Give a man enough rope

[sarabande]

Ah, since the word is Greenlandish in origin, one could only choose an anchor made in North America. Now let me see....

And then we could diverge into whether that anchor is suitable for an umiak as well. But in these days of equality, should I be mentioning that the latter is really a boat for use by women ?

 

[DownWest]

Is stirring against the rools now...?

 

[zoidberg]

Ah, since the word is Greenlandish in origin, one could only choose an anchor made in North America. Now let me see....

And then we could diverge into whether that anchor is suitable for an umiak as well. But in these days of equality, should I be mentioning that the latter is really a boat for use by women ?

Don't the Canadians have a company that grows ancres....? Have you forgot so soon...?

 

[Caraway]

Good stuff, not to be left in the sun!

Very suitable in the UK.

 

[JumbleDuck]

Now - how many know what a Cuban YoYo is?

Fifty quid extra.

 

[thinwater]

A Cuban yoyo is a very efficient hand reel design, allowing the landing of big game fish without a rod.
Cuban yoyo on a kayak

Sometimes it is handy to anchor a kayak when fishing. Think of the yoyo as a spool for anchor line that allows you to pull HARD on skinny line without it being hard on the hands. You can get 50' of 1200-pound tape on one, which is all you need. Very compact, no tangles.

But for the most part, I use yoyos for trolling. Having multihulls, it is easy to troll 3-5 lines, but carrying that many rods suitable for 10- to 40-pound fish takes a lot of space. Instead, I carry 5-7 yoyos (various lures) in a bucket. Combined with a flat line clip and a few simple bits of rigging, it makes for easy, compact trolling. I've landed 50-pound rockfish with these, bare hands. I was still a little tired.
Trolling With a Cuban Yoyo

 

[WoodyP]

A Cuban yoyo is a very efficient hand reel design, allowing the landing of big game fish with a rod.
Cuban yoyo on a kayak

Sometimes it is handy to anchor a kayak when fishing.

But for the most part, I use yoyos for trolling. Having multihulls, it is easy to troll 3-5 lines, but carrying that many rods suitable for 10- to 40-pound fish takes a lot of space. Instead, I carry 5-7 yoyos (various lures) in a bucket. Combined with a flat line clip and a few simple bits of rigging, it makes for easy, compact trolling.
Trolling With a Cuban Yoyo

Every day is a learning day. And I'm a keen fishermen

 

[William_H]

A Cuban yoyo is a very efficient hand reel design, allowing the landing of big game fish without a rod.
Cuban yoyo on a kayak

Sometimes it is handy to anchor a kayak when fishing. Think of the yoyo as a spool for anchor line that allows you to pull HARD on skinny line without it being hard on the hands. You can get 50' of 1200-pound tape on one, which is all you need. Very compact, no tangles.

But for the most part, I use yoyos for trolling. Having multihulls, it is easy to troll 3-5 lines, but carrying that many rods suitable for 10- to 40-pound fish takes a lot of space. Instead, I carry 5-7 yoyos (various lures) in a bucket. Combined with a flat line clip and a few simple bits of rigging, it makes for easy, compact trolling. I've landed 50-pound rockfish with these, bare hands. I was still a little tired.
Trolling With a Cuban Yoyo

Heres me with a stack of "Cuban Yoyos for fishing lines and didn't even know it. (by name) ol'will

 

[Neeves]

Heres me with a stack of "Cuban Yoyos for fishing lines and didn't even know it. (by name) ol'will

Ah! - they are quite famous or common in Australia because a man called Alvey established a business making them, in Queensland I think way back in the 1920's. Alvey was a migrant from the UK and he, apparently, based his design on the Malloch reel (which I have never heard of - but the plot thickens Malloch Reels - Thomas Turner Fishing Antiques). I know them as Alvey Reels. Alvey took them a step further and they can be attached to a rod, which part defeats the object of the original reel. The founder died and the business was kept going by the family, it hit hard times and nearly closed but I think was rescued - I'm not sure if the Alvey family is still involved but it still goes under the Alvey name. Now that I read about the Malloch reel, patented half a century before Alvey came on the scene it appears the Malloch reel was used on a rod, so developed by Malloch, not Alvey.

To confuse the issue - they are also called Japanese reels or yo yo. Interesting that the Oz reel is a copy of a Scots reel developed in the 18th century.

As Thinwater says, very neat and compact. Dead simple - odd that though they were obviously known in the UK, or at least Scotland, that they never developed any traction (and are best known as Cuban Yo Yo, and sometimes Florida reels (from the Cuban immigrants).

They have obvious yacht application, rods are very inconvenient on a yacht. We carry 2 game fishing rods (and have permanent holders) to catch tuna, Spanish mackerel, dolphin fish and the like. Slightly larger and a bit more robust they would make an excellent device to store a spare anchor rode - but lets not go there...... it will upset those that hate anchor threads.

Jonathan