I bought a new Anchor Wizard this past week and fished a two day tournament Sat & Sun, my first kayak tourney. Obviously I didn't have time to test it before the tournament but to be honest it's a fairly simple mechanism and I didn't really think there was much that could go wrong.

 

Lines in at 6:00AM but you could paddle to your spot before that. Around 5:15AM I'm launching at the ramp and right before getting in the water I hooked my anchor to the wizard and it hit the concrete and was dragging. The Wizard would not hold enough tension to hold the 3# anchor nor will it wind up and retract whether the anchor was on it or it was just the string.

 

I'm pretty mechanically inclined and when I got home Saturday evening it will not catch to hold tension or retract. So I was depending on that Saturday to fish and it was windy and it gave me fits trying to fish Saturday. Put my stakeout pole back on the yak for Sunday. Obviously I'm sending it back but with corona shops are closed and I had to order, etc and it's a pain.

 

Has anyone else had an Anchor Wizard fail?

I've had that happen a couple of times, but not that soon.  Pull all the anchor line out.  Stick your finger in the hole the line comes out of and put tension on the spindle inside with your finger.  Wind the handle until it tightens up.  I've had to do it twice in two years.  Hopefully this helps you. 

 

1 hour ago, Dens228 said:

I've had that happen a couple of times, but not that soon.  Pull all the anchor line out.  Stick your finger in the hole the line comes out of and put tension on the spindle inside with your finger.  Wind the handle until it tightens up.  I've had to do it twice in two years.  Hopefully this helps you. 

 

On one hand it averages once a year for you, on the other hand things like this always seem to happen at the most inconvenient times. I'd hate to have my anchor 15' or so under water and have to cut it loose. Where mine is located I'm not sure I could do that fix on the water.

Are you guys using the full size one or the shorter one?  I've got 2 of the shorter type and there are times I have to let the line all of the way or most of the way out to get it to engage.  I use mine for a anchor off the bow carrying handle and a drag chain.  I have more issues with the anchor, so I wonder if it fails more often if you don't have a constant load applied.  Either way, it doesn't happen to me often, and considering the alternatives (winder, wrapping around cleats), the Anchor Wizard makes it too easy for me to complain too much.

I have the taller one. I wanted the shorter one, I'm a shallow water guy, but Hook1 only had the bigger one in stock and they are closed due to corona so I had to order what was available since I really wanted it for the tournament this past weekend.

Contact the guys at Anchor Wizard. From what I've heard they have excellent customer service and will take care of it. 

1 hour ago, dickenscpa said:

On one hand it averages once a year for you, on the other hand things like this always seem to happen at the most inconvenient times. I'd hate to have my anchor 15' or so under water and have to cut it loose. Where mine is located I'm not sure I could do that fix on the water.

Why would you cut it loose???  Pull it up by hand.   I have the short one.  

 

4 hours ago, Dens228 said:

Why would you cut it loose???  Pull it up by hand.   I have the short one.  

 

LOL! You’re right, I don’t know what I was thinking. 

19 hours ago, dickenscpa said:

have the taller one. I wanted the shorter one

I don't know what might be causing that type of issue, I've had mine apart and I can't come up with a good reason for the few issues I've had.  The short one has like 35' or so of line on it, so maybe you can see if that one works better when you send yours back.

23 hours ago, CountryboyinDC said:

I don't know what might be causing that type of issue, I've had mine apart and I can't come up with a good reason for the few issues I've had.  The short one has like 35' or so of line on it, so maybe you can see if that one works better when you send yours back.

I pulled all of the line out and put small pressure on it and it retracted. I let it down about 3-4 times in the garage and it quit retracting again. Went thru all of that again and then it wouldn’t drop the anchor.

 

Hook1 reopened yesterday so I took it back for a refund. Wasn’t gonna go thru all of that all the time or wind up with another problem on the water. 

Sounds like you really got a dud.  That would make me reluctant to get another one too.  If they bottom is right, I'd just use a stakeout pole.  They're way simpler, provided the bottom is right.

On 5/6/2020 at 4:13 PM, CountryboyinDC said:

Sounds like you really got a dud.  That would make me reluctant to get another one too.  If they bottom is right, I'd just use a stakeout pole.  They're way simpler, provided the bottom is right.

I’m a shallow water guy and the bottoms where I fish are super soft. I have a 6’ stakeout pole but by the time it sinks a foot and I raise my seat to fish I can only stakeout in about 4’.  My plan with the wizard was to drop anchor up to maybe 10’.

 

May get an 8’ pole. I looked at the Power Pole micro anchor but there’s a couple spots I go under a bridge and would have to maneuver a bit. To be honest even a micro power pole is really only good to 6’ and for $600 I’m just not feeling it.