Scott: Your profile doesn't give any hint of where you are located. Is this a private lake? Is it a natural lake, or a reservoir? What is the bottom like? Out in California most of the lakes are actually reservoirs and are owned/operated my some sort of government agency. Such places usually take a very dim view of people installing any sort of permanent fixtures on the lake. If it is a reservoir then you need to account for changing water levels. The water level can drop pretty fast in the month of August and September. A spot that was wading distance from shore now could be high and dry in another month. If the bottom is soft mud then just about anything heavy can serve as a good anchor. Old engine blocks work good. Just be careful that you aren't cited for pollution by dumping an old engine block or similar into the lake! If you don't want the mooring to be permanent, and the bottom is soft (sand, clay, mud, etc) then my recommendation is to get three Danforth style anchors with at least twenty feet of chain on each one. Drop the anchors in a triangle pattern, at least 5 times as far apart as the water is deep. Make sure the anchors are well set then tie off their lines to a float in the middle. If you are not using all chain then I recommend tying the lines together, then use a short length of chain (as long as the water is deep) to connect the tie point to a float. The idea is that you want the ropes connecting the anchors to lay along the bottom so that passing boats doesn't snag it. With the anchors in a triangle pattern you will always have at least one anchor that is properly positioned and set to hold your boat regardles of the wind direction. You can also end up with a significant amount of "scope" while limiting the circle that the boat will swing. Rod
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