Columbia River Anchor System

A Columbia River Anchor System is an important part of your boat’s gear.

There are several components that make up this particular type of River Anchoring System and these components work together to make deployment and retrieval of your anchor a breeze compared to traditional manual methods.

A typical Columbia River Anchor System will consist of the following main components:

Columbia River Anchor

There is NO one anchor type fits all solution, but the Columbia River anchor works in more varying river bottoms than most other anchors. If your anchoring calls for a different type of anchor, use what works best for your situation. The Columbia River Anchor works well by having the digging ability in harder bottoms with the narrower tines and holding power in softer bottoms with the weight it brings to the table.

You can take a look at this video here to get an idea of what a Columbia River Anchor System does for you, then continue down the list.

Anchor Nest

Not just a bracket to hold your anchor, but one that has built in functionality to assist in deploying and retrieving your anchor.

Buoy Ball with Anchor Puller attached

This is the piece that takes out about 99% of the manual labor of retrieving your anchor. Using the power of your boat, the anchor slides up the anchor puller and brings the anchor all the way up to the buoy, leaving just slack rope to pull into your boat.

Anchor Line (Rope)

Well, of course you need rope!

Extra Chain

By adding a length of chain to the end of your river anchor, it will help lay the anchor down when deploying, as well as helping it stay down. A good average length is 6’ of 5/16” chain. Some folks use less, some use more.

Anchor Rope/Rode Bag with float

 

 

This is an overlooked tool that, when adding a float to the Anchor Rope Bag, allows you to get off anchor quickly and have your anchoring system right where you left it to get back on anchor. I’d like to say, “back in the old days, folks used buckets”, but there are still some folks using them. That’s ok, some folks still have tube tv’s.

Boat Hook

Very handy when getting back on anchor from above. It extends your reach when retrieving you rope bag.

All these components together make up a Columbia River Anchor System and with this type of Anchoring System, your time on the water can be spent enjoying what you set out to do, not fighting with your anchoring.

If you’ve made it this far in the article, you have probably watched the videos and took a look at some of the products discussed by clicking on the pictures with the links. Instead of piecing these things together, you can also get packages that allow you to get most of what you need, then only add a couple of extras to top it off.

If you have figured that you need to get going on a Columbia River Anchor System, check out some of the options from below.

And as always, if you have questions or comments, don’t hesitate to leave them below or contact us directly.

Reviews (4 comments)

  • Anchor Caddie On

    Hi Thomas,

    The magic number 7:1 comes from the Coast Guard recommendation in the most extreme conditions. Although I can’t counter their recommendation, I have never used 7:1 when anchoring.

    I have a sturgeon hole that I fish on the Willamette that is 100’ deep that has little to no current and my anchor is almost straight down from my boat, so my scope is about 1:1. Other locations on the Willamette and Columbia, I will have anywhere from 2:1 to 4:1, again, depending on current and conditions.

    On the other end of the things, there is a particular spot on the Columbia in the springtime when the current is really ripping that is about 15’ deep and a lot of boats have to drop about 300’ of rope just to hold the boat.

    Hope this helps.

    Regards,
    Paul

  • Thomas H McIntire On

    They say length of rope sb 7 X depth you’re fishing at. So at 200’ deep X 7 = 1400’ of anchoring rope. Wow. So where does this magic number 7 come from? Do I really need 1400’ of rope at the Kettle River Bridge on Roosevelt fishing for sturgeon???

  • Jeff On

    You need this anchor.

  • Anchor Caddie On

    Hi Paul,

    At the bottom of the blog post, you will see a picture with all the components listed. Click on that and it will take you to our complete anchoring packages. You can also copy and paste this into your browser, https://www.anchor-caddie.com/collections/anchoring-package-deals

    If you have any more questions, you can also give us a call.

    Thanks,
    Paul

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