The Simple Things---the love of a canoe

You don't need much to get out and enjoy the natural world. Really, you don't need anything at all. Just take a walk in the woods and breathe in that fresh air. Having said that, a few items expand your range into nature exponentially. A simple canoe is one of those things.

Pick one up cheap on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, or even Walmart. You don't need anything fancy. One person can easily lift a less than 15 footer, especially made of ABS or Royalex or other light materials, and about any vehicle can carry that size boat on the roof.

There's no trailer to register and maintain. No gas to buy and burn. No outboard to keep running. No trolling motor electric connections to keep replacing. No battery to charge. Just pick up a paddle and a life jacket, and you're good to float. Fast water, slow water, rough water, calm water. Anywhere.

A canoe is a better craft for the outdoorsman who's apt to carry some gear. Though a kayak has some advantages, especially jump shooting ducks or not acting like a sail in the wind due to its lower profile and freeboard, a canoe allows you to toss a ton of stuff in your boat---camping gear, fishing rods, tackle, coolers, duck decoys, or your trusty retriever, if they're well behaved enough.

It's man powered. You'll get some exercise, but that's a good thing, not just for burning off those biscuits or cinnamon rolls. The small craft gets you to fishing and hunting holes too small for a power boat or requiring too much effort for the rest of the populace, those conditioned on gas or electric power.

And you barely need a trickle of water to be able to launch the thing, unlike a skiff. Throw it in from the DOT easement by the bridge, right in the roadside canal, or down a narrow foot path winding through the trees.

You don't need much.

Comments

Chunkin' Bait

If you've ever stumbled across any of my words online, you've probably noticed that I'm more of a fly guy. I just love that feeling of propelling fly line through the air with the rod, feeling the bend and strength of the rod as it loads and projects the line towards your casting target. But, occasionally, there's a time to chunk some bait. The good news was we didn't have to leave Edenton too early. The bite hadn't started until 9:30 in the morning or so, my buddy said. So, thankfully, no need to wake up at the crack of dawn to make the hour or so drive to Swan Quarter. The goal was to catch a few drum, and maybe even invite a few to dinner. It wasn't "old drum" time of late summer, but there were still some big ones out there. We launched Johny's Jones Brothers Cape Fisherman, idled down the canal, and jumped on a plane to get over the bar and shoaling right outside the canal. We ran out, not too far, fishing little cov...

A Little Do-It-Yourself Boat Painting

"Hard hard can it be?" After hours of YouTube videos, I thought I had this whole boat painting thing figured out. My Jones Brothers skiff was looking a bit faded. The 20+ year old cream/off-white gel coat was in need of some major cutting and buffing, and there were some cracks and gouges and an errant screw hole for a swim ladder only filled in with silicon sealant. Just the conditioning and buffing would be a major undertaking. On top of that my ablative bottom paint, that wears off on its own, that I'd done myself, was starting to look rough. Then, I'd stumbled across a picture on Facebook, of someone who'd painted the same hull as mine with the Alexseal brand topside paint with their "roll" additive, which smooths out the paint after rolling it onto a surface. I was mesmerized with the pictures online, drawn to doom scrolling online forums like Hull Truth, and others. It looked too good to be true. As anyone who...

Fall in the Foothills---River Bass on the Fly

It was fall in the foothills. It was dry and clear and the sweet-cool of the morning refreshed you. Cool, but not cold. A good fall day. I'd loaded up the canoe from the coast and headed west to the in-laws' place, on the banks of the Yadkin River, outside of Winston-Salem. There's something about a smallmouth bass on a fly rod. Maybe it's the strength of the fish, the strength of their pull against the current. Or maybe it's because they're the fish that really taught me about fly fishing. My original fly fishing quarry. In all honesty, smallmouth caught me, not the other way around, back on the banks of Rapidan River in Virginia. I've been hooked ever since. I met a man once, while trout fishing in the mountains, who claimed the Yadkin held the best smallie fishing in North Carolina. Better than the New River, even the French Broad. Maybe not in numbers, but in size. I'll be honest, I...

The Tar Heel Outdoorsman

Search This Blog