Solo Canoe Vs Conversion

[grizwilson]

The Guide 147 weighs nearly as much as a Disco 169, I assure you the Disco 169 will float higher and better. That said, I have a Old Pack angler I use on solo day trips and a disco 158 I use on overnighters. I weigh about 250. If I were going to be one canoe it would be the camper 15 or 16 lighter 57 vs 80 and seats that you can sit in front and paddle backwards. Spend the $ and get a good one up front.

g

[eric1978]

A lot of paddling ills can be solved with the right double blade paddle, but for a canoe more than 33 inches wide you need a really long kayak paddle, much longer than the normal kayak paddle. And the problem still is that you can't easily get the paddle vertical for some of the useful strokes. For the way I fish as I go down the river, a wide canoe negates being able to use the kind of one-handed strokes I do for slight positioning and course corrections while my fishing rod is in the other hand, and also the useful strokes that require a near vertical paddle in the water.

I think this is one of those details that may be overlooked when purchasing a canoe, and then becomes clear later that it should have been a major consideration.

Like Al, unless I'm hauling through slack water or negotiating an obstacle or riffle, I've got my rod in my hand. For the most part I use only single handed strokes in places where I think there are fish, and if you are forced to use a gigantic double blade because your canoe is too wide, you're gonna have to set your rod down every time you want to make a correction.

I know there are a lot of guys that use double blades, and maybe there's some trick I can't think of to make single handed corrections with a double. But personally I think you'd be wasting a lot of time in the best areas trying to position yourself when you could be fishing. I keep my paddle across my lap, and I constantly grab it around the middle and give a quick single handed stroke. It takes no time at all and my rod never leaves my hand. If I had to keep setting my rod down to pick up the paddle, I would guess that I would be missing out on at least 10% of possible casts, and over the course of a day, that could mean a lot of missed fish, or just that one 20 incher. Also, every time you put down a rod or a paddle, you're making noise.

It's details like this that you may think are insignificant until you get out on the water, and they turn out to be big problems for those who demand, or at least desire, efficiency. I get so few chances to go fishing that when I'm on the water, I want to be fishing and only fishing and not wasting my time doing anything else. Fishing is all about eliminating variables, just like algebra. I think inefficiency is one of those variables and I believe a good fisherman pays attention to ways to whittle down as much ineffiency as possible.

Maybe the simple answer is to just carry both types of paddle with you. But that's just one more thing in the canoe.

[ColdWaterFshr]

I must be a lousy fisherman, cause when I go I sure ain't payin attention to how much time I spend doing what, and I sure ain't fussin over eliminating variables.

[eric1978]

I must be a lousy fisherman, cause when I go I sure ain't payin attention to how much time I spend doing what, and I sure ain't fussin over eliminating variables.

Or maybe you are lucky enough to have plenty of time to fish, in which case those things wouldn't matter as much. I'm sure if I had the chance to go more often, I'd be able to slow down and take it easy. It's just that I get to go so rarely (once every couple weeks at best), that while I'm out there I'm really focused on catching fish. Sometimes I have to stop and take a deep breath and soak in the surroundings, because all I ever see is the water and what's in it. I'll usually bring my lunch, but most times it remains uneaten until the ride home because I didn't want to stop and waste the five minutes to have a freakin' sandwich.

[Wayne SW/MO]

and if you are forced to use a gigantic double blade because your canoe is too wide, you're gonna have to set your rod down every time you want to make a correction.

Or use a small, 30", paddle with one hand. The key word being "correction", not paddling.

[ness]

You know Wayne, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I saw some dude on the Eleven Point a few weeks ago. Had his three cute kids, wife, about 400 pounds of gear and hisself in two canoes. Each of the little ones had a little paddle, and it got me to thinking....

I try to think two or three steps ahead and do 'corrections' like you're saying. Doesn't always work out, but I try. Wrangling the big paddle into position for a minor correction right when I need to be fishing is a hassle. A leetle paddle just may be the ticket.

[eric1978]

You know Wayne, that's exactly what I was thinking.

I saw some dude on the Eleven Point a few weeks ago. Had his three cute kids, wife, about 400 pounds of gear and hisself in two canoes. Each of the little ones had a little paddle, and it got me to thinking....

I try to think two or three steps ahead and do 'corrections' like you're saying. Doesn't always work out, but I try. Wrangling the big paddle into position for a minor correction right when I need to be fishing is a hassle. A leetle paddle just may be the ticket.

Or just tell those kids to get Daddy in the right position to fish all day with those little paddles, or there won't be any hot dogs for dinner.

Seriously though, you could just hack the end off a cheap paddle and keep it handy for corrections. I had thought about that before, until I bought a high-end wood paddle that's so light you don't need to cut any off. I kind of like the extra length to leverage off my shoulder on some single handed strokes.

[ness]

Most of my canoe-side-bumping comes when I'm trying to maneuver the full-sized paddle with one hand and fish with the other. You know, right when you don't want to do it.

[Wayne SW/MO]

I got mine a BPS and its about 30-36" long, plastic blade, aluminum shaft. It can be used by gripping it down the shaft and bracing the handle against the forearm. It does a good job of changing the direction of the canoe or kayak.

[Al Agnew]

Yeah, the short paddle idea is an excellent one. However, I don't want ANOTHER paddle in the boat to keep track of and within reach when I need it. I can do all the one-handed correction strokes I need to do with my regular paddle, and some that would be a lot more difficult to do with a short paddle because you need a LOT of leverage to do them. The only time I carry two paddles (other than taking a spare regular canoe paddle along--I've broken a couple of paddles through the years) is when I plan to paddle upstream and drift back down. Then I take a take-apart double blade for paddling upstream, and the single blade for when I start back downstream.

And the wide canoe thing still applies. If the canoe is too wide where you're sitting, you can't get any kind of paddle into the water vertically enough to make a lot of those correction strokes, short, long, double, single.