Micro Anchor, Anyone Using on on Your Tracker?

[John_6788]

I have a Classic so I was thinking I might get one of these. I was also thinking for the bow, I might buy a separate pole for better stabilization in the wind. I primarily fish in 4-7' of water, so I think 8' poles will suffice.

Questions:

Was installation straight forward, did you use the transom adapter? (what tips can you give?)
Does it work as designed?
Any problems with it?

[jrfuda]

I have a pair mounted to my V16 - carry over from a smaller boat and no funds for pros or blades at the moment. I used their Dual Side-Mount Adapters For All Outboards (PKD-MtoS-plt-BK), which is essentially a 1 inch back zero rise jack plate that does not break Mercury's rules and a Dual Kit S-2-2. I did not want to mount them directly to the transom and my bow was already crowded.

They work great, but you should remove the spikes when you are underway so they're not flopping around. I've left them in a few times at cruising speed and it was not a big deal, but since I almost always fish with my son, we usually remove them and strap them down to the deck unless we are fishing shallow water. When left in, they will protrude about 6" below the bottom of the micro drivers, so they will also impact hole shot when left in on the transom.. I think if I had regular power poles mounted in the same exact spots they would not protrude. On my boat, the base of the micro drivers are a smidge above the water line when we're both seated to travel, and mostly under water when one or both of us are on the back deck. Since we have a multi-species boat that doubles as a family fun boat, they're also great for beaching and using at a sand bar or other shallows for just hanging out. I think 8' poles are really only good for up to 5' of water with my current boat. With my other boat - which was a 10' john boat, they were good to maybe 6.5' if the water was calm.

If you have room, I think you'd get more stability with one on the bow and one on the transom. Mine are only 3 or 4 feet apart and the boat will twist a bit - the larger spread should prevent that. I've seen a few videos where folks put micros on pontoon boats and they place them corner-to-corner for maximum spread.

[John_6788]

Thank you for the info and your install looks great. Im still kind of up in the air on buying 2... thats basically the price of one power pole. Heck, Im still up in the air on just buying one... Alot of reading says they work ok, but using 2 is best... I need something though. When the flood gates are opened here and the wind blows, my boat is all over the place.... more correcting with the TM than fishing! I hope if I get just one for now and an additional pole for the bow, it will be better than nothing...

[jrfuda]

You can start off and just buy the spikes. Before I got the micro drivers I used just the spikes on my 10' boat and secured them to the cleats on the gunwales. I made a loop I passed them through on the front gunwales and has another loop about 6 feet back that I could secure them to when not in use (don't have a picture - but the spikes passed through the front and rear loops so they were horizontal when stored) - it did not take long to employ and stow them this way, and gave me a good feel for how they would work. There are also a couple of pre-made devices that will hold them (some people use old transom mount trolling motor mounts) that will give them more vertical stability than rope. It will cost you $200 for two spikes and you can experiment to see if that will work for you, if you want to add one or two micro drivers, or if you want to hold out for full power poles. I also think getting one driver and two spikes could be a way to go. Get one driver, use it to hold the boat in your desired spot, then use the other tied to the boat to stop the spinning. You could always add another micro driver later.

[Extremeboating]

I have a pair mounted to my V16 - carry over from a smaller boat and no funds for pros or blades at the moment. I used their Dual Side-Mount Adapters For All Outboards (PKD-MtoS-plt-BK), which is essentially a 1 inch back zero rise jack plate that does not break Mercury's rules and a Dual Kit S-2-2. I did not want to mount them directly to the transom and my bow was already crowded.

They work great, but you should remove the spikes when you are underway so they're not flopping around. I've left them in a few times at cruising speed and it was not a big deal, but since I almost always fish with my son, we usually remove them and strap them down to the deck unless we are fishing shallow water. When left in, they will protrude about 6" below the bottom of the micro drivers, so they will also impact hole shot when left in on the transom.. I think if I had regular power poles mounted in the same exact spots they would not protrude. On my boat, the base of the micro drivers are a smidge above the water line when we're both seated to travel, and mostly under water when one or both of us are on the back deck. Since we have a multi-species boat that doubles as a family fun boat, they're also great for beaching and using at a sand bar or other shallows for just hanging out. I think 8' poles are really only good for up to 5' of water with my current boat. With my other boat - which was a 10' john boat, they were good to maybe 6.5' if the water was calm.

If you have room, I think you'd get more stability with one on the bow and one on the transom. Mine are only 3 or 4 feet apart and the boat will twist a bit - the larger spread should prevent that. I've seen a few videos where folks put micros on pontoon boats and they place them corner-to-corner for maximum spread.

That's a pretty sweet setup John.

I was fairly intent on using the micro anchors until you mentioned that you have to remove them when on the move. That would get annoying really fast and only add extra steps to what already needs to be done to either get moving or tow the boat to and from home and store it, so I think I'll just stick to spot lock on my troller. It works really well for my Classic for keeping me in place, especially during windy conditions.

[jrfuda]

That's a pretty sweet setup John.

I was fairly intent on using the micro anchors until you mentioned that you have to stop them when on the move. That would get annoying really fast and only add extra steps to what already needs to be done to either get moving or tow the boat to and from home and store it, so I think I'll just stick to spot lock on my troller. It works really well for my Classic for keeping me in place, especially during windy conditions.

It's not that bad if you're fishing shallow - I only remove them if I'm going to go a long distance - up on a plane. If we're using the TM to move or using the engine under 10mph, I leave them in. I tend to fish just deep or just shallow for long periods of time, so the swapping is not that big of a deal.