I’m shopping canoes, more or less, right now. I decided last fall I wanted one, and I’ll probably take the summer to outfit it for fall or next year. I’m going to start seriously looking this month. I think I want something in the 12-14’ range, with a good beam. This is going to be for isolated ponds I can’t get the boat into.
A fellow fly fisherman in Louisiana put this awesome package together (hope you don’t mind me using this here, SL!) and it’s pretty much what I want to accomplish:’
Show me some of your canoe rigs. I’d love to hear your ideas and maybe help me build them into mine!
Awesome accessorizing!
We are kida sorta looking for a canoe also. Traditional style. We are aiming for simplicity though. Something to drag off the PU, toss in the water, add pole, paddle, and dog and embark. Oh yeah…lunch in a water proof container too.
…lee s.
Mine certainly isn’t rigged with that much weight – until I get in it! Instead of using the anchor board I used U-bolts to accomplish the same thing with less weight. Nor do I use outriggers. Mine is a tandem woodstripper made from cedar, so I put a stadium seat in front of the back thwart for a seat. You should look into building a stripper, Roger. With your boat building ability this should be a snap. Mine weighs 50 lbs, but I am planning on building a Merlin this spring that should come in at 35 lbs and is 15 ft. long. JGW
I use an Old Town Pack Canoe, made of Royalex. Tough but light as a feather. Has served me well on small waters for almost 25 years. It’s a solo canoe, 12 feet, 33 pounds and really moves out with a small electric motor. Rated for about 400 pounds and it will go anywhere. I wish I had a nickel for every fish I’ve caught using it. I could probably buy another whole rig and have money left over.
Later, RW
“Maybe your stature as a fly fisherman isn’t determined by how big a trout you can catch, but by how small a trout you can catch without being disappointed.” <John Gierach>
[This message has been edited by Royal Wulff (edited 11 March 2006).]
The canoe you posted is pretty darned
neat.G I finally found a small bassboat
I liked and could afford, but once while
between canoes, I built this little 8’
pontoon out of plywood. It cost me $100
in materials and took a long weekend to
build. I fished it over a 4 year period
before the non-marine plywood and house
paint gave up the ghost. I’ve still got
the hardware and hope to build another
using marine ply and glass. It was a total
hoot to fish. It would scoot around in
water that was ankle deep as well as in the
chop of the big lake. Warm regards, Jim
If you have never been in a canoe with a FF fighting a 4-5 lb LM bass you will never apriciate the outriggers.
RS the outriggers can be had from canoegear.com I have a pair,they are pretty much universal fit.I can sit on the side of my canoe and not flip,Standing to cast is easy.My wife is not real stable in a canoe likes to lean into the paddle stroke and fights a cross wave.The outriggers solved the swimming and argument problem.
We use a pelican 15 1/2 foot plastic like a coleman our dog doesn’t sit still very well and doesn’t like not able to look over board. You put an unstable wife a 300lb man and 80 lbs of dog in a canoe,you got a FULL boat.We love our “TRAINING WHEELS”.
Reaching over the side to land a fish is easy.
Dennis
we had a pontoon boat thing made out of heating ducts, welded together. Worked great 2 people and a 8hp motor. caught many pike from it. Left it at the cabin when we sold it, they where still using it a couple years ago.
I like Canoes too… And for not alot of money Old Town sells their Pack Canoe. I think it’s like $699.00 12fter and has a 400 Lb. Capacity…Which it looks as thoe you’ll need!!!..LOL
Their 16 ft. Discovery cut the water pretty nice with 2 Flyfishers as well as us both standing and casting…so I doubt the motor…well day trips UP the river would have been sweet with a motor…Happy hunting…Hope you can narrow it down to less than half a dozen!!!
Warren, thanks for the link, I wonder what shipping would cost? I’ve seen other companies that will ship a 'noo and it’s about $200 bucks, quite a bit.
Bill, you’re right, but I gotta hit Lafayette and Baton Rouge soon to find out exactly what’s available to me here. That should narrow it significantly.
Alex, that is PERFECT! I like it a bunch. Heck, just the setting is picture-perfect.
I also use an Oldtown Pack canoe.Its perfect to slide in the back of my Toyota P/U and fish small mill ponds here for bass and pickerel.The only addition I added was a Sitbacker padded canoe seat from LLBean.This thing is the bomb for comfort.Well worth the money.
I purchased a Michi-Craft alum. 13’ canoe from Castlecraft about 5 years ago and they shipped it to where I work for $99. That was one nice canoe. It had a 42" beam and was very stable and weighed 54 pounds. I think you can contact them to find out what shipping would be on a particular model.
I’ve used an Old Town Discovery 158 for probably 20 years. Great fishing canoe. I don’t go for all the accessories though. I like to keep it simple. An Adirondack pack pack basket behind the seat makes a great rod holder. I got a spring-loaded anchor reel and made a fixture for it that allows me to clamp it to the seat right next to me.
