Cajun Anchor

[plumbertuck]

I wonder about a 4 ft piece of 5/8" stainless tubing with lead inside

[ghstdanc]

If you want to make your own, then go get a copper grounding rod from the local big box store. They work great, won't rust, and if bent are easy to bend back straight. You can easily work a loop into the top for tie-ing off as well.

T

Most of those ground rods are just copper plated steel, sot solid. They'll still rust on you.

[Mad Dog]

Okay, I confess. I am a skeptic regarding the cajun anchor. I don't see anyway a smooth rod with a rope attached to one end is going to stop and hold anything more than a kayak. Sure if the wind is still no problem but those days are few and far between. In the Laguna Madre the bottom ranges from deep sticky muck, to rocks. If I know I am over the muck then I might try stacking out but but hard sand shell and rocks are not going to permit that. With prevailing winds @ 15 mph and moderate chop you need something with a bite. I have used my push poll to stake out my boat. If I can get it in deep enough, 3 to 4 feet, I can make it hold but that only works up to about 3 feet of water.

I would never spend $1,200 on a power pole but I see how one might work by keeping continuous downward pressure. The canjun anchor however would get leveraged by the rope particularly in deeper water.

I'll have my push poll on hand but the Danforth will be my main stopper.

[redfish55]

I to was skeptical. Have a friend with a 21' bay boat and he said it worked well for him so I bought one.

granted it doesn't take much to hold an FX20. the first day I had mine I stopped at a spot in the st marks river at the edge of the channel. Current was humming drifting in the river my GPS was saying we were going 1.5 to 2 knots. Pulled in my spot and dropped my regular anchor and we drug. Reanchored and we drug again. I decided I would try both because I didn't think that cajun would hold where the regular anchor wouldn't. Pulled up on the spot and spiked that cajun in 8' of water and when the boat hit the end of that 15' of rope that boat stopped cold. Didn't need the other anchor at all.

Works well in sand or mud. With a little effort you can spike it in oyster bars. Won't work on rock bottom.

What I like best is you can anchor quietly. It doesn't even make a splash going in. When you pull it up its also quiet and clean.

[Jerry-rigged]

When I was growing up, fishing with Dad, he always had a 10' piece of 1" aluminum conduit in the boat. Sometimes it was a push pole, some times it was a stake out anchor... When the wind is blowing, the pole holds better in soft mud than the regular anchor...

When I got my kayak, I had a 5' long, 1/2" pvc with a spike in the end - it made a great stake-out stick, mud, sand oysters, no problem. Deep water? problem! LOL

[timoub007]

Most of those ground rods are just copper plated steel, sot solid. They'll still rust on you.

The one I have in my garage is solid copper. I have not seen any of the plated ones around here. If it was plated steel it wouldn't be so easy to bend, and when it was hit with a sledge hammer to drive into the ground the plating would chip off.