Re: For those familiar with Lake Travis and Lake Austin in Austin, TX...
Lot of rocks in that area. That's nice because it makes for crystal clear water. The Danforth is a fluted anchor based on the same functional design as the Navy Style anchor but much much lighter for it's holding ability as compared to the Navy. With it's thin blades (flukes) it's designed to bury into the bottom regardless of the composition. In Travis I would recommend it and have a trip ring so that WHEN you get it hung up you can drive over it (forward of it) slip the ring up on the crown end of the anchor and pull it out in reverse of the way it got stuck.
Chain always works well as it forces the shank to lie somewhat parallel to the bottom which forces the flukes to dig in rather than pull out. Put on all that you can, course chain size (link diameter) helps to determine length. You are looking for weight on the line and you can get it either by large diameter or long length. Other thing is slope....length of anchor rope vs depth of water. The more wind and large waves, the more. 3:1 is min and a lot of big water folks like 10:1.
Travis can get some big waves in it in the afternoons especially if you launch at the dam go up river to fish and come back south after mid day to the launch. Course back when I fished it, launching ramps were few and far apart so you didn't have many choices.
There was a marina on the East side quite a distance from the dam that would rent you empty boat slips for a night's fishing. We'd get half a dozen poles and some flood lights, some shad from the marina, and spend the night fishing for sandies. Usually the schools came by around 2-3 AM. The fishing was violent for half an hour and then nothing. Was great sport.
The guy that managed the marina had a light on the end of a pier and in the wee hours the shad would school in a big circle; thousands of them. The guy had a stick about 6' long with a wire dangling from either end and a light switch near the middle. He would plug it into a 110 volt outlet, drop the wires into the water and turn it on for several seconds. Roughly a minute later the shad would float to the top. He'd scoop them up and put them in his bait house where they would revive. Then he'd sell them to us. Ha!
HTH, and I loved that lake........except for the getting home part.
Mark
