Lucky

[wishing2Bfishing 0]

well, took the boat out yesterday after work for a quick sesh. ended up in about 10ft of water flicking around soft-plastics for snapper. on my 3rd cast i hooked a nice flathead which swam straight to the surface and gave me a good eyeball of it before spitting out my plastic and swimming back down. i was spewing but happy as well because mate Will and I had always suspected that we would get flathead in this spot and now we had confirmation that they were there.Will hooked and landed a nice snapper not long after which i reckon would have gone 42cm but he wanted to make sure so put it up to the measuring sticker on the side of the boat where it decided to jump out of his hands straight back into the water. Oh well, at least we had each hooked (and in his case landed) quality fish on SP's which was our mission for the trip.not long after the Snapper jumped back in i noticed we were drifting. Will jumped up and pulled up the anchor rope and that was all we got back, the anchor rope. my 20ft of chain and anchor had come off, the stainless steel D shackle had loosened and finally come undone. i was f :c g spewing, i could see myself having to fork out $150 for a new anchor and chain so, despite the fact that the tide was almost in making the water nearly 13ft deep, the sun was half set and i didnt have a snorkel or flippers, i jumped straight in and tried a few duck dives looking for it. i reckon i tried for about 20 minutes before accepting that i would have to wait until daylight and a low tide to have any chance of getting it back.So, today i rushed home from work, hooked the boat up and my mate daniel and i headed out to try and retrieve it. it wasnt ideal conditions, im not sure how strong it was but there was a pretty decent NE blowing but the water was reasonably clear so we got to the spot i was at the day before and tied an anchor he had bought with him to my anchor rope and anchored up near where i had marked my anchor. i jumped straight in and started swimming around looking for my anchor. i could see the bottom fairly well and it was only around 9ft deep so i was optimistic that i would find it. it took me about half hour but eventually i saw the chain lying n the sand. my heart leapt and i duck dived straight down, grabbed it and swum it back to the boat. Might have to go buy $150 of fishing tackle with the money i saved when i come down to adelaide next week to see the folks for xmas :cheer: Moral of the story is that if you must use stainless steel D shackle's for ur anchor then MAKE SURE THEY ARE TIGHT OR PUT WIRE OR SOMETHING ON IT TO MAKE SURE IT CANT COME UNDONE. they have a habit of gradually loosening over time as i found out the hard way. it took mine 8 months to loosen and come off and im just glad it happened in 8ft and not 80ft. from now on i shall be using galv D shackles or if i do use stainless steel do it up with a shifter and check it regularly for tightness. some might say rookie mistake but oh well, the story had a happy ending and hopefully i can save someone from losing an anchor! :side:

[ScaleyTom 19]

Nice little story there w2Bf I can relate to your frustration losing a good anchor. I've lost about three good grapnels, with chain in the rip, until i was told how to set an anchor up properly by the late Laurie Birdseye.Wasn't a shackle issue, just getting them snagged on the bottom and not having the power to pull them free.And there aint no way i'm diving down into 25 meters of rip water to retrieve anything

[jaffa 81]

Hey ppl, @wishing2Bfishing, I`d recommend either centre punching the pin or using Loctite to avoid a repeat of that "rookie mistake" as you put it. Never had a problem in over 50 years of fishin` doing either of the above. Cheers.

[pauly s 426]

I was lucky on the last trip in the tinny b4 I sold it I pulled the anchor and just as I got it in the boat the shackle fell off

[4THALOVE 45]

well done on the fish on placcys mate top effort as for retrieving your anchor bloody norah your game cos were there are snapper there are with the rate of the grey fellas being sited out locally here no way i'd be getting out in the H20 cheers 4THA

[Trouta 6]

I feel your pain, my 3rd only ever trip after becoming a boat owner same thing, lost the anchor and chain to a loose d shackle, big cohannas for going in after it, bugger that

[brenton 637]

I just belt the pin of the D shackle and mine has never come off,I've had the same anchor and chain for nearly 20 years with 1 rope change./ cheers nereus

[baitwaster 202]

to me about 6 years ago in me third boat, you only let it happen once!

[Guest]

Yeah as others have said I also just punch a bur in the thread and no worries.