Structure anchoring tip

[NQCairns]

Wish I had thought of this 20 years ago!
I found the tip elsewhere on the net.

To anchor your boat on the first attempt right smack on tie a 6 foot small buoy to the end of your marker buoy. Simply line up the two markers with the stern, drop the anchor and the wind and tide/flow will guide you right over the desired spot.
What a great idea. cheers nq

[predator]

To anchor your boat on the first attempt right smack on tie a 6 foot small buoy to the end of your marker buoy. Simply line up the two markers with the stern, drop the anchor and the wind and tide/flow will guide you right over the desired spot.

Sorry nq, I dont understand.... ???

[Sportfish_5]

Couple of drifts over your wreck/structure would give you just as much an idea of how the boat will go once under anchor. Wind will also play its part if you are trying to position on a small structure. Just a bit of practice ::)

[NQCairns]

Hi Predator, an easy way when sounding for fish or structure is once found you drop a marker buoy straight over. Then keep going checking around further or circle back and try and anchor over it, sometimes it can be a very small patch and if like me you want straight into them without fuss, sometimes it can take a few attemps for the majority of us. With this way the smaller buoy gets pushed by the wind and flow away from the big buoy, that direction will be very close to the correct direction to drift back onto the mark after droping the pick. Hope I made more sense. cheers nq

[Volvo]

:)nqcairns, i sometimes carry a plastic bottle(x-4 litre juice container) with enough line tied to one end to reach the bottom comfortably and two two/maybe three good sinkers at the other end.
Soon as i come over my wreck/Bommie i just drop it over the side or the back :).
Move away and back to the spot and do a drift or two away just to see which way the wind and drift will take me.
Next time i drive straight past it, drop my pick and let the tide/breeze take me back towards the marker..Stop short so my line actually floats n sinks towards the desired structure..
Change of tide i do the same in the opposite :)..
If its a structure i reguly Fish i ussually allready know which way the tide will take the rig so only a matter of motoring over the possie far enough and dropping the pick :)..
Main trouble can be dropping the pick too early and end up having it drop straight into the bowels of a wreck :o, hence, end of one good anchor and chain along with some length of Rope :(..
Cheers

[predator]

tie a 6 foot small buoy to the end of your marker buoy....... ::)
Thats the part that threw me.
I understand what you are saying from your 2nd post.... ;D ;D
Thanks

[baldyhead]

That small bouy must be a bloody good swimmer?

[NQCairns]

Predator, I can see how that would ;D, I should reread my posts, too slack by far :-X.cheers nq

[Dignity]

G'day folks, after a lot of experimenting I use a 2 litre coke bottle painted with bright orange road marking paint for anchoring/drift fishing. The "waist" of the coke bottle is perfect for wrapping the line around and the bottle sits nicely on the water while unwinding unlike a lot of the juice containers where the line can sometimes get tied in knots as it twists off. The reflective orange can be seen up to a kilometer away even in moderatly choppy conditions.

[Tony_N]

Just found this thread by Search.

i've made one of these marker buoys and its pretty flash - but I'm a bit fearful that I'll lose it on first drop.

Being from "Mexico" my boating is not protected by the GBR and we get some pretty fearful currents down here. The pro's measure current by the number of bubbles ( trap buoys) pulled under by its force.

i currently have a 150 mm float on it - but does anybody south of the reef use these markers and have any suggestions as to float size needed so that it can be retrieved?

thanks

Tony

[propdinger]

why not use your gps ???
i find that after a drift over the structure the gps give me the line of drift do you guys use the bouy system cause you dont have a gps???

[Tony_N]

Yeah - have a basic Navman GPS - but still have some learning to do to get it right first (or even 2nd) attempt. Figured that the buoy system would speed up the learning curve.

[cyclone]

I'm with propdinger here if you have gps zoom the plot screen in works best with a grid displayed on the screen do a test drift then you should have a pretty straight line drawn on the plotter all thats left to do is motor up parrallel to the line and drop the pick.

[NQCairns]

Yeah but guys you still have to find the spot by gps, drift back past (or somewhere) to check flow/wind then motor forward past the spot again (or somewhere) to drop the anchor, then drift back again on anchor.
With this way it seems (have yet to use it) the whole drift back past and motor forward etc gets skipped! Gotta be less hastle?
Would work like this, find spot, drop marker while still moving forward at best guess, stop far enough away for enough warp, jockey position according to the small/big buoys position to each other, drop anchor then drift back straight onto it. Will know for sure if I ever try it. cheers nq

[Tony_N]

All I wanted to know was what size float to use. i think my answer is to use a big one



With this way it seems (have yet to use it) the whole drift back past and motor forward etc gets skipped! Gotta be less hastle?


The one major hassle that comes to mind is that the line and buoys will be very near where you are fishing and may get n the way

[NQCairns]

Nah Tony a fairly small one for the big buoy,minimum is enough to float the line/cord, if deep and flow go up in size as needed, we used to have a few markers that got thrown each time a nice echo was found on the sounder, floats were around 10cm across but as stated above today with gps woking so well the need to use is gone.

"The one major hassle that comes to mind is that the line and buoys will be very near where you are fishing and may get n the way"

We used to use a weighted treble on a hand line with cord to catch it and haul it back in before fishing.

Cheers nq