^ @ Mumbles. I have an anchor trolley, and am very familiar with using it to anchor.
I have anchored and fished in the McLeod R many times.
The picture of my kayak upside down was incident #1. And that was a solo trip, where the wife did not accompany me, as I mainly wanted to try some fishing.
On that particular trip, as I had anchored in the river 'lot's of times', I wasn't really concerned.
I knew the river level was up and also that the flow was above normal.
But the weight, power, mass of that flow I under-estimated. And I admit that I was careless in the position/angle of the boat, as the anchor dug in. In other words I was sideways...
As soon as the anchor dug in, the line went taut, it was astonishing how violently the boat dug in against that line.
And there was no way to prevent flipping.
I was dumped in the water, but had my life jacket on, and swam to shore.
Then I attempted to free the boat.
Holy crap! So much water pressure from the anchor line to the mostly submerged kayak! And as soon as you even touch the boat, it forces it to sink even more.
Attempting to pull myself down to get to the quick release was futile.
I made 3 tries and it was just impossible to do.
I returned to Whitecourt and came back with my ATV and 100' of nylon rope. I was able to drive to a field right above the spot where my kayak was floating.
As I arrived, a couple of other kayaks were just coming down the river.
They took my line and were able to go out and tie it off to my kayak, then me and this other guy were able to pull the boat to shore.
From there I used the rope to pull the kayak up to my ATV and got away, with the loss of a few bits of gear and a cooler of beer.
I asked the people that helped me to watch out for my beer cooler, and danged if they didn't find it and I got it returned to me, with a few beers missing!
The salvaged cooler...
Second incident: This time I was in my Catch 120, which is a much more stable kayak than the old Maxim 100.
The wife and I went out, beautiful day, the river levels and flow rates were much less than on the first goat roping exercise.
But we get to this great fishing spot and I drop anchor.
And after I had dropped it, I could feel that it was bumbling along on the bottom, and wasn't holding. I realized that I had to pull it up, the current was too strong.
But just as I went to grab the anchor line, the damn anchor slammed into a big rock, and same as the first time, I was upside down in a second.
Pretty much a repeat of the first go-around in which the boat wasn't turned correctly. Just unfortunate that I recognized I was trying to anchor in a dumb spot but just didn't have the extra second of time to get my anchor out quick enough.
Kinda the same as the first capsize, except I did not have my life jacket on, went in under the kayak and got tangled up in lines momentarily, then had to swim to shore, with the wife freaking out.
We we able to paddle back out to my capsized kayak, and once again, I was unable to get to the quick release.
So we ended up cutting the line and abandoned that anchor on the bottom on the river.
Third incident: Have you ever been to Clearwater Lake, B.C. Wells Gray Park?
Down near the rapids, where the river empties out of the lake, I dropped anchor. I guess I was 150 yards above the rapid?
The current really wasn't that bad.
But what happened there is that the bottom there turns out to be just covered with huge submerged logs.
And my damn anchor went into those logs in such a way that it was impossible to pull it back up.
So while I did not capsize, I had to release my anchor, and that damn thing is still tangled up in those submerged trees.
So after all that nonsense I am going to agree with you,
it is safe to anchor in the river IF YOU ARE PAYING ATTENTION.
Honestly in both incidents I was careless, and wasn't paying enough attention to the power of the current, and the angle the boat was at, as the anchor dug in.
I still have the anchor trolley on my kayak, but honestly have not even taken an anchor with me since the Clearwater L incident.
Jim