Any Small Boat Experts About

[little oik]

I have just started to use a small boat "Bic boat". I made up some mud weights by pouring concrete into a bucket to use as anchors .However due to either ineptness or just inexperience I am having great differculty in keeping the boat in one position .It is either swinging round with surface drift, or swinging the other way in the wind which comes up about half to 1 hour after I have started to fish .Te lakes in question are shallow (up to about 7 ft deep max).In the dim and distant past I seem to remember people using poles to push into the lake bed and then tying off from these .I have no idea whether these are a figment of my imagination or not .Please can anybody put me straight on this and if you can use them what are they called etc so i can ask around .
Thankyou

 

[dannytaylor]

I somtimes use a couple of 13ft poles for my boat. I actually blagged them from a bakers shop which was closing down. They where used originally for pushing bread into large ovens. Not sure where to look now? You could maybe try a fencing supplier im sure they could make you some poles made to measure.

 

[jack sprat]

Traditional rye-peck poles are used on the Thames in London. These are pine poles up to 20ft long and 6" thick fitted with a metal spike that I suspect you'd have to find a blacksmith/welder to make.

Your problems may be caused by not anchoring with the anchors well away from the boat. It may even take three anchors to achieve stability.

 

[ferox_]

if i was you i would bub 2 small collapsable anchours ??

 

[Sean Meeghan]

Anchoring a fishing boat is one of the most frustrating experiences going. If you want a stable platform for fishing a waggler from you're going to have to use some sort of pole. If you can stand a bit of movement then 2 anchors, or one anchor and one mud weight are the best solution.

Here's the procedure:

Drop the front anchor up wind of where you want to fish.

Motor back away from the anchor for about 7 or 8 times the depth of the water (ie in 10 ft go back 70 to 80 ft).

Drop the back anchor.

Pull the boat back towards the front anchor for 3 times the depth of the water.

Tie off the front anchor

Tighten up the back anchor rope and tie off.

If fishing on your own this can be an absolute pain, but its the only way to get a relatively stable platform.

With a light boat such as a BIC you might get away with 2 mud weights but they will need to be heavy ones and if you're fishing over a hard bottom they will always move in a wind. For fishing boats I would always double the recommended minimum weight of anchor for the boat.

---------- Post added at 16:59 ---------- Previous post was at 16:57 ----------

Oh and a short length of chain (around 6ft) will make anchors work a lot better.

 

[madmatz]

hi mate i aint an expert but as a boat owner i know all about the troubles that come with anchoring however with the right gear you should be able to anchor without the boat moving around first off are you using enough rope and chain? you need three times the amount of rope for the depth you are fishing plus a length of heavy chain about 6' long i use 8' but thats my choice the ahchors i use are home made danforth style these are heavy duty and have held us in position in some very rough water what i do is lower the bow anchor then let out quite a bit of rope i then drop the back anchor then its a case of pulling the front anchor tight once this is done repeat on the second anchor when done right both ropes should be going into the water at an angle.

hope this helps

---------- Post added at 09:10 ---------- Previous post was at 09:07 ----------

looks like sean beat me to it

 

[geoffmaynard]

For any small boat owner, you cannot do better than peruse Eric Edwards' brilliant series. Start with this one:
http://www.fishingmagic.com/feature...r-boat-fishing-part-1-–-choose-your-boat.html

 

[little oik]

Thanks for the replies .The anchors I made do have a chain as this is what I draped in the Paint tub before filling with concrete. Although I have only about 2 ft of chain protruding from the mud weight .As some of the lakes that I wanted to fish are a good hundred yds away from any parking I was trying to keep the weight down on all the kit to a minimum,so it looks as if I have got to up the size of the weights a bit ,and also practice trying to anchor it a bit better (could be a laugh )as I am using a keep fit means of propulsion as oars are a lot easier to carry .The type of fishing I am trying to do is those hard to get at margins (if you know the Irish lakes where I can prebait to my hearts content without some one else being in your swim taking all your hard work for granted .

As the waters are not that deep and very rarely fished if I cannot get the anchoring right I might just go and get some poles that I can put down and leave them there for the season .

Also another thing that I have to work out is how to sink the line to stop the action of the surface drift that keeps mucking up the presentation. Still a lot of the fun in life is working these things out

I will be reporting back with all the mishaps etc for your enjoyment .

 

[Lord Paul of Sheffield]

good luck with your boat fish