Ever been hanging around a bunch of seasoned boaters or fishermen and hear the term "sea anchor"? Or listening to a conversation down at the dock that goes something like this; "We splashed the drag bag to get our trolling speed down"? These guys are not speaking a foreign language. They are talking about a very old method of reducing head speed while underway on a boat.

Para Sea Anchor

Sea anchors have been around for many years and up until the past ten or so years were only used on large sport fishing or sailing boats. Tournament anglers in smaller outboard powered boats discovered the benefit of these simple devises and quietly Incorporated them into their trolling methods for both fresh and saltwater species. The results are amazing.

Trolling for specific pelagic fish demands several factors to be successful. One of the biggest factors is the speed in which you are trolling. Most fishermen pulling live bait have the constant battle of running too fast for the bait fish to swim and therefore killing all chances of catching their targeted species.

Maintaining these critical speeds will be the difference of a great day of fishing versus nothing to cook or show for when returning to the dock.

Here are several ways to keep a constant speed headway on your boat. First is to slow troll at a low idling in gear configuration. This is very bad on your outboard and causes carbon build up quickly. This is most critical in a traditional two stroke outboard that burns a gas and oil mixture. The carbon build up can foul spark plugs and shut the motor down. Also poorly effected the cooling of your motor.

Illegal for Trolling Use

Running at these low RP M's will not turn the water pump impeller fast enough to cool the motor properly.
These low revolutions will also hamper any control of your boat’s direction. The slower the propeller is turning, the less responsive your boat will become.

Another method of maintaining speed is gear bumping.
Gear bumping is the act of shifting in and out of gear to keep a constant pace or speed. Again this is not a preferred practice as the strain and toll this puts on your lower unit and gears is tremendous and will cost you heavily in repairs in the long run.

The best and most efficient way is to deploy a sea anchor. By using this simple devise you can maintain your desired speed, avoid carbon build up and still have complete control over your vessels movements.

A sea anchor is comprised of only two main components, the bag or sock and the line it is attached to. The sock is usually made out of a heavy canvass material that is in the form of a bag. This bag is wide at the opening, facing the boat, and tapers down into a cone shape. Small holes or baffles are sewn into the very bottom of the cone to allow small amounts of water to pass. This helps to reduce the pressure on both the bag and line when used in extreme conditions. A properly used sea anchor can reduce a boats forward speed as little as a 1/4 , to as much as one full mile per hour.

Other functions a sea anchor provides is vertical and horizontal control. When a boat is anchored in heavy wind and current conditions the boat can be pushed side to side. A sea anchor will reduce this effect by catching the current thus making the boat to be anchored in line and remain straight. Vertical control is achieved by using the same sea anchor to reduce the forward rocking and surging when fishing in sloppy conditions.

Sea anchors can be purchased from most any marine retailer and should be matched with the size of your boat. Try one out for yourself. Once you start using one, its hard to fish without it.

Admin Note: Dragging a Sea Anchors (metal hard anchors) is illegal due to the possibility of damaging a fiber optic telephone cable (dark fiber cable) or even worse a fiber optic Sea Cable (Armored Cable).
Even the use of "para anchors" in coral reef areas is illegal in many parts of the world!