Anchor for the bay

I'll be fishing a sturgeon derby at McNears next month so I'll need an appropriate anchor. I have the spare fluke style anchor from my 18ft aluminum that I can use but it's big. What would you guys recomend?

yeah thats a bit big. I use a 5lb grapple one (the arms fold up) so its compact when not in use. If I think I need more weight I add a salmon trolling lead to the bottom with a zip tie. The bay is mostly mud bottom so you just need it to bite a bit into the bottom. the trick is to make sure you have enough rope so you can get a nice long shallow pull. If it's too vertical it will never hold.  my 2 cents...

I started out with a 5 b dive wt, seems to work really well as long as I can get a good angle, about 3 times the depth works, in just a few cases, I've added a 3 pounder in front of the 5.  I have been in a few places where the bottom was hard clay mud and I couldn't hold at all, so I moved.

I use a 4-prong style anchor@ 5pounds with a small 4 pound plug of lead attached to the bottom of the deployable anchor . This set-up holds in the strongest outgo with my T-15. The tides the day of the tourney at Mc Nears arent that bad. Like Eric said you need the prongs to be held down in the mud. You probably know about the scope on the anchor line. I wouldnt use a rode chain as it will fill with mud and make a mess all over your kayak.

Thanks for the replies. It sounds like one of the small folding ones with weight added should do the trick. I hear you guys about using plenty of rope. On my big boat I carry 300ft of 3/8 rope so I can anchor in deeper water. Sometimes I've used up to a 7:1 scope on a hard bottom to get it to hold. A 3:1 scope wouldn't hold the big boat in many of the places I go.

under "kayak rigging tips"


http://www.norcalkayakanglers.com/index.php/topic,16289.0.html

Here's a nice small SS one:

http://www.marinepartdepot.com/newststfogra.html

That SS one is cool wish it was 5Lbs  Wonder who wrote the description 1.75lbs yeah right.

Easy to stow and lightweight, these fine anchors are ideal auxiliary anchors on larger ships

mine is an 8lb folding, have not had to add any additional weight to it yet, although I did drag it one day in the delta in 15+kt wind chop with a medium size incoming tide on top of it.  i got mine from bass pro shops.

dont use heavy rope, thinner the better

8# folding, 7:1...never ever had a problem breaking loose.

Thanks for all the great info. I'm going to borrow my brothers and see how I like it. He has one of the folding type. I like the tutorial on how to rig the anchor release system. When I get my new yak I think I'm going to give it a try.

Hey BaitNbeer, Are you up for halibut fishing in the bay again this year?

lol...just seen this , hell yea , im actually gonna be on a mission for halibut every chance i get.

I'm up for some hali trips this year. I'm sure Montana is. We'll have to hook up.