  But this seems to work for me.

Also Drogues allow you to fairly well control which way your boat is going to face  

 

Thanks will get a sea anchor

[JonD]

A minimum of 3 x the depth you anchor in is the normal but if the conditions are rough and windy this can easely be doubled. 

[kingie chaser]

3 hours ago, blaxland said:

Thanks will get a sea anchor

If your going to do that I would get one that's rated at twice your boat length or get a couple.

I got one recently that's recommended for 20ft boats & it has trouble slowing my 13ft tinny in 15knt winds!

[blaxland]

4 hours ago, JonD said:

A minimum of 3 x the depth you anchor in is the normal but if the conditions are rough and windy this can easely be doubled. 

Think Ill drift around abit till I get used to being out there

[JonD]

2 hours ago, blaxland said:

Think Ill drift around abit till I get used to being out there

Just make sure you have an anchor incase you have engine failure, you don't want a westerly taking you to NZ.

[rickmarlin62]

Buy a large foam bubble 40/45cm and an anchor clip  ..do your deploy and retrieve from inside your boat not out of hatch or up on bow  use a rope with a loop on end that comes from your bow round side an bak into boat to where your standing  and tie anchor rope to this  if you dont know how system works  pm me with fone number and i can run you through how to do it  ..i moved spots at least 8 times on sunday mornin and it was easy   no pulling rope up by hand   ...rick

[rickmarlin62]

[Welster]

9 hours ago, blaxland said:

Think Ill drift around abit till I get used to being out there

Takes Ricks advice he has a bucket load of experience.

A sea anchor is a good thing even if you have an anchor.    I have the cone type that I do not like and the parachute type I use a lot.   It really pulls the boat up and the drift is less controlled by the breeze.  If I am fishing for flathead or squid I still want to cover plenty of ground but need to get the bait to the bottom the sea anchor is perfect.

[Fab1]

1 hour ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Buy a large foam bubble 40/45cm and an anchor clip  ..do your deploy and retrieve from inside your boat not out of hatch or up on bow  use a rope with a loop on end that comes from your bow round side an bak into boat to where your standing  and tie anchor rope to this  if you dont know how system works  pm me with fone number and i can run you through how to do it  ..i moved spots at least 8 times on sunday mornin and it was easy   no pulling rope up by hand   ...rick

I find pulling the anchor up by hand in 20,30 or more meters of water puts hair on my chest.Its a fantastic upper body excercise,especially forearm and back to remind you your still alive.

I always did wonder where my nickname popeye came from.

Im willing to provide training free of charge to you Rick.?

[PaddyT]

Simple rule of thumb - chain same length as boat and 3X the depth you are anchoring in and the same again in spare rode.

[kingie chaser]

3 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Buy a large foam bubble 40/45cm and an anchor clip  ..do your deploy and retrieve from inside your boat not out of hatch or up on bow  use a rope with a loop on end that comes from your bow round side an bak into boat to where your standing  and tie anchor rope to this  if you dont know how system works  pm me with fone number and i can run you through how to do it  ..i moved spots at least 8 times on sunday mornin and it was easy   no pulling rope up by hand   ...rick

I like the idea of this & wouldn't mind setting it up on my 13ft tinny.

I know its not that far to the front but its still a PITA getting up & back, climbing over gear & seats.

 

I found this youtube which explained the system to me a bit better.

 

I like it & think O will get this system ready over winter ready for spring fishing.

[kingie chaser]

No one has really explained why it is that you need so much rope out.

Can someone please give the main reasons why 3 or 4 times the depth in rope is needed?

[zmk1962]

@blaxland when you say "I see lots of spots are deep" what depth are you considering fishing in?  

As others have said, to hold your position, you need 3-4 times depth in good weather, and more in bad weather. Its all to do with the angle of pull on the anchor. The shallower the angle the more the anchor bites in, the steeper the angle the more you are lifting the anchor out of the sea bed. Add on to that the effect of wave chop jerking on the anchor and you can see how having more rope out tends to act as a buffer.   You can have a steeper angle (less rope) if you have more chain, a lighter boat, calmer weather or if you do not want to hold position and are prepared to drift a little.   

Here's some of my experiences re anchoring fishing up to 60m.

Up until 2017 I did exactly as @rickmarlin62 posted.  Carried 148m anchor rode. 8m chain followed by 140m of 12mm silver rope (12mm is easier on fingers than a thinner rope) and used the buoy method (see attached picture).   My rope was made up of  two lengths spliced together so that the join fed easily through the bow roller.

I fished up to 30-40m depth relatively comfortably, but even though the buoy helped lift the anchor, I still found it a chore to bring in 80-90m of wet rope and chain (especially in cold weather and with getting a touch of arthritis). 

Also, I carry two sea drougues (sea anchors) and found that even with two out they really did not slow me down that much. My boat is a deep V with high sides and canopy, so it catches the wind like a sail, and the deep V eventually turns us to run with the wind (path of least resistance in the water). 

