Last weekend we floated the Arkansas River in between Buena Vista and Salida, Colo. We camped and floated two separate days. The camping was fantastic, company spectacular, weather was great, and the fishing pretty darn good. I brought a brand spanking new Tornado Anchor to test specifically on these floats (more on that later).
Problem was I hadn’t used this specific anchor line in quite some time and never with this anchor. When I went to clip the carabiner to said anchor it was far too long and would have dragged in the water at points being both unsafe and really annoying. We needed to loose about 4 to 5 inches of length on the set up.
So what did we do?
We tied the rope directly to the anchor (as see above) with a bowline knot. Why that knot? Specifically because it can take massively heavy loads and at the same time it’s very easy to unite after said loads are applied. Perfect for a boat anchor.
It worked like a charm. After a long day of setting up in heavy currents to cast to rising fish I simply pulled the knot apart and unhooked the anchor. Many other knots would have been incredibly hard to undo after that much stress. So do yourself a favor and learn what some call the king of boat knots for this situation or any others you might find yourself in while rowing and looking for fish.
As Capt. Quint says in the movie Jaws, “The little brown eel comes out of the cave… Swims into the hole… Comes out of the hole… Goes back into the cave again.”
Hopefully, you’ll have more luck with it than Chief Brody.