Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

[LadyFish]

Spending the summers on the lake with my grandparents exposed me to many strange things. <br /><br />My grandfather had a way about him we affectionately referred to as "tighter than bark on a tree". He was a master at inventing something from nothing and just making things work. I used to go to the dump with him and watch him pick through the junk and sure enough, we haul something trashy back home and he would make it into something beautiful. Grandpa was a great man, way ahead of his time when it came to exercise too. He walked 20 miles a day in 10 year old sneakers. He took the tread off of old tires and epoxied them to the sole. I used to make fun of them and he'd tell me, "what are you laughing at? they're good for another 20,000 miles". <br /><br />Well, Grandpa also used to rent wooden row boats. Us kids would have to reseal and paint them every year. I can remember the old cinder block anchors and when he ran out of them, he would fill old paint cans with cement and tie a rope around the handle for anchors.<br /><br />At $2 a day to rent the boat, the patrons didn't seem to mind a bit.

 

[LubeDude]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I made a great mud anchor out of an old disk brake rotor one time, worked great.<br />---------------------------<br />

 

[ehenry]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

Hmmm.....there are soooo many things I've used don't konw if i can remember em all.<br /><br />Old window weights<br />a coffee can full of concrete<br />brake drum<br />a rock<br />half a car bumper<br />cotton picker spindle bar<br />top link off a Poppin John Deere tactor (had to wear a whoopin over that one)<br />a gang off an old Liliston Rollin Cultivator<br /><br />do I need to keep goin?

 

[one more cast]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

i've used all kinds of junk , car parts, washing machine parts, cement blocks, coffee cans full of cement. and i've only lost the ones I bought, never the homemade ones.

 

[neumanns]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I'm just gonna defer to Efhenery and OMC on this one.

 

[ehenry]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

Come to think of it...the only anchors I lost were store bought.

 

[jtexas]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

A fishing partner of mine once tried to use bottles of Budweiser to anchor a trotline. <br /><br />Didn't work, though, we couldn't get the line to stay attached to the bottles. Ended up having to drink the beer instead of running trotlines that night.

 

[gonfishn]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

My ex went overboard once and yelled for me to throw her a vest. How was I suppose to know that it was attached to an anchor..I think they call em vested anchors or was it anchor vests..To bad she was only in five foot of water..

 

[PDS]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

Not unusual, just common sense, either a cement block or a big rock that you could tie onto the rope. Lost most of the rocks(the buggers would sneak out of the ropes when they hit the bottom) Used a cement filled can many times with a lag bolt secured to it(even the turtles haven't figured out how to untie the rope) Now days, I just use stuff I buy at stores.

 

[JasonJ]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I make sure to wrap it in a tarp very well, tied with heavy nylon chord wound around and around, then anchor it down with a cinder block at the feet and head end, and a couple around the waist. They can come apart when they decompose......Oh crap, we are talking about boats? I use store bought for boats.....

 

[snapperbait]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

Old weights were great in them muddy canal bottoms.. Got a workout hauling up 15lbs plates.. <br /><br />Now, store bought 15lb fluke.. Always fun to haul that thing in with 200+ feet of line out.. Man, I gotta get a windlass...<br /><br />I'd get one of the fly-weight fortress aluminum anchors, but as much as they cost ($100+), that would surely be the first anchor I ever lost..

 

[vzsla]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I used two intake manifolds from small-block Chevy emgines. One forward, one aft.

 

[lakelover]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I had to laugh when I got to the bottom of your post, because I've used cinder blocks a number of times myself! Your grandfather's my kind of guy!

 

[gaugeguy]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I've tossed the anchor overboard without the rope tied to it a couple times. We then spent the next 1/2 and hour looking for a 15 pound flat rock that we could tie the rope around.

 

[tylerin]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

Not sure but the one Ford motor I've owned would have made a good one

 

[Raghauler]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I use a lawyer.<br /><br />OK, OK, I'm just kidding... Won't work anyway. They float, what with all that hot air in them and all.

 

[KennyKenCan]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I used a 283 small block as a mooring anchor in the Connetquot River when I was a kid.<br /><br />We used that mooring for 10 years before the chain rotted off!

 

[Dave Abrahamson]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

I've thought seriously about using this #^%%^$ computer once or twice as an anchor.

 

[rolmops]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

In bad winds off billingsgate shoals I used my parka as a sea anchor.It probably saved my a$$.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Whats the weirdest thing you've ever used for an anchor?

As a kid growing up on the Ohio river, the family took a trip to Cinncinnati once. On the way back, the boat quit running. Dad wanted me to throw the anchor out, but it was gone. Someone stole it out of its well while we was docked in Cinci. He was so scared to drift in the path of the tow boats. So in all his panic, he tied a line to the kicker motor and used it as an anchor. That is when my mom spoke up and asked him "Dear, couldn't you have used that to get us into shore or a dock?" Dad said "Yes, it sure would have, why didn't I think of that?" I think the sun totally cooked my dads brain that day. He got the engine running. It was a real quiet trip all the way back, onto the trailer, and all the way to the house.<br /><br />So I would say the strangest that I have encountered as an anchor was that poor 9.9 kicker. (He got it cleaned out and running later on)