Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Anchors for a 22' pontoon?

I am visiting mom and dad at their lake home in Minnesota and am thinking about getting them an anchor for their 22' pontoon.

How big of an anchor do I need to hold this yacht?

The biggest I've found locally so far is 40 lbs.

Many thx for your time

Dober

Mark,

I gotta believe 40 would be plenty. I'd actually be a bit concerned about my dad trying to pull up a 40 pound anchor with 5-10 lbs of weeds and muck on it. Might be better off to buy 2 twenty pounders and only use the second if conditions dictate it's need.

You raising any muskies yet? How's the weather over there;)

enjoy your vacation........Jeff

Jeff-twas hoping I'd hear from you, that is a good idea.

No Muskies yet, the lake is super busy this time of summer. The weather has been superb!


Many thx

Dober

Having rented a couple for a while, I can tell you that twenty pound anchors will hold the boat just fine Mark, but what we gave out with rentals was a 20 pounder on the front and a ten pound for the back. The back anchor will keep the pontoon from moving in the wind and is easier for most folks to pull up over the sides of the pontoon without banging it against it. The tewnty will hold in all but the slickest of bottoms or a lot of wind. You can also put them both out off the front corners. We used a ball type on the back to keep from pulling a ton of weeds in the boat...The twenty was a good navy anchor with a long line...

i've found you need 2 different kinds of anchors ,a soft bottom anchor ,which the folding anchors that dig in work good on, and hard bottm anchor ,like a mushroom . i have a minnkota deckhand elecrtic anchor

Depending on what the lake bottom is you might easily get by with a much lighter anchor if you can take advantage of a mechanical "bite" in the bottom. A 10# Danforth style would easily hold in a mud or sand bottom as would a claw type anchor. Of course, that method of anchoring means you need to "set" the anchor as well which means you need enough line to get a decent angle so the hook will bite. I guess you'd want to consider water depth when using a setting anchor. It should work great in a realtively shallow soft bottom though.

As important as the anchor weight is the chain above it which produces the low angle of attack that keeps the anchor on bottom.

I run a 60# Danforth with 60' of 3/8" chain. It has held my 35,000# boat in huge winds. But it also failed once in soft mud.

Kedges (stern anchors) are great for a lot of things, but require extreme care if you are actually using it for control in bad conditions. An anchor slipping a little and allowing the boat to turn sideways under the twin influences of main and kedge has sunk many a boat... I realize you are talking about safe little lakes without the big problems, but it is something to be aware of if you ever set a kedge. ALWAYS pull the kedge first!
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