Coosa River Anchor Setup

The Jackson Coosa was made specifically for rivers and came setup for a chain drag anchor. A drag chain anchor is great in slow moving rivers but I wanted to install a "drift boat" style anchor setup.

A good anchor system is very important. First off you want your anchor to come off the back, dead center. This helps to keep your kayak track straight while on anchor. Also when you go to lift your anchor back up, it won't pull you left or right in the current.

It's been my experience while fishing out of driftboats and river pontoons, you lose a lot of gear and spent tons and tons of time re rigging and re baiting. Being able to anchor in "MILD" current is priceless. (Warning!...you still have to pick your spot wisely. You're asking for trouble if you go dropping anchor in fast water)

The otherday Dan Arbuckle(Headwaters kayak) and I tossed a few ideas around. I really wanted to weld up a custom badass aluminum bracket with built in rollers but that takes time and it's Steelhead season .
Here's what I came up with.

The rear lid makes a good foundation to mount a anchor bracket too plus no holes in the kayak
 
Time to cut a backing plate for the rear hatch. 
 

 Next I put a little anti-seize ( it worked) on the gasket to mark the underside of the hatch.




I ended up using a Scotty crab puller for the main pulley. I also added a pulley on the anchor and tied the end of the rope to the rear of the kayak. This reduces the stress on the crab pulley.

The rope is run through a pulley and pad eye.  After this picture was taken I installed another small pulley at the pad eye. 

Here I used a existing screw to add another pulley
 
The only 2 holes I had to drill into the kayak.

I have since used this anchor setup and it held up perfectly. 
I hope this helps.

looking good my friend, glad the crab pulley worked, cameron

Props man. Way cleaner than I even expected. Thanks for posting the idea, I'm going to give that setup a try on my Coosa as well. You forgot to post up the reward for your hard rigging. Or that may be a whole new thread. Glad to see you hitting it hard this year, and stoked the Coosa is working out for you. 

Thanks Dan. I'm pretty stoked how in turned out too. 

A few things that I'm changing: Different rope. I used a 1/4 hollow cord and it just tears your hand up, plus it kinks. 
Also I had to remove the rear handle so anchor fit a little tighter against the kayak. I'm going to tread some all-tread into the screw hole locations and use windnuts to tighten down the handle instead of the screws. That way it makes putting on and taking off the handle a breeze.

Nice set up.

I was looking at the Coosa back end and think I came up with a no penetrating drift anchor set up if anyones intrested on a future project. I couldn't help but notice that there are two pad eyes on each side of the hatch as well as the big SS one at the rear of the kayak. With this configuration you can install a bolt together bracket with 3 stainless steel J hooks and wing nuts for attachment points. Its a similar set up I had on my fish & dive back in the day. The bracket could be made out of SS flat stock with a carriage bolt T bar connection and bolted pulley/ eye bolt. Here is a quick sketch below and PDF attached.

Wow, I like that setup. Not once did I think of j-hooks. I like the fact that you can remove it and have a flat rear deck. Very nice, thank you
I like said, if I had more time, I would of fabricated some badass mount but it's Steelhead season!

Nice work guys!

I've been thinking (not too hard obviously) on different setups, and was thinking that one might be able to make use of the rear-handle mounting locations. In the end it wouldn't be too dissimilar to Abdiver's illustration. It really hasn't gotten further than what I've pictured in my head though.

Wow, I like that setup. Not once did I think of j-hooks. I like the fact that you can remove it and have a flat rear deck. Very nice, thank you
I like said, if I had more time, I would of fabricated some badass mount but it's Steelhead season!

Glad I could help, that design is a hybrid which is a cross between my F&D set up and the Trident set up . If you have access to a tig welder you could weld the pulley,eye bolt(or cut S hook), and T connection similar to what I did in the Trident picture below. If not the pulley could be bolted with a through bolt (carriage/ nut) , the eye bolt or eye nut could be used, and last the T connection with a small SS carriage bolt. Thinking about it a little more some high density foam tape could be added to the under side of the cross bar which would prevent scratching of the hatch cover as well as preventing the bottom of the carriage bolt from digging in.

 Here are pictures of the two set ups I blended to come up with that non penetrating Coosa design. If your not keen on the SS wing nuts there is always these nylon threaded knobs with through hole.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#machine-component-knobs/=lapohg

Wow, I like that setup. Not once did I think of j-hooks. I like the fact that you can remove it and have a flat rear deck. Very nice, thank you
I like said, if I had more time, I would of fabricated some badass mount but it's Steelhead season!

Glad I could help, that design is a hybrid which is a cross between my F&D set up and the Trident set up . If you have access to a tig welder you could weld the pulley,eye bolt(or cut S hook), and T connection similar to what I did in the Trident picture below. If not the pulley could be bolted with a through bolt (carriage/ nut) , the eye bolt or eye nut could be used, and last the T connection with a small SS carriage bolt. Thinking about it a little more some high density foam tape could be added to the under side of the cross bar which would prevent scratching of the hatch cover as well as preventing the bottom of the carriage bolt from digging in.

 Here are pictures of the two set ups I blended to come up with that non penetrating Coosa design. If your not keen on the SS wing nuts there is always these nylon threaded knobs with through hole.
http://www.mcmaster.com/#machine-component-knobs/=lapohg

I really like your Ocean Kayak setup. I'm working on a setup for my Coosa but without the ability to weld something up I'm kinda banging my head against the wall. The Scotty setup looks cool, but I don't want the anchor knocking around when I'm running rapids. Will continue thinking about it, and searching what others have done. Marco's if you come up with a clean setup that works good for you make two

I really like your Ocean Kayak setup. I'm working on a setup for my Coosa but without the ability to weld something up I'm kinda banging my head against the wall. The Scotty setup looks cool, but I don't want the anchor knocking around when I'm running rapids. Will continue thinking about it, and searching what others have done. Marco's if you come up with a clean setup that works good for you make two

Thanks Dan!

Ya even without access to a welder can have a pretty sweet looking setup closely resembling a welded version, here is what I was thinking.  I threw together a couple pictures so others can see what I am talking about with the bolted option.

I've been running this at the top of the pulley to keep the rope from jumping out in the current. 6-8lb test so if you ever have to dump the anchor and your rope knots (decent tangle or knot) on the way out it will break the the line and be on its way.Also if anyone drills a hole at the end of the flat stock (bolt option) instead of a hoop (weld version) make sure that hole is as big a possible to prevent a decent knot from catching. For a brief minute I thought about a thin SS piece of metal at the top of the pulley but if the rope gets stuck between the pulley and the metal in current your probably not getting it undone.

Abdiver

Hey man thanks for all the hard work figuring this out for us Coosa owners. I ended up getting impacient and coming up with a system that works pretty well with things I had in the shop. Check it out: http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php?topic=44280.0