Saw an interesting idea in In-Fisherman

[Roberta]

The new issue of In-Fisherman arrived yesterday and I was scanning an article about a guy who does deep water fishing for catfish. Something he does in some places where he has found large pockets of cats, is put out a permanent anchor to mark the spot. He'll tie a group of concrete blocks together and attach it to the appropriate length of braided rope, add a jug for a marker bouy and leave a long loop on the tag end to tie his boat to when he goes out to that spot. One advantage is that he doesn't spook the fish dropping anchor.
That's a new one on me - anyone try that? Seems like a good idea if you don't have GPS for finding your crappie trees. - Roberta

[Deacon]

The new issue of In-Fisherman arrived yesterday and I was scanning an article about a guy who does deep water fishing for catfish. Something he does in some places where he has found large pockets of cats, is put out a permanent anchor to mark the spot. He'll tie a group of concrete blocks together and attach it to the appropriate length of braided rope, add a jug for a marker bouy and leave a long loop on the tag end to tie his boat to when he goes out to that spot. One advantage is that he doesn't spook the fish dropping anchor.
That's a new one on me - anyone try that? Seems like a good idea if you don't have GPS for finding your crappie trees. - Roberta

Where we fish at Toledo Bend there is a fellow that has the same rig-up for his pontoon boat. He keeps the boat at the dock and in the morning motors out about 150 feet and graps hold of the floating jug and rope and ties on.
From the time he leaves his dock to the time he is tied-up ain't no more than 5-6 minutes.

[crap-king]

we have done something simular at the coast in the inlets we mark spots on islands to go back to but with the current it is next to impossible to put something stout enough to tie up to so we still have to use an anchor - we just try to anchor above and let enough line out to drift back to the spot
crap-king

[Moose1am]

Roberta:
I was shown that anchoring system in 1980 but we used it for a different reason. We used it to anchor or rescure boats into position on the Race Course for the "THUNDER ON THE OHIO" unlimited hydroplane races. It's sometimes hard to get an anchor to hold in the moving Ohio River when the water is high. This system was designed so that if we had to make a rescue run we could return to our anchor spot where the buoy was located. We had to make sure that our boats didn't drift into the race course during a race. Bill Muncie and Chip Hannour would have been mad at us if we ruined on of their races. LOL And we didn't want to make either one of them mad.

This is a good way to be able to save a spot but I am afraid it would invite others to use it while you were gone. Now if there was a way to hide the float so that only you could find it and use it to tie up to the anchoring system it would be better.

I hate to anchor unless I am fishing at night with underwater lights and even then I pray for a windless night so that I con't have to throw out the anchor. But I found that I was not catching any fish at night without anchoring. I am still new to the night fishing scene and still trying to figure it out. Maybe you could use this to mark a spot during the daylight hours and then use your system to come back to the spot after dark. It might be safer on the lake if it's not left there for more than a few hours.

The new issue of In-Fisherman arrived yesterday and I was scanning an article about a guy who does deep water fishing for catfish. Something he does in some places where he has found large pockets of cats, is put out a permanent anchor to mark the spot. He'll tie a group of concrete blocks together and attach it to the appropriate length of braided rope, add a jug for a marker bouy and leave a long loop on the tag end to tie his boat to when he goes out to that spot. One advantage is that he doesn't spook the fish dropping anchor.
That's a new one on me - anyone try that? Seems like a good idea if you don't have GPS for finding your crappie trees. - Roberta

[unknown 5]

On the lake I fish in, such a marker would be an open invitation for everyone to know where the spot is and use it. I don't mind sharing some fishing tips with folks but if I find a honey hole, I am going to try to keep quiet about it. :D

[Roberta]

Yeah, I thought about the "open invitation" thing, too, and wondered about how one might hide the marker. This guy uses as much as 100 pounds of block, so it's pretty much a mooring bouy like you see in some places. Thanks for the feedback. - Roberta.

[duane]

Yeah, I thought about the "open invitation" thing, too, and wondered about how one might hide the marker. This guy uses as much as 100 pounds of block, so it's pretty much a mooring bouy like you see in some places. Thanks for the feedback. - Roberta.

