Anchor Disasters

[Sturgeonbait]

I was thinking about some of the dumb things I have seen people do while on the river with there anchors so I decided I woul share these stories with you :grin:.
Firstly one time my dad and I were fishing for the good old fall Nooks. We were in a quite tight line and the fishing was a bit slow. Then one guy in the line decided that he would go ahead and leave his spot. He begins to pull his anchor and then decides to go ahead and go across all the anchor ropes when he gets just ahead of his ball :shocked:. Luckily even though he pulled achor across half the row there was no mess But what did he think he was doing :whazzup:?

Now I will torture you with one more story my dad and I were fishing together as usual,(He's a nice guy and takes his son fishing with him :grin and we anchor up next to one of our friends spring chinook fishing. We anchored a good ways above this guy who was fishing. Then our friend decided to move a bit closer to us and They guy about 50 yards down was freaking out saying that we were anchoring on his rope !(in less than 20ft of water) So we ignore him and tell him he is fine of course. Then he comes pulling his anchor up and goes risht between us and finally pulls it all the way up about 50 yards upstream of us . Then left looking at us like we were insane. We just laughed it off of course.

Those our my stories. I would like to also hear some other good anchoring stories so go ahead and post them hear .

[FishinTechnician]

We were anchored in a line down near Columbia City and were engaged in a friendly conversation with the guys in the boat next to us. The guy in the next boat over decided he was going to move to greener pastures and started up river to retrieve his anchor/ball in the traditional way. In the midst of our converstation with the guys in the next boat their boat suddenly lurches forward like it was coming off the line at a drag race. Needless to say the outside boat had picked up our neigbor's anchor line in the process of picking up his own. You should have seen the expression on our neighbor's faces when their boat suddenly started up the river.

[Sturgeonbait]

I love these stories
That face must have been priceless.

[Chrome Bumper]

Anchor disasters??? Well I geuss throwing the anchor overboard without attaching it to the anchor rode would be a disaster,,,, if it happened to me more than once . At least I've caught more anchors than I have lost

[Sturgeon Ryan]

Last yaer we were anchored at tongue point and watched this guy fight a fish for a couple hours passing the pole between the 3 guys on the boat.We were thinking these guys got into a very nice fish and watched on.The boat above them went to leave and wouldn't you know it they had his anchor rope about half way up.

[ctflyfish]

Unfortunately, anchoring can be dangerous, especially in moving water. I have been professionally involved in a few incidents, but two stand out:
(1) Two elderly fishermen in a boat below Bonneville decided to pull anchor and move to a new spot. The owner/operator applied power and moved ahead on his anchor puller, not noticing that several coils of loose line had become wrapped around his partners leg. He pulled his partner overboard, and he did not survive.
(2) A unlicensed guide on the Clearwater had his drift boat anchor hang up in rocks, in about 8 feet of water. Water was very cold. Guide (with no knife) went aft to dislodge the anchor and water came over the transom. Guide ordered his sports to jump out as they were going down. PFD's were locked under the seat. The sports died, guide lived, boat remained floating!
Be careful out there.

[Claybear]

I had a guy pull up and then go side ways across my rope, before I could do anything I was side ways across two anchor ropes and there bows in my side. Nasty mess to get undone from that. Had a back troller at Bonniville pull up the guys ancher that was next to me and then got it cought in his prop and came down side ways on me. I managed to get dropped put before to much could happen but him trying to save his plug was a bit much. He got a big ear full on that one. Columbia is no place to screw around on or any fast moving water for that matter.

[feisty's wife]

I was down at Bonnie a couple year's ago, anchored up, catching shaker's, and watched some guy try anchoring out in the deeper, faster water, 3 time's he tried...incidentally drifting down thru a bunch of anchored boat's, he and 3 buddie's, not a single one had a PFD on, would not listen to ANYONE...I ended up calling 911, they got the Sherrif's boat out there right now...Bonnie is a good place to get killed, even if you know what you are doing, there is alway's some idiot around, who does not even have a clue....ain't anchoring kinda like parking an SUV? DUH!!!!!!

[Irish Pennant]

A couple of years ago I was up at the fishery, The situation was, Late May, east wind @ 20-30 mph, there was a 14 ft Gregor with 2 on board, anchored in the deep fast water about 200 yards below the range marker, Their life jackets was in a net bag, tied to one of the boats ribs. A gust of wind blew their umbrella overboard. The skipper thru the tag end of the anchor line (about 100 ft uncoiled) over so they could drift back and recover their umbrella. The anchor line got wrapped around the motor (it drifted faster than their boat) and sucked the boat under. The Gal was helped out of the water by another boater (she was ok). The guy was fished out face down, CPR revived him. He was then taken back to the fishery and life-flighted out.
The guy was fishing for oversize sturgeon out of a 14 ft boat on a windy day in fast choppy water. :whazzup: and he drug his girlfriend along.

[pearl]

My favorite story....

I was springer fishing down by St Helens and was tied off to some pilings on a wing dam. About half way through the tide a gentleman and his wife pull up to tie off next to us. As this guy is running his tiller outboard he is shouting orders to the wife on how to set anchor on the pilings. He was one of those loud mouth grumpy guys that kept shouting orders to the misses and basicly treating her like crap. Instead of tying off to the piling he had her throw an anchor over the pilings. All I could do was smile.

As the tide rolled out we tried to drum up some conversation with our neighbors. She was nice and he a real piece of work. After we landed our third springer since his arrival he got in a huff and told the wife to reel in her gear. He then ordered her to pull the anchor. As I suspected the anchor had got entangled with all the wire, strapes and basic debris that makes up a wing dam. After 5 minutes of him yelling at her to pull harder and harder he throws his arms up and tells her to go back to the motor and he'll just do it himself. He stomps to the front of the boat and begins to yank on the rope. It won't budge so with all his might he bends his back and pulls for all he's worth. At once the rope gives and he falls directly into the 49 degree Columbia . The wife starts hystericly laughing and pointing at him as he foats between our boats.

Since she did not know how to run a boat I floated out and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him on board and took him back to his boat. Not even a thanks. I believe embarassment had now taken over common appreciation for possibly saving his life. Wife didn't seem to happy when I brought him back either

I still :grin: everytime I tell this story.

Pearl