Anchors

If you've been to the store lately, you'll notice that the price of anchors the past 3 years has risen dramatically. A 15 pound mushroom is $45. I walked through literally every store in Red Deer and several in Edmonton, and not one 15 pound anchor was under $40. At the good old Wal-Mart here in Red Deer, their mushroom is $45 as well. When we were in Washington State this spring, the exact same anchor at the Wal-Mart Super Center there was $18. The fishing stores, Can-Tire, etc, all are priced high here in Alberta. As I walked through Wally World, I walked through the fitness department on my way to checking out the anchors. A 15 pound barbell is $13. Why are we paying $32 for a different shape?
Guess what I did? The rear anchors for the boats at Fortress are all now 15 pound barbells.  And they work extremely well given that we can't use claw anchors in the lake given the rate of loss due to heavy timber on the bottom. For anyone who wants a good, cheap anchor for their pontoon or jon boat for lakes or slow sections of rivers, barbells work as good as anything.
And as your wife drives you down the lake you can get a quick work out.