Quote Originally Posted by NewTyer 1 View Post
You got a picture of this bad boy? I can see where this years salary is going to be invested. Let's see....fish finder, anchor system, rod holders ...
I've got an $80 FF on my yak.

Anchor trolley is easy to rig; get two carabiners, and attach to the bow and stern carry handles. Run a light from the bow, to stern, and back to the bow. Get a large metal ring, and tie each end of the line to the ring. That's your attachment point. You can run that attachment point up to the bow, or back to the stern. For the anchor itself, get a 3 lbs rubber coated exercise weight at Wally World for about $5. Get some kind of line to use for your anchor line. I have 50' of line, but I don't plan on anchoring in deep water. Tie the line to the anchor, thread on another carabiner, then tie the other end of the line to a kite reel (find on amazon). Think the plastic reel for 100' extension cords, only much, much smaller. I clip the carabiner on the anchor line to the ring on the anchor trolley (the carabiner needs to slide on the line), and drop the anchor over. I have a cleat on the starboard side that I tie the anchor off to, then run the anchor trolley up to the bow or the stern.

I don't anchor a lot; I prefer to drift. I have a small drift sock, on a short piece of rope, with a clip on the end. I just attach the clip to ring on the anchor trolley, toss the sock overboard, and run it up to the bow or stern, and let the wind push me along.

I will also tie off to a snag with a homemade brush clamp; using a large, heavy spring-loaded clamp, with holes drilled in the handles, and a short length of line tied to it. I've got a carabiner attached to the other end of the line.

I've also made a Stake-Out-Stick. Similar to the shallow-water anchors that are on a lot of bass and bay boats now. Mine is 5' of PVC, with a t-joint on one end, and endcaps on that. The other end is plugged with a dowel rod, then cut at an angle so I can shove it through the ring on the anchor trolley, and into the mud below. It's water-tight, so it floats should I drop it. I've used it once in four years.

Rod holders are a complex subject. Most fishing kayaks come with one or two molded into the plastic. Most folks will make some out of PVC and attach them to a milk crate in the tankwell (I have four like this, two for trolling, two for holding the rods nearly parallel to the water to clear low-hanging brush). If you want to take your fly rod, you'll want a Scotty rod holder with the fly rod holder. If you're lucky, your yak came equiped with a Scotty (mine did), so you just need the holder, not the base. If you need to mount a base, you really want to do that in an area that you can easily access the underside of the plastic by hand. Drill a large metal plate with the hole pattern for the base, then drill the hull of the boat with the matching pattern. Put the plate on the inside of the hull, then thread the bolts through, and attach the base with the bolts. Make sure to GOOP the holes to keep water out. This will give the hull a little more support should the rod holder get stressed and torqued.

If you're going to be in a large lake, a GPS is nice, but I don't have one.