In the end, I installed an anchor winch with 138m of anchor rode. 8m chain, 130m rope.  I comfortably fish up to 60m depths and have actually modified how I fish for species like flathead .... you can see my report in this post - I call it the "drift and drop" ....

 

Note:  because I am really only trying to slow my drift, I find that even 80m of rode with a danforth anchor does the job in 50-60m of water to do this . If I wanted to hold, I'd really need to let out all of the rode or move into shallower water.

Cheers

Zoran

 

 

[PaddyT]

1 hour ago, kingie chaser said:

No one has really explained why it is that you need so much rope out.

Can someone please give the main reasons why 3 or 4 times the depth in rope is needed?

So your anchor stays anchored!In calm conditions with very little current you might get away with 2x but anchors get stuck by remaining down and the "pull" coming from as horizonal as possible, not being pulled at any sort of vertical angle, learn some simple trigonometry and you can work out quickly in your head how far you need to run up current of your spot before dropping the pick eg 30M of water with 90m of rode out means you need to be about 85M up current of your mark, with 120M of rode out you need to be 116 M up current, then youve got yaw to take into account- sheesh it gets complicated!! Anyway 

[Berleyguts]

9 minutes ago, PaddyT said:

So your anchor stays anchored!In calm conditions with very little current you might get away with 2x but anchors get stuck by remaining down and the "pull" coming from as horizonal as possible, not being pulled at any sort of vertical angle, learn some simple trigonometry and you can work out quickly in your head how far you need to run up current of your spot before dropping the pick eg 30M of water with 90m of rode out means you need to be about 85M up current of your mark, with 120M of rode out you need to be 116 M up current, then youve got yaw to take into account- sheesh it gets complicated!! Anyway 

There’s a reason I like the spot lick on the Minn Kota! ? I very rarely anchor. If I have someone else on board, I might - because they can pull it in! But I have 4.5m of chain (length of my boat) and... I’m actually not sure how many metres of rope... at least 100m (whatever it came in) plus another 100m coil that I can add to it, if needed. I don’t fish at anchor in any great depth. I have 2 small drogues. I fished of Fremantle WA in a howling easterly in an 11m boat - the skipper used a large drogue at least 1m in diameter and it held us side on at all times on the drift.

[recurve]

There are two types of Sea Anchors. Cones and Parachutes. Cones are pretty weak. I have a Hard Top and Deep V so need to use a parachute. 

I rarely use more than 2.5 - 3 x Anchor Rode and I hardly slip. However I do run 7m of heavy chain on a 5.5m Boat. But I have an Anchor winch so I can go longer and heavier chain with no moaning from the crew. Putting a heavy chain on and having crew manually retrieve will incite whinging which can be annoying for captains. 

A correctly sized Sea Anchor should work for any boat. 

 

 

Edited July 18, 2018 by recurve
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[rickmarlin62]

hey Fabian  thanks for the offer  but I spent many years pulling anchors by hand before we started using floats...always fun in 90mtrs when u have to reposition to hit your mark because of wind n current....rick

[Fab1]

3 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

hey Fabian  thanks for the offer  but I spent many years pulling anchors by hand before we started using floats...always fun in 90mtrs when u have to reposition to hit your mark because of wind n current....rick

Fair enough mate,one day ill be elderly too and have to resort to doing the same.I have a drum and ring i made to try but am afraid the next step after that would be packing a handbag every time i go fishing.??

[rickmarlin62]

With your drum n ring setup  splice a short peice of stiff wire into your poing out at an angle toward chain  it catches on ring an stops anchor from dropping  by the way  56 isnt old i just find after movin spots 8 times in one morning i didnt raise a sweat or have sore hands    i set and retrieve anchor myself by driving boat and idling bak to float  saves my mate doin it  hes older than me  hahaha

[Fab1]

1 hour ago, rickmarlin62 said:

With your drum n ring setup  splice a short peice of stiff wire into your poing out at an angle toward chain  it catches on ring an stops anchor from dropping  by the way  56 isnt old i just find after movin spots 8 times in one morning i didnt raise a sweat or have sore hands    i set and retrieve anchor myself by driving boat and idling bak to float  saves my mate doin it  hes older than me  hahaha

Thats a good idea with the stiff wire mate.The one i made the ring slides up the shank of the anchor and stops on the anchor flukes.

Ill try

56,you just reminded me ill be where you are now in 12 short years.?Life certainly goes before our eyes.

[rickmarlin62]

When i was a young fella i thought 50 was ancient n u had a walkin stick i still bowhunt and thrash round bush on wr450f  like im 20  hahaha

[zmk1962]

Nothing wrong with being 56 I'm another product of 1962... I still consider myself a young fella, just  that now I am young with experience ....

Its all about staying active whatever the age.   eg I first had a go at alpine skiing at 42, got hooked and earlier this year clocked top speed at 74km/h (up from 67km/h previous year).  Just keep giving it a go I say.... you're a long time dead.

But this topic seems to have digressed way past anchor rope length hahaha !.