Would not work here in Missouri, I have tried. The state Water Patrol and Conservation Commission check jugs for names, # of hooks and fish. They must be run daily or taken up. They will cut the line if not.

[Roberta]

Good point. Ohio has similar rule for jug lines and trot lines, but I don't know if individuals can out out mooring anchors. The guys in the article fish in Texas. - Roberta

[Moose1am]

They may take it out of the water and call it a navigation hazard to give them reason to remove it. But if there are not hooks on the anchor line I don't think they would think it was someone's jug fishing device. But you never know what they might do.

I would be more worried about someone knowing where my fishing hole was and always being there before I arrived. I would not want to show someone the best fishing hole that I know about.

Maybe if there was a way to make the float be just about 6" below the water and have it a bland color that is not noticable so that others would not know that it was there. Then you could go to the spot and find the anchor line while no one else would see it when just driving past that spot. I found some markers down at KY lake that were made out small corks and the guy that put them in the lake used just enough string to get the marker to be about 4" below the surface. You had to be right on the spot and looking for that marker to find it. It was marking a drop off along shannon creek where I caught lots of bass, sauger and big crappie while fishing with crank baits. I never fished that spot for crappie but I think it would be a good spot. I think it was the outside bend of a section of shannon creek that came very close to the underwater shallow tip of an island. So you had deep water next to shallow flats and to make it even better there were several large stumps that were right along the edge of the drop off. They were sticking out of the water and easy to find even at summer pool. One day I spend about an hour motoring around over that spot to get a mental picture of the lay of the land. My dad just about went bonkers as he thought I was wasting valuable fishing time. But to this day I still know the way that creek bed runs though that spot and it has helped me do a better approach to the spot. I know how to cast so that my crank bait is running parallel with the drop off and not perpendicular to the drop off. That way my bait stays in the fish zone longer and I catch more fish that way. Dad use to read fishing fact's but he never wanted to use the new information. He always wanted to fish the old way. He would fish like heck and catch lots of fish but never wanted to experiment with new stuff. Me I like to play around and experiment a lot. I like to learn new ideas and try new stuff. I like to go to a new spot when I know that the fish are biting. I believe that fish turn on at certain times all over the lake at the same time. So when the fish are biting that is a great time to check out new potential spots. That way you know that the spot may be good. You can fish a spot that may be good but not figure that out when the fish are in a negative mood. But if you fish that same spot when the fish are in an agressive mood you can tell if the fish like that spot or not. Then you have another spot to try. Now dad used the same old spots every time we went fishing. It was the same old routine every time out. He learned where the fish were from a friend who he use to fish with. Back in those old days he caugth lots of bass with his friend from these spots. But that was back in 1957 when the lake was still full of wood and still new. The bass fishing was the best back then. They used to bring home stringers of big bass. But the lake has changed over the years and those same spots have changed too. The old hotspot was marked by three iron poles that were driven into the bottom of the lake at the end of a long point where there was a creek channel cutting though the area. This actually was the other back entrance to shannon creek. But one year we went to this spot and the iron posts were gone. Dad had not clue as to what to do then. Heck we could not even figure out which island end was the hot spot anymore without seeing those iron posts in the water. Things change. Later when I got my own boat I took some time oneday to crisscross over that old hot spot and figured out why it was so hot. It's a classic spot where shallow points drop off into deeper water. There was immediate access to the creek channel where huge schools of bass would swim by. They would rest at the end of the long point as it had lots of old stumps along all sides of the point. It was a perfect spot for bass.

I have included a few photos of some of days fish that he and his friend Don Martin caught back in Dec 1956.

I guess someone didn't want anyone else knowing about the hot spot and destroyed those iron poles that marked the spot. I suspect that they might do the same thing to the anchoring system.

Would not work here in Missouri, I have tried. The state Water Patrol and Conservation Commission check jugs for names, # of hooks and fish. They must be run daily or taken up. They will cut the line if not.

[fatboy]

geez moose, forget about the good old days and apply that knowledge to today