Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Hunting from a canoe

In the thread "Obsession or side line", it seems there is a bit of canoe expertise on these boards.

I thought a good discussion of what makes a great hunting type canoe might be in order. I'm not very well versed in canoes, so I thought I would start by asking a few questions and see if we can learn something about how to make a canoe an efficient hunting machine.

Now, since I am planning on building a cedar strip canoe