Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
A Tornado anchor is a stack of galvanized steel plates on a central spine, each plate free to rotate. The corners contour to the river bottom and bite into crevices, so the anchor holds better than a smooth lead pyramid - and the same rotation lets an angler jiggle it free when it hangs up.
Keith Webster is a Chicago-based design and manufacturing engineer of 25 years who founded Tornado Anchors after deciding the pyramid anchor on his own raft was not doing its job.
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How does a Tornado anchor hold a drift boat?
A Tornado anchor is a series of steel plates stacked on a central spine, and the design detail that matters is that every plate rotates independently. Because each plate can turn on its own, the corners and edges settle into whatever shape the river bottom happens to be, which puts far more edge in contact with rock than the smooth faces of a pyramid anchor do. That contact is what creates the drag and friction that stops the boat. The independent rotation was discovered by accident: the original design called for the plates to be fixed in position, and the prototype revealed the better idea before they were secured.
Why are lead drift boat anchors a problem?
Drift boat anchors have historically been cast in lead, which sits on the river bottom whenever one is lost. Tornado anchors are built entirely from galvanized steel and finished with an eco-friendly powder coat, with no lead in them at all. The scale of the loss only became clear after the company started taking orders: barely a week goes by without an email from a guide who has lost an anchor and wants to replace it, and each of those represents roughly 25 to 35 pounds of lead left in a river somewhere.
What anchor weight should a drift boat or raft use?
Tornado Anchors offers seven standard weights. The smaller-profile anchors come in 6, 10 and 15 pounds, aimed at kayaks, canoes and single-person inflatables. The standard-profile anchors run 18, 25, 34 and 45 pounds, which covers the range most drift boats and rafts need. Custom weights are available for anything outside that: heavy river boats have been fitted with 62-pound anchors built specifically to hold against strong current.
Can a Tornado anchor be used for stillwater fishing?
On a lake the anchor is doing a different job. Over a marl, mud or sand bottom there is no rock structure to grip, so the anchor is simply resisting wind and drift with its own weight rather than with dynamic traction. A Tornado anchor works as well as a mushroom or pyramid in that setting, and because the plates make better use of their weight an angler can typically drop a size - a 15-pound stillwater anchor becomes a 10, and a secondary positioning anchor in a two-anchor system can be a 6.
How do you free a drift boat anchor that is hung up?
Guides using Tornado anchors day in and day out report that the anchors hang up noticeably less often than the pyramid anchors they replaced, which was not a design goal. When one does jam in a boulder field, a sweeper or a tree, the technique is to apply a little side pressure and give the anchor rope short pops and jiggles rather than a hard steady pull. That motion activates the plates, they rotate, and the anchor works itself out of positions that would normally cost you the anchor.
How did Tornado Anchors get started?
The idea came out of a five-hour drive home to Chicago from western Michigan in 2019, after a weekend where the pyramid anchor on a newly bought raft simply would not hold. The first prototype was drawn in CAD the following Monday, and by Friday afternoon there were four finished pieces - one kept, three shipped to guide friends in Michigan and Illinois for feedback. By the end of that September the orders were running to 30 or 40 pieces, and Tornado Anchors was incorporated in January 2020.
Are Tornado anchors available in custom weights and colors?
Every Tornado anchor is powder coated, which serves two purposes: it looks better, and it fills the pores in the galvanized steel so the stacked plates rotate more freely against one another. That coating also opens the door to color. The company has produced co-branded anchors for a fly shop's smallmouth sub-brand in orange and black, and a hi-viz version in safety orange and lime green - built for guides who traditionally spray-paint an anchor bright orange so they can find it again in low water after losing it in a high-water season.
Key takeaways
- Tornado anchors stack independently rotating galvanized steel plates on a spine, so the corners contour to the river bottom instead of sitting on it.
- The standard lineup runs 6, 10 and 15 pounds in a small profile and 18, 25, 34 and 45 pounds in the standard profile; custom weights up to 62 pounds have been built.
- There is no lead in the anchor - every lost pyramid anchor leaves roughly 25 to 35 pounds of lead in a river.
- In stillwater the anchor works on weight alone, so you can generally drop one size from what you would use in a pyramid.
- A hung anchor is freed by side pressure and short pops on the rope, which rotates the plates loose, rather than by pulling straight up.
- Powder coating is functional as well as cosmetic: it smooths the steel so the plates rotate freely against each other.
