A nod of his uncapped head and gesture with his raw exposed hands, and I scrambled to secure the anchor. Griz anchors often. He views anchoring and casting as a lost art in the modern age of electronics. Shallow-oriented panfish are spooked by even slow moving watercraft. In a perfect world, anchors are lowered off both the bow and stern, thus eliminating pendulum-like boat swings.
Boat position is a crucial component of still fishing.
Griz situated the skiff so that our bow faced into the wind. That way, we could cast up and away, allowing our presentations to drift back parallel to the boat. Griz says that lazily drifting and bobbing bait is both natural and deadly. As I have since childhood, my first cast was unleashed hastily. My rig hit the water while I fumbled with a pop bottle, tackle box, anchor rope, camera, and recently tipped over coffee can of minnows.