John,

Good questions that I will try to answer the best that I can. The Elk River and the Duck River are both rivers I fish here and they are very much alike except the Elk is much wider. They both have a steady flow of about 200CFS unless there is generation on the Elk or dam releases on the Duck and with either of these, I do not try to navigate during these times just to be safe, although, they it could be done, I just do not try it. They both have their slower holes of deeper water separated by the very fast shallower water that may only be inches deep. Normally when I paddle upstream in either one, I do not paddle up the fastest moving water but, instead, I will paddle up the edges of the slower moving water or seams between the fast the slow water. I have paddled through some very fast water only when there was not a seam to travel in. You can paddle up a fast steam if you have enough depth of the water to get a good paddle stroke in which should be at least 18" on more. If I cannot get the paddle into the water, I cannot get a good forward stroke. What I normanly do is paddle up to the the faster water section, pull to the left of right of it, drop the anchor and get out and fly fish the fast section. Once fished, I will pull the NuCanoe through the fast water into deeper water and get in and keep on going. Pulling the NuCanoe through is very easy since the bottom of the NuCanoe is very much like the bottom of a kayak and it just glides. There have been many times I will get out of the NuCanoe and tie a rope to my waist and just wade through the fast water and fish it and once through it and in deeper water, just get in it and keep on going. You hardly know that the NuCanoe is tied to you. I have nothing against kayaks but I do feel at my age, and I will be 63 in March, that the NuCanoe is made for me. My knees and balance are not what they used to be and I needed a craft that would not be tippy, would not turn over, was very easy to paddle with a double bladed paddle, was comfortable to fish out of and still be light enough, my 10' weighs 60 pounds, that I could drag it up or down banks and haul it in the back of my Frontier and the NuCanoe fits that perfectly. With the swivel seat option, I can sit very much like in a chair and be comfortable while fishing. I have my anchors set up so I can raise or lower the front and rear anchor from where I am. I can swivel around and fish from either side or turn all the way around and fish off the back of the craft. When I observed people in kayaks I noticed that they could only fish straight out in front of them and if they wanted to fish either side or back, they would have to re-position the kayak to do so or they would have to twist their upper bodies to fish plus they were forced to keep their legs straight out in front of them and no option to re-position their bodies to get more comfortable. In my opinion, a kayak was made for someone much younger than me. Please understand that I am not "knocking" a kayak because they are a good craft, but, not for this 63 year old man.

I hope this helps and if not, please let me know.