Thread: Dragging Chains and Heavy Winds

Never tried chains... always stayed home and watched gunsmoke or something. Sounds like some serious stuff there. Hopefully the winds will be in your favor. The one I looked at was high for the day ENE @ 11mph and that's not too bad. You know MONROE is old indian word for WINDY WEEKENDS. Good luck catch a big one!!

Stu, you mentioned your boat had a tendency to take waves over the transom. You might be better off turning into the wind and taking the hits with the bow. Probably have better control anyway. But from what I have read ya want multiple lengths of chain so you can combine them to get the desired results.

Drift socks should work also, never tried them but they may not hang up as much. Good luck I'll be fighting the wind this weekend too.......... Same old same old............

The price you would pay for all the chains I would think that a drift sock would be cheaper, easier and won't disturb the bottom. Even a couple 5gal buckets with holes in them hanged over the sides would work.

send Harrold a pm. He has used them and swears by them in heavy winds

I pull a sock right off the back cormer of my boat and longline over the top of it with no problems. The sock is as close to the boat as I can get it. One sock on a 17' Ranger 681 Fisherman is plenty in 11 mph winds.Thumbs Up

I used chains once and it worked great. I used 3/8" chain (I think) about 5 feet long, tied onto a rope that was about 30 feet long. We were in about 20 ft of water most of the time. I drug that chain for about 3-4 hours and I thought it was the best thing in the world...My weird way of thinking was when I went over some structure the fish may be holding close to, it would spook the fish and BOOM!!!..They would see the arsenal of jigs I was pulling and trigger a bite...Whether or not that theory actually worked or not I'll never know...But we did catch fish and in 15-20 mph winds....Only 1 problem...I was at Talquin!!!...That darn chain got hung on something on the bottom and would not let loose...I pulled from every direction with my trolling motor and it didn't budge...So I cranked up the big motor. All that did was put water in the back end of my boat while I was looking at the sky, so I just cut the rope...Personally, if I fished a lake that had a fairly clean bottom, I would not hesitate to pull a chain...But the 5 gallon bucket with holes in it or a drift sock works pretty darn good too....Just my 2 cents worth!

A lot of the Pros use the chain. I have heard them refer to it several times. I dont know what the advantage is over other choices. I have 2 --15 pound anchors i drop and it really slows the drift even in my pontoon. I always wondered where the pros kept that chain on the boat and how they keep from scratching the boat pulling it in??
p.s i am going to face the wind in my boat, drop the anchors out the side or front and troll. i do not put them out the back, but in a different boat who knows what works.