I put 18" of heavy chain on the anchor then the rope. The helps the anchor bite. The more rope you have out the more your boat can bob up and down with the waves and not take on water. When I pick up the anchors In heavy wind I start with the front anchor and get the bow going into the wind I have a customer gently pull the slack line from the back anchor rope, when I get the front anchor up I quickly go to the back of the boat and get the back anchor. It is a lot of work especially when the bite is slow and moving a lot.

Disclaimer: Anchoring in wind like the last three days could be DANGEROUS in a small aluminum boat, if your anchors bite into stumps with a short amount of rope out you could take on a lot of water in a hurry.

Hows the fishing?

The last two days we fished all day to put walleyes in the boat we have been catching quite a few smallmouth, yesterday around 10 keeper perch our best fish two 18-3/4" smallmouth. Took a while to come up with the walleyes they were definitely slower.

With the 20mph winds the last few days it was hard to tell from evidence on the water surface but I believe the mayflies on the big water side hatched Sunday evening. Yesterday we fished a wind blown shore that was thick with washed up remains.