Home Forums Fishing Freshwater Anchor for Party barge

My cousin an I are trying to get rigged up to catfish off of a 24 foot party barge in the Arkansas River below Dam #2. The current will be pretty swift at times and I am trying to figure out the type and size anchor that we will need. Any tips or pointing to a website that has info would be appreciated. miles

Good luck. From what I've seen its a chore to anchor them in the wind so maybe current will be just as hard. Some I've seen have an anchor for each pontoon.

What type of bottom are you trying to anchor in?

It was originally sand, but just below the dam I think there are lots of rocks. If I understand it correctly they would start dumping large rocks into the river and some would wash and some would stay, so they kept adding rocks until they had the water squeezed into a small channel, they they started adding dirt on top of the rock. When they got the water slowed, they started the concrete dam. That left a lot of rocks of varying sizes on the bottom where we will be fishing. This may all be rumor and some other method used. miles

A pontoon tends to be very hard to anchor in the wind & current. I have a bass boat, but frequently the family likes to catfish from my wife's pontoon. On the port side of the bow I have an anchor chain with a fluke anchor attached to a short piece of rope & then a claw type anchor. Its a bitch to pull in especially if hung up on a stump. On the stern I have another anchor with a chain & claw type anchor. I have another fluke style anchor & am thinking about adding it to starboard side of the bow. Adding extra length to the anchor rope also helps. Still if the wind is really blowing on the big lake I fish I expect the boat will still tend to pull loose.