Precise Anchoring Techniques Will Improve Your Wreck Fishing Catch

When it comes to NJ wreck fishing, there is nothing more crucial than being able to properly position your boat upon the wreck

. This takes much practice, skill, luck, and that you use your electronic equipment to simplify things. The thing is that while some wreck snags are big, others are quite small and it is no small feat drifting a large boat over a hundred yards and ending up within 5 feet or less of your intended target area. Here is an approach I take.

Discovering The Fish

While this may seem a simple fact that, let me elaborate more. My goal is not just to find fish but to appreciate how they are laying on the structure. To hasten my chances of landing on fish during anchoring, I want to target the area of the wreck that is widest in the direction of the drift.

Without doubt this process is helped along greatly with a tiptop fish finder.

Once I find an area on the wreck that I believe looks good to target we usually do a test drop of a few lines to see what type of fish comes up. If we catch some things we don't want (like Dogfish and Bergalls) we usually look for another option. If the spot checks out good, drop a marker buoy on the spot. No matter how good your equipment, nothing beats a good ocular indicator on the water.

Setting Up the Anchor with a Trial Drift Run

The next task is to set up a drift such that you drift directly over your desired mark. This is where your chart plotter comes in. I usually do 1 or 2 test drifts before I actually set up and drop anchor.

Start by running straight upwind. While the wind is always a factor it is not always the only factor in finding out drift direction. Tides and prevailing currents will also play influence. Still, on most days the drift will be almost exactly with the wind. After you have done 1 or 2 test drifts successfully over the area you placed your marker buoy the next step is to actually drop your anchor.

Dropping the Anchor

Since you have already done a few successful test drifts over your mark, this should now be simplified. Keep this in mind though. In the previous step we were only determining the exact drift angle. In this step we must figure out exactly how much line we need to scope you bet far away from our marker we should drop our anchor. This is not as hard as it may seem. With our fish finder we know how deep the water is. So, take the depth of the water and multiply by 6. So suppose the water is 80 feet deep, that means we want to let out 480 feet of anchor line. And we want to drop it exactly 400 Feet directly updrift from our marked spot. This allows for the 80 feet of line to reach the bottom and a 5 to 1 proportion of scope on the anchor line. Note that in some considerations you mean need to change your scope ratio to 6 or even 7 to 1 but generally 5/1 is fine. One final note. Make absolutely positive that if you drifted to port on your test run you do the same on your actual anchor run. The deviation of whether you drift to port or starboard will change the angle of your drift just a bit and you wo n't hit your spot dead on unless you drfit the boat the same way as in your test drift run.

Parting Notes

Once you come tight on the anchor let the boat settle a little then do minor adjustments to your position as required by letting out or bringing in a bit line and or adjusting your cleat position. Give this approach a few tries and I am sure it will help you improve your success.

by: Captain Ed Crespy

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