When I was a young man doing stupid, backbreaking work I hardly ever looked for a more practical way to do things. I mean I was young, strong, and I was going to last forever! Fishing 150 feet down for halibut with 250 feet of anchor line, 10 feet of chain, and a 16-pound Danforth -- no problem! Pull it by hand. And that went for the crab and shrimp pots too.

My friend Stan had a sailboat and he used one of his capstans as a pot puller, but I couldn’t see the sense in it.

Then I got older, and my back didn’t like the torture that went into pulling an anchor. Luckily my neighbor, Marv Hathhorn, on the south side of Kachemak Bay showed me a trick using a large buoy, a solid steel ring, the power of my boat engine, and a little bit of physics to easily bring my anchor to the surface.

That was on my old wooden 18-foot skiff, "Redeye." Now that I have Skookum it deserves a power puller, and that’s what you’ll see in the video on the starboard bow. But Marv got me thinking towards the right way to be efficient and practical when dealing with anchors.

Anchors aweigh!

Jim Lavrakas is a retired photojournalist who caught the fishing fever late in life. He lives in Homer with his wife Ruth, and owns Skookum Charters, a saltwater fishing and eco-tourism charter business.