Digger Anchor Review

There are not many products that I use that I sit back and just say “wow” but Digger Anchor is one of those products. If you own a catfish boat you owe it to yourself to check out a Digger Anchor.

Boat control is one of the critical elements of catfishing and when you start targeting blue catfish and anchoring up on those fish boat control becomes even more important. Finding fish in a small section of a ledge of a river channel, on a hump, or in some other small area, marking them with a marker buoy, anchoring up and casting into them is a very common technique for fishing for blue catfish and can produce tremendous results when you learn how to do this. Being able to put your boat where you want it and keep it there is also a critical part of this technique.

There is nothing worse than marking catfish on your graph, throwing out your marker buoy and then tossing out your anchor and it not grabbing and having to repeat that process over and over to get it to grab so you have the correct boat position to cast into or around these catfish. Even worse is it not grabbing and dragging it through these catfish “spooking” them and ruining your location you have targeted. Even worse than that is having to cancel your fishing trip because you cannot fish the locations you need to target catfish because your anchor will not hold.

Over the years I had fished with just about every product out there, from mushroom anchors to fluke anchors and everything in between and while all of them worked in some shape, form or fashion I always had the issue that they would not hold in high winds and I always lost anchors. I have a spot on Lake Lewisville that is one of my favorite fall catfish locations where I must have lost 10 over the years. Since I have started using Digger Anchors I have never lost one.

When I got my Xpress HD22CC catfish boat I had a real problem with keeping the boat where I wanted it. Having a large lightweight aluminum boat is an advantage in a lot of respects but keeping it on in place in very high winds can pose some serious problems, and no matter what I tried I could not find anything that would hold my boat in the high winds so I set out on a quest to find something that would work, and I never looked back.

The Digger Anchor will grab when they need to grab, they hold when they need to hold and again I have never lost one, and I have been caught up in some pretty nasty stuff. I can recall on many occasions wrapping my anchor rope around a cleat in the boat to attempt to pull it loose and thinking this would be the time I didn’t get it back, and it coming right up.

One of the biggest advantages of this product is that you don’t have to use a chain with it like you have to with most other fluke anchors and again it grabs when it needs to. The bigger advantage however is the shaft of the anchor has a spring mechanism in it and when you give the rope a quick tug the anchor shaft of the anchor breaks free and the flukes come out releasing from the mud (or other obstructions) and more often than not all the first and debris also falls off the anchor so it does not end up all over your boat.

There really is no “tricks” to using this product but I can share a few helpful hints that I have picked up through the years I have been using this product.

• Always make sure you have plenty of anchor rope out, especially in very windy conditions. If you don’t have enough rope out and your boat is rocking a lot with the waves, it will trip the mechanism and cause the anchor to break free. This is easily remedied by letting more rope out.
• Occasionally check the nut and bolt that run through it to make sure it stays tight. Over long term use it has tendency to loosen up. This is just minor maintenance like anything else.
• Over long term use the spring mechanism in the anchor will get stiff and not function properly if not maintained. It just gets “gunked up”. If you will give this mechanism an occasional shot of WD40 when you do maintenance on your boat it will prevent any issues with this mechanism. Even if it does get stiff, it still works but you have to give it a much harder tug to get it to break free.

If you own a catfish boat and plan on doing any catfishing where you will be anchored this is one of those “must have” products. I could go on and on for pages about how great these are and how many times they have saved me on the water but I would just be repeating myself.

I put together a short video that shows some of the features of the Digger Anchor including the tripping mechanism.

Link: Digger Anchors At Bass Pro

**Disclaimer – I am and have been on the Pro Staff of Digger Anchors for many years. While I have received compensation from Digger Anchors in the past in the form of free product I have not in any way shape or form been compensated to write this review.