Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

[twintrades]

So i was fiddelin with my motors on my little tinny making shure they all work.

I threw on a five hp and was chugging along dident think if any thing thought wow what a whimpy motor. ( had a weird prop on it) went all the way across the lake. Then when i went to use the trolling motor i couldnt move the boat.... Low and behold i drug the anchor all around the lake . Wow I had to laugh at my self for that one !

Lake is only about 10 ft deep. I had about 15 ft of rope out. durrr

 

[Phantom_II]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I've never forgotten to lift the anchor, but one time I did forget to tie off the other end of the line to the boat.

 

[boys boating around]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I did it just the other day The boys and I were out on our favorite lake tubing and they wanted to take a break and swim. I found an area out of the way, dropped anchor, and off they went for a swim. After a while we decided to head in and eat lunch on the shore. So the boys get on the tube and I start to get ready to go on plane and give them a fun ride back to shore. Then my NINE year old says to me "Dad the anchor". Good thing he remembered. Probably would have torn the cleat right off :redface:

 

[Mike250]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Ya, I did that too. Took off with the anchor tied to the bow cleat and ran about 10 miles back to the dock. When I went to tied-off I noticed the anchor line still attached to the cleat. I starting pulling in the line and guess what? It was the same length of the boat minus the anchor?

Prop hacked that baby right off I guess.

Now my wife swims down to the bottom and brings it up for me.

 

[dbkerley]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I did it about a year ago. We were out tubing and dropped anchor to swim as the previous poster stated. On that boat, I clip the anchor line to the bow eye and use a float on the line. Wherever we anchor it is 20' - 30' deep so the single line length and mushroom anchor works well on the mud bottom.

Anyway long story short; when I took off I had trouble getting on plane with the two kids on the tube and the boat was handling like she was full of water. I checked the bilge and took off again.

Suddenly we swerved to port and then hard starboard as I tried to correct. The steering had somehow snapped and the boat was swerving wildy from sided to side with the kids in tow. I throttled back and looked over my shoulder noticing the cowl of the outboard motor was still straight ahead. When I throttled back the nose dropped hard and the steering began to respond again.

This was all very baffling. So, I shut it down and jumped over the stern to look at the lower unit and see if something had lodged on the drive. I searched all over that hull looking for damage before finally rounding the front and seeing the anchor line still attached (with anchor) to the bow eye.

I haven't repeated that mistake since.

 

[idrownworms]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Yesterday:redface: It was starting to rain and I had about 2 miles between me and the ramp. In haste I remembered to pull in the anchors but I didn't make sure that I had the anchor rode in the boat. I noticed it after going about a hundred yards. Some how it missed being chopped by the prop.

 

[redfury]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

LOL. Yup, done that too. Was in my 14ft boat trolling along. I was trying like the dickens to figure out why the boat would suddenly veer to the left. I swore there was something wrong with the motor. After about 10 minutes of it, I had come to a rest to do some casting when I noticed the anchor was missing from the boat.

Sure enough, I had been dragging it all along. It must have been catching the bottom or clogging with weeds enough to yank on the boat.

 

[CATransplant]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Sure. I forget every once in a while. I always notice though, once I start moving. Usually, I anchor in shallow weed beds to cast for bass and northern pike. I learned something really interesting though.

I started to move the boat once, but had forgotten the anchor, and when I looked up, I had dragged it about 50 feet along the bottom, and it had stirred up the mud on the bottom.

I retrieved the anchor, but while I was doing that, I noticed that all sorts of small baitfish had come in to investigate the muddied up water. Where there are baitfish, there are gamefish, I figured, so I started casting along the edge of the muddy water. Bingo!

I fished there for half an hour and caught an amazing number of bass and pike.

I don't recommend doing this on purpose, but if you accidentally roil up the bottom, fish it!

 

[xxturbowesxx]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Be careful with those anchors i was anchored shallow(~4') for a swim. I took off forgeting the anchor and my passenger made a noise.. i look over and the anchor is swimming in the water like a dolphin jumping in and out.. (fluke style) it really scared me because it could have jumped right into the boat and really hurt someone.. that was the last time although i have left my trolling motor down over the winter and got a nice cold salty bath from the water coming over the bow..

 

[waterinthefuel]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I never did it, but my uncle, who owned our boat before us, did. It beat the hell out of the side of the boat.

 

[i386]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Yup...

Mine's bow mounted with a little pulley/cam lock. I can operate it from the back while I'm fishing solo. Sometimes you forget things when you see hybrids schooling 100yards away and need to get over there real quick.

 

[Nandy]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I have done it quite a few times. This is a dangerous mistake. We had a guy here that the anchor flew from stern, pass a passenger and broke the windshield.

 

[Navy Jr.]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Ever forget to lift the anchor ??

Not yet. But then I'm still a newbie. My day will come, I'm sure! Unless, of course, I actually go to school and learn from this and other wonderful posts that one finds in this forum.

 

[sanfordfarmgirl]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

I was out on the St John's River this weekend and about a 30' boat passed me dragging his anchor. It was skipping across the water like a rock on a pond.
There was a jet ski between the boat and I that saw it and slowed down behind me. At first I thought they had lost a skier or tube. I started looking around for an unconscious person floating about, but then saw the anchor bouncing across the top of the wake. I sped up a little and started honking the horn. They finally realized they were towing the anchor and stopped. Just imagine if that anchor had flown off and hit the jet ski or my windshield!

 

[wellsc1]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

Guilty. At least it has been with a mushroom anchor, and I realize it immediately upon trying to move my 14' flatbottom. Redfaced, I pull it up or my wife does. The Appilachicola River is full of snags, which my luck prevented the anchor from snagging and snatching us around or ripping off the cleat.

Offshore, however, I have used a technique of going the opposite direction the danforth anchor is biting. The flips it over and pulls it up to the surface, which is a breeze to pull in as is slides across the surface. Of course, we're barely over idling speed for safety reasons. Some use a buoy to do a similar manuever, but that's another doohicky in the boat that tends to get smaller the longer we are fishing in it.

 

[lojo700]

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

forgot to lift the anchor? not me. I did something far dumber. I threw the anchor over the transom of my 14' lund on a river. When the anchor hooked up it sucked the transom down far enough for water to flow over top of it. lucky I had an axe handy to cut the line.I now realize what an idiot I really am.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Ever forgot to lift the anchor ??

read the recent "sunken boat" post. Looks liek the same mistake took down a right big boat.
I heard that the football players in Florida swamped b/c they tried to "motor up" the anchor by pulling it up from the stern, and it pulled the stern under.