slowin a boat in river?????

[hookedstriper]

i just bought a 12 ft alumium boat which im gunna fish in a river. i havent taken it out yet and i was wondering what is the best way to keep it from goin with the flow of the river. the ovious answer is an ancore but the horse power on the boat is only 5 and the river at the spot where i fish is between 40 to 60 feet deep and im afraid the ancore will get caught and the power of the boat wont b able to pull it back up if it does. i was thinkin about goin to a shallower area and ancoring there and lettin my boat drift down to my spot then tigtin it up. what do u guys think? any help would be great.thanks
hooked

[Patrick]

Well, the first thing you have to do is make sure you are completely out of the navigational channels. If you don't, you might wind up with a ticket or a very bad accident.

A lot of guys anchoring on rivers use a river anchor. I've never used one but I prefer a danforth anchor over the others just because it works on so many bottoms.

Make sure you have 10 feet of line for every 1 foot of water you want to anchor in. Carrying 600 feet of rope would be space consuming in a 12 footer. You are better off anchoring in the shallow spot. Either that, or drift.

Here's a tip I saw in Saltwater Sportsman a little while back that might save you some money on anchors. Take your danforth anchor and drill a hole in the backside of it. Then attach a line to that hole. At the end of that line, have a float. Incase you can't get your anchor out, just motor up to the float and pull on it from that side. This way, you are pulling with the flukes and not against them.

[nightfighter]

hooked,

Might want to look into using a sea anchor, or a make shift version of one, such as a line attached to a canvas bag, or a even pail for that matter. Once it fills with water upstream, or upcurrent of you, it will help slow your speed over bottom. They are designed to be used in the worst open ocean conditions to slow baremasted sailing vessels from being hurled down the face of a wave into the trough. Think of it as the chute on the back of the shuttle. If the current is >6 knots, even this will not slow your drift enough for staying in a particular target area however. Good luck.

[hookedstriper]

thanks for the info. im gunna try both the drifting and ancorin in the shallower water which ever works better.
hooked