I just bought my 1st kayak, Eddyline 14 angler. My question is; when fishing how important is an anchor trolley. Does it matter which side it goes on



Thanks



Leadog

It’s really up to you

I doubt if most people even need an anchor trolley. The purpose of an anchor trolley is to allow the attachment point of the anchor line (when fishing, not during lifting or lowering) to be at some part of the boat that's too far away for you to reach otherwise. In swift water, it would be advantageous for the anchor line to hold the boat via one end. If you are in swift water and sometimes you'll be casting upstream and sometimes casting downstream, you'll want the anchor line to hold the boat vie either the bow or stern. An anchor trolley lets you do all those things.

In calm water, it really won't matter much where the anchor attaches, and I'm sure you can do fine without the trolley. However, in strong wind it may be best to anchor from one end of the boat or the other, so again, an anchor trolley would do the trick.

For both wind or current, the boat will wig-wag a lot less if the anchor-line attachment location is a little off-center from the end of the boat, which will put the boat on a diagonal heading relative to current or wind. That would be easy to do with a trolley, but really not that hard to do without one if you simply attach a cleat within your reach, ahead of or behind the cockpit (or both, so you can choose to face upwind/upstream or down). If you think you'll mostly be casting to the downwind or downstream side when the boat is at such an angle to the wind or or current, you'd want the trolley attached to the side which is opposite of your easiest casting side, and visa-versa if you think you'll mostly be casting upwind/upstream.

Anchor trolley
Guideboatguy, thanks that was very helpful

Anchor trolley
I just installed one on my ack. I went saltwater fishing the next day. Had I not had it I would have been constantly pulling in and moving my anchor to keep me from being sideways and the waves splashing. It is so easy to use. When the wind or currant changes all you do is slide to the area on your yak that you want to face. I asked the same question and I was told by several kayackers and the place I got my boat that it is an important part to have for safety and convenience .

General versus specific recommendations
The OP hasn’t said what kind of waters he fishes, so rather than telling him that a trolley is a must-have item, it would be better to tell him that it’s a must-have item when anchoring in the kind of wind and waves that you fish in. For the kinds of waters where I have seen kayaks used for fishing, there’d be nothing to be gained with a trolley. Around here, I’ve never seen a fishing kayak being used on big water or in choppy conditions, and if small, calm waters are what the OP has in mind, it would be silly to pass along the advice that was given to you as gospel.