Anchor trolley helps you stabilize the kayak and position yourself in the wind without having to paddle and adjust your position constantly. Let me show you how I use my anchor trolley system.
It’s a little innovative, something that I’ve come up with to fit my needs over the years. A lot of people don’t fish with anchor trolleys. I happen to like them because I fish while at anchor quite often.
Here Is How I Use Anchor Trolley
I use a three-pound small boat anchor, and I keep the line spooled up on a piece of PVC pipe with a hole drilled in on a side for a carabiner. That carabiner attaches to my anchor trolley.
As for my anchor, I use a deployable anchor with claws, but I don’t use the claws that look more like a grappling hook. Instead, I keep them zipped tied over those because I never use them that way.
I simply drop the anchor down there and keep my extra line pulled up on the pipe. On the other end of the pipe, I have a hole drilled and inserted a nail that I use as a kind of a cleat to hitch it around there.
So, when the winds are blowing, it’s important to have the anchor not only to hold your position but to adjust the way you’re facing because you’re not going to necessarily want to fish in a 360-degree direction around your boat.
So, you set the position of the anchor with a ring attached to the side of your boat. Keep the anchor clipped onto the ring. If the anchor is positioned upfront and the wind blow, that’s going to pull the boat around and help you face into the wind.
This means you are downwind of the anchor. If you did the opposite with your trolley here, this would allow you to set the anchor point behind where you wouldn’t be able to reach.
If you set it behind you, this would allow you to position it downwind of the anchor but facing the opposite direction.
A Kayak Fishing Guide’s Anchor Trolley System
Here is another cool way you can use your anchor trolley system. This method is used by Steve Gibson of Southern Drawl Kayak Fishing. It’s a unique system that he came up with over the years to fit his needs.
If you fish while at anchor quite often, you will love this one. All he did was add pan eyes to the stern in the bow of the kayak. With that, he attached pulleys with carabiners and then ran the line through a carabiner to an O-ring for an easy release.
The anchor line attaches to the O-ring with a clip. Make sure it’s a brass clip so that it can withstand saltwater. As for the anchor, it’s something really neat.
He doesn’t use any traditional small boat anchors. Instead, he uses a five-pound foam-covered dumbbell. That’s right. He uses a hand dumbbell, which works really well.
You must be aware of the weather condition when you are going kayak fishing. He says that if it’s too windy for this to hold your kayak, you shouldn’t be out on the water. This holds really well and will save you from buying a dedicated anchor for your kayak.
He has got about 30 feet of anchor line on, which is essentially about twice the length of the kayak. This works really well for shallow water. For shallow water, you can half-hitch the anchor line.
That way, when you pull it in, you don’t have to wind up 30 feet of line. He also attached a foam buoy on the line that is actually a crab trap marker, which is what the commercial crabbers use to mark their crabs.
And the importance of this is that if I need to help someone, for example, if someone hooks a fish and needs help getting it off or you need to land the fish or whatever, you can simply unclip it and let it out and go help that person and come right back into your spot.
Also, if you are fishing alone and you hook a big fish, it’s going to take you into the mangroves or whatever and makes a big, long run, and you need to chase the fish, you can simply unclip and chase the fish, land it hopefully and do what you want and then go right back to your spot.
Overall, I think it’s a great system and easy system. Steve Gibson says that it helped him out wonderfully over the years, and hopefully, you will also benefit from it.
Don’t Make this Anchor Trolley Mistake
In the following section, I will be talking about the number one mistake people make with an anchor trolley.
When you get an anchor trolley, the logical thing is that you tie it onto a ring on the side of the kayak so that you can move it up and down as needed.
Well, the problem becomes, what if your anchor becomes caught on an obstacle on the bottom and your kayak begins to swerve dangerously in the current? You need to be able to cut that thing loose quickly.
And if it’s way up there at the front, you’re toast. The other thing is if you get a fish and the fish is about the wrap itself around the anchor line, you also need to cut it away.
And the final reason and the most compelling is it you never can tell where the currents are going to take you. And chances are, it’s going to spin your boat and cause the trolley to do this.
Now, how are you going to get at that thing to be able to recover your anchor? So, the solution is to do it the right way.
The right way to do it is you thread the rope through the connector then around your cleat. After that, you tie a slipknot.
That’s not going to go anywhere, and now, when you move the anchor to position your boat, you are always in control of it and can grab it to either pull it back in, or since it’s a slip knot, you can pull it loose, and it’s gone.
You can go ahead and recover your anchor after you have solved the obstacle problem. I hope you like this tip and take care.
Final Words
There you have it. Here are a couple of ways you can use the anchor trolley system. Hopefully, after this, you won’t have any trouble staying in place while kayak fishing. It’s high time that you get a good kayak anchor trolley system.
Leave a Reply