Staying anchored with Power Pole (parent anglers best friend)
The goal of taking kids fishing is to have fun, with that being said, it's good to at least catch a couple of fish. Lets face it, if your kids or yourself are not catching fish it's either because you're in the wrong place, fishing at the wrong time or using the wrong bait or lure. Typically it comes down to TIME. Time well spent, yields results.......

I preach that efficiency equals effectiveness on the water. Anything you can do to help save your time and energy is very important. That time and energy needs to be dedicated towards mentoring your kids and maintaining their safety. How can we as parents, spend less time worrying and preforming menial tasks out on the water with our kids? Easy, find ways or
products that help you save that time. Let's use anchoring to the seafloor as one of those menial tasks.
Why Do We Anchor ?
In most cases we anchor to hold our vessel in a certain place to fish or fix a problem. With that being said, if were fishing while anchored, we must think about maintaining our stealth and silence, especially if we are in shallow water. No body wants to hear an anchor chain dragging on their non skid or the anchor clang off the hull of their vessel and neither do the fish. "Fixing a problem" is usually the most common and takes the form of getting hung up in structure, limbs, shoreline, dock you name it, kids are casting and getting hung up constantly. Ultimately, we anchor to help our kids land fish and stay in that zone where we can continue to catch fish with without having to start up our engine. Luckily for us parent anglers, a lot of research and development has happened in the fishing industry in the last decade. Power Pole, owned by JL Marine, has come out with some cool technologies that can save you time and energy.

The Power Pole
One of the biggest pains when taking kids fishing is having to deploy the anchor. Your kids are usually standing on top of the hatch to the compartment where the anchor is located and by the time you get the kids out of the way and the anchor out, you have drifted away from the location. Having the ability to anchor at the touch of a button is critical, especially if you're by yourself and no one to help you. The Power Pole is a near indestructable shallow water anchor that can deploy at a touch of a button in any type of bottom as long as its 4-10 ft deep depending on the model. They come in a variety of models and sizes and mount easily to the stern of your boat. I have even seen some cool fabrications to where you don't need to drill directly to your hull and you can mount it on an external mount if you're worried about holes. So no more yelling at the kids to get out of the way, no untangling lines, no cleats and no worrying about drifting away from your spot.

Time and Energy
My kids last approximately 5 hours on the water which is above average. Out of those 5 hours we travel around for an hour looking for new spots to adventure or just traveling to get my infant to take a nap. We usually stop at the sandbar which takes up another two hours which leaves us an hour of fishing give or take. Actual fishing time with kids comes down to a grand collective of 45 minutes before they start asking to "go back home" or "go to the beach." Usually we can convince them to stay for another thirty minutes before they lose it. With that being said, you have a narrow window get to your destination without spooking the fish, set up and start looking for your targets while keeping the kids entertained. The more time you spend untangling lures out of the shoreline, drifting off spots by opening hatches and taking out anchors, and keeping kids as quiet as possible, the less likely you are to be successful. You might be saying to yourself "I don't need a Power Pole, I keep my anchor conveniently located on the deck of my boat ready to deploy." Cool, I get it, but what your failing to realize is the amount of time you just spent altogether anchoring. You're taking into consideration when anchored how is the boat going to swing? how much line do I need to let out? Is the fish going to wrap up on the anchor line? Which cleat do I secure it too? Is everyone clear of the anchor line for safety reasons? By the time you deploy your anchor, secure it and rush back up to where your kid is, its been around 3 minutes all said and done. If your fishing a shallow area that has current or its windy and this happens, you might as well start that engine and go to your next spot. By utilizing the Power Pole properly you just turned that 3 minutes into 5 seconds stayed up on the bow with your kid and solved whatever time sensitive problem you encountered or helped them land the fish of a lifetime.

Power Pole and Customer Service
Our Power pole has granted us the ability to be able to launch our skiff in places with no dockage or anywhere to tie off, the ability to stake out at the touch of a button in any bottom and save time to dedicate towards our kids. What's even more important is Power Pole as a brand. We bought a Power Pole blade in 2018 when we purchased our Maverick 18 HPX. While staked out for permit, we some how snapped the joint where it connects to the pole. Our pole got lodged in the limestone bottom and as I walked back to the stern of the boat the weight of my body combined with the angle of the joint exploded it! I contacted Power Pole and since I registered my Blade with them they replaced all parts and sent me a brand new stake to go with it. Those parts were at my door step in 3 days even with the Florida Keys shut down in the middle of the COVID crisis. I stand by this brand and company and will continue to support them. If you have any more questions or specs you would like to know about Power Poles shallow water anchors feel free to message or email us.
Stay hooked fam
Scott Brown