Question:
I bought a 12 foot aluminum flat-bottomed boat to fish in small ponds. What
size and type of anchor (or anchors, bow & stern) should I get? I do not
want overkill.
Answer:
-A small mushroom anchor, available at your local Wal-Mart should do it.
If you want to prevent swings in the wind, get two.
-On my old 12 footer we just used a couple of regular size coffee cans filled
with cement. They worked fine.
-I would get my dander up and beg to argue with you, but you don't
seem to be from around here so I'll just rest easy. My only response would
be that "around here" we don't take 12' jon boats (southern for twelve foot
aluminum flat botttom, unstable, sinks like a rock if capsized, pond boats)
out anywhere there might be a "surprise squall"- anchor or no anchor. But
more seriously, the homemade anchor suggested is proposed with the
assumption that the little biddy boat (no discriminaton here, I fished from
one for 12 years) would be used on small water during the best of weather.
Any angler taking such a boat out on large water, where wake, wave, and
weather might get "testy" doesn't need an anchor- they need to update their
life insurance coverage for the loved ones they might leave behind. But if
they do, then an achor as you suggest would be more appropriate. Anyway this
is just the opinion of some ol' bloke with a tendency to be long winded who
would really like to go fishing tomorrow, but ol' man weather has other
plans. Oh, one last parting shot- just what should joe do with all that
extra rope? Most ponds I know of don't get more than 20-25 feet deep
-That is overkill for a 12 foot flat bottomed jon boat. All
the extra rope you suggest might come in handy however. If the fish
aren't biting you could always do a little macrame.
