My recommendation, if fishing is your purpose, is to skip canoes and kayaks entirely.

I know, I know, I'm risking the wrath of canoe lovers everywhere, but please hear me out because I've been there / done that with canoes and I may have a few points for you to consider before you part with your money.

First, there is nothing worse than fishing in a canoe because you are always, always, always trying to twist sideways to fish. You can't fly fish by casting at 12 o'clock from either position (bow or stern) in a canoe, so you have to turn sideways. Over the course of a day, this gets horribly uncomfortable and there's nothing you can do about it, it's the design of the boat.

Secondly, they are very difficult to control when fishing. Every breath of wind seems to blow a canoe off course so it seems like 90% of the time at best one of the two occupants of a canoe can fish. If you're on your own, forget it. Unless you're on a dead still pond or you're anchored, you'll spend half or more of your time trying to get or keep the canoe in fishing position.

There are a very few fishing situations where a canoe is the best option. Mostly, these involve situations where long distances must be covered by water before you get to the fishing, and of course in some places portages will make boat access difficult as there are few boats that are easily carried.

For every other need, I'd say look at small 1 and 2 man boat options, there are a wide variety on the market for both moving and still water.

Apologies to the canoe and kayak crowd out there, but that's the way I see it. After too many years of back-wrecking fishing while twisted sideways, and cursing while trying to keep the canoe in position for the guy doing the fishing, I finally snapped like a dry twig and built a driftboat with my own two hands. This summer, I will be drifting along the rivers I used to canoe, fishing from a comfortable and stable standing position high above the water, and I'll a big cooler, lots of gear, a nice net, and all the comforts that were never possible in a canoe. Yes, I will sacrafice downriver speed, but that comes with a huge gain in terms of fishing efficiency and comfort.

Grouse