Minn Kota anchor

I was reading about the Minn Kota deckhand anchors and was just curious if anyone had any experience with these?

 
  I have not heard of these.  What I use, I got at my local K-mart.I got it for something like $10.  It's a 5lb "Danforth" it holds me solid on lakes in wind.  The standard little 1.5lb folding anchor that came with my fishing package supplied with my OB did not hold me at all. 

Hi Jeff,

Did I see correctly, they start at 15#? Except for some heavy river currents that seems a bit much. Another issue is the ability to release the anchor, either due to a hazard, like debris catching your anchor line, or being pulled by a (big) fish 

If you search the site for "anchor trolley" you'll see several different ideas.

Recall my line for the drift sock? The same would apply for an anchor. You anchor attaches to a float, excess line is stored on, or near the float. From the float to the boat is a shorter, fixed length line with a loop, or attached to a ring. The ring slides on a rope from about the middle of your yak to the rear. When needed you release one end of that line and the anchor is left behind, with the float, for you to retrieve later.

My 3# anchor wasn't enough for Bay currents, but adding a 20oz cannon ball solved it.

Ya that makes sense.  I was looking at maybe finding an anchor with a remote 12v winch to raise and lower as I needed.  I think the winch was for weight up to 15#  but I see your point about hanging up.  Do you have any pics for the rigging your talking about?

This is how I rigged my Caster:

http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,16165.0.html

Really, it's all variations on the same theme. Get the anchor tension out behind (or in front, if that's what you need) so your boat doesn't cock sideways, and make provisions for releasing it. I only posted my Caster because of the way I used the anchor hardware and existing cleat. Thought it might prompt ideas for someone with similar needs.

More experienced yakkers have commented pretty strongly about the safety issues of anchoring in current, so I've taken it to heart. I replaced my anchor line with light poly cord (working strength of 26#), same with the trolley line(??). 

Also, in the pics you see my excess line wrapped around the float. That was a real pita. Since then I made a T out of some PVC and stuck it up through the float, that leaves the top of the T at the float bottom and sticking out a few inches past the sides of the float. Now I just work the line back and forth over the PVC. Much better. I also think I need to graft in some regular anchor line at both ends of trolley line to 1) avoid getting hung up like when you and I were out  2) get better traction in the cam cleat I'm using for a release.

If you search for anchor on the site you'll see lots of ideas, probably some for your specific yak.


Ben

I like your set up looks pretty good.  I think I will do something similar