22 minutes ago, Swamp Girl said:

I have to walk through the woods with my gear to reach my boats. An anchor would be one more thing in an already crowded, small boat and it would be additional weight to paddle. When you describe not anchoring as "lazy," you don't account for different fishing styles and situations.

Dropping an anchor and raising it in a small boat is oh-so different than your situation. If the water is cold and I'm fishing from my slender, tippy Kevlar boat, dropping and raising an anchor is dangerous.

In my more stable boats, it's still awkward. For example, at my pond, to reach open water, I have to squeeze my canoe through a narrow inlet in the dark with woody bushes on both sides trying to snag every loose item. An anchoring system running atop the gunnels would be one more thing for the bushes to snag. An anchor on the kayak at my pal's pond would be 15 more pounds to drag into and out of the water.

OK, however, I am not very well versed on how you fish

And comparing how our approaches may vary doesn't seem productive to me either.

You do it your way, and I'll do it mine.

A-Jay

I really liked @GRiver saying he uses some fiberglass gardening stakes in lieu of anchors and power poles! Great thinking!

Targeting an exact spot I'd like to cast at there is nothing better than a 20b anchor on a short length of rope. If I want to drift along very slowly I'll use a combination of one, two or three of the drift socks I always have with me. The spot-lock is best suited for temporary halts. In all of the scenarios I'm trying to cast as far away from the boat as possible to lessen the considerable commotion I can't help but make.

It depends. Some baits are better use when the boat doesn't move and for other baits, moving is part of the technique. For exemple: When I'm using a ned rig, I don't want the boat to move to much. The head is light and I don't want it to drift. When using a heavy tube ( 1/2 oz) I often drift, draging it and that's a technique onto itself.

But I mostly fish rivers with current. I've got spot lock and a Talon anchoring system for shallow water.

If the wind is light and pushing in the direction I want to go to get to a spot. I throw a t-rig, wacky worm or split shot rig out behind the boat, let out a bunch of line so it is way back there and just drift to my next spot. I have been surprised several times with a nice bass. I am not sure it is a real strategy, but it can work at times. I know some walleye, crappie and river anglers have drift fishing down to an exact science.

I always try and position so I can drift efficiently with the wind, but some days that's just not possible and have to stay in one spot. Generally bottom contact baits I want direct control over the speed so i use the trolling motor or position my kayak somewhere just out of the wind so I can stay still. Moving baits, covering water, always drift.

I have relied heavily on anchoring and using the wind to hold me where I want to be the last few years. My structure fishing has greatly improved since I started focusing on staying put, as touch and feel is greatly improved. But there are certain times when the wind and fish align and I can plan and execute a proper drift and that is usually when working vast flats.

scott

If I am targeting shoreline cover and the wind is right, then I do a lot of slow drift fishing. If it is breezy/windy then I am anchored.

Like @A-Jay said, I am also way more productive when I am stationary.

In my 23 years of fishing St Clair before spot lock, we used drift socks if the wind was up. It’s an age old technique to drag and snap tubes. As you drifted, we would drag tubes and when you caught a fish, drop a waypoint. We would drift a couple of miles. At the end, pull up the drift sock run back to the beginning of the trail from the drift and repeat. You only used the trolling motor to keep the boat positioned sideways in the wind. One of our trips was saved by dragging a Yamamoto DShad (pink), weightless. Dragging also inspired me to come up with a Senko rigged with a football head when slowing the boat with drift socks wasn’t possible. It was the only way to get the bait to the bottom. My point is that drifting and dragging is a time tested technique that works well.

I’ve had more success with a weightless worm when the boat was anchored. Dragging a worm can be effective too but in my experience a worm quietly dropped close to or in cover and allowed to fall on slack line will get more and better bites .

4 hours ago, Swamp Girl said:

An anchor on the kayak at my pal's pond would be 15 more pounds to drag into and out of the water.

15 lbs? I wouldn’t want to be pulling that up either. The one I use most often is 3.5, if it’s breezy I bring along a 7 instead, occasionally both, not that I’d want to take a walk thru the woods with either. If the 2 anchors don’t hold it’s time to head home.

I am almost always spot-locked, or running the trolling motor and moving along cover, making casts. Rarely, if ever, do I drift.

Home lake is full of standing timber...if I drift, I'm running in to something.

Spot-lock has been a game changer for me...Instead of tying off on a tree limb, or dropping anchor...I can position on some structure, spot-lock, and concentrate on fishing.

Just got MEGA 360 and I believe for the way I fish, it will very much enhance my ability to target brush piles, structure and cover, etc.

12 minutes ago, DaubsNU1 said:

Just got MEGA 360 and I believe for the way I fish, it will very much enhance my ability to target brush piles, structure and cover, etc.

I fish very similarly to you and I've been holding off on Mega360 for a bit. I feel the same though, being able to spot lock and cast to structure more accurately and efficiently would really improve my game. Of course...my buddy is trying to get me to go livescope but I'm not sold yet. That seems like it steps up the "work" in fishing and I want to enjoy it.

As others have said "it depends" and for me it depends on the situation.

BTW stop that "thinking". It only complicates things. I know! 😉

I almost forgot, for the last 3 or 4 years on St Clair, we dedicate a day or 2 drifting the St Clair river for walleyes vertical jigging blade baits. I’m relatively new to walleye fishing but we have had great success drifting with the current, using the trolling motor to stay parallel and to somewhat slow the drift while we drop blades straight down. Yes, we lose a fair amount of blades but we have yet to not get enough walleye for a fry and to bring some home.

I’m definitely a drift fisher. I’ll set out a drift sock to slow down in an area if I feel like I’m going by the too fast on windier days.

I'm both, but it depends on the conditions. Wind, structure, and cover will decide what I'm going to do.

On 3/4/2026 at 5:35 AM, GRiver said:

Most of the time I bump the trolling motor along the shore, then pause, fish and area, then move on. I have two fiberglass tree stakes that are my shallow water anchors/ push poles. On occasion I’ll stick-pin myself at a spot, but mostly I’m slow moving.

I'm interested in those tree stakes, may have to swing by Lowes tomorrow.

6 hours ago, Backroad Angler said:

I'm interested in those tree stakes, may have to swing by Lowes tomorrow.

Not only do they work as stick pins, they are push poles too. I turn them upside down and push with the handle down for softer bottoms. One of the cheapest and most useful DIY on the boat. They have two kinds of tree stakes one is hollow and one is solid fiberglass, hollow ones will bend and collapse.

I fish from big boat, jon boat, plastic one man boat and canoe. I stay put when needed , move when needed.

The fish tell me what to do, but only if I am willing to listen.

Most of the time I am assisting with the trolling motor in some way because if I don't I can be out over 200 to 300 feet of water in seconds. Sometimes to stay in one spot (sometimes for hours), sometimes to work a stretch of shoreline that me be 100 feet long to several hundred yards long.

Now that I have spot lock and battery for days, I almost never even have an anchor in the boat, let alone use it.