Home Forums Fishing Freshwater New kind of boating struggle!

I fish a lot in shallow water and spend the night in my boat very often. I use a river anchor with the break away zip ties, and a 10 foot rear anchor pin. It's a 3/4" fiberglass pole that slides through a sleeve and sticks in the bottom on the river to keep the boat dead steady and not twisting in the wind.

As is often the case the river can go from calm to brutal wind in 30 minutes. During this transition, my new 2 piece 10' pole for the anchor pin snapped at the stainless steel coupling. This is a " guaranteed for life" pole which can be seen on the you tube video bent nearly in half without breaking. This can only mean that I had some kind of defect in this connection.

Here I sit now, with the wind pounding the boat, and only a front anchor. Oh yeah, it's also 9:30 and dark. The lines will tangle horrible now with the boat twisting and spinning on the anchor rope. It's a complicated area, because the current is flowing the opposite direction of the wind. That rear anchor pin is critical. I'm about 5 miles from the launch too.

Oh well, I'll just snuggle up to the missis on the bunk and motor back in the morning. Somewhere about 6am I wake up and peek out the window. Hmmm I cannot tell for sure where I am? I happened to mention this out loud which was not very comforting to her! I eventually figure out where I am but not sure how we got here with the anchor down. We came to a stop because the 115HP motor is in the mud. The boat is rocking a bit, but not quite right, the centre of the boat is in the mud too! I pull up the anchor and found that the zip ties broke on my anchor. I'm gonna need some bigger Zip Ties I guess?

I get some shorts on and sandals and get out and assess the situation. I'm about 500 yards from shore, and about 500 yards from certain deeper water. I start walking in mid shin deep water about 100-150 yards away the water depth does not change. The Missis is staring in stunned amazement that I'm that far away and only in 12" of water. I walk back and We agree that direction is not good, unless we decide to leave the boat and walk back to the truck!

I moved the ice chest and the her to the bow, and then emptied the live well, and the released the fish I had caught before the wind. That took about 200 pounds from the stern. At this point the wind was blowing the boat again in only 10" of water. I got behind the boat and pushed it all the way to water deep enough to use the kicker about Knee deep on me, probably 18" of water.

I've been stuck with clients in SE Alaska on coastal bear hunts when the tides go out, but you know the tide is coming back and the time it going to happen. In the columbia river the water depth is dependent upon the dams. and as far as I know there is no "Dam Chart" or estimated depth from day to day. Folks don't notice this in the main channel. However fishing the backwaters is a bit of a risk of being stranded if you're in a boat that will not float in 10" of water! or if you're simply not paying attention.

No doubt sinking is worse, being able to walk away from a boating problem is easy and unique. It is however complicated to fix, how would you get towed out of a 10" section of water 1/4 mile from a depth you where can start to float again! Thankfully this boat floats easily in 10" of water and I could just push it out.

Forget the pole thingy...replace it with an anchor off the stern. Try a Danforth style in soft river bottoms.

Nope, the pole is the absolute ticket for shallow water fishing. No problems with fish tangling in the anchor rope. I cannot imagine any way of doing this with better function.

My 8 foot pole has been bent in half to the shape of the letter "U" and not broken, the ten foot pole with the coupling at the 8foot mark and the two foot extension at the top, has never broken.

I tried this ten footer with the coupling in the middle to make storage easier. Thats the one that broke at the coupling. It's guaranteed for life, but not functional for high wind and current.

I've lost too many fish tangled in the stern anchor rope to go back to that system.

Power Pole or MinnKota Talon.

I use a 10' one pc. anchor pin which works well. Mine is made localy by Stick it anchor pins .com. They also make 2 pc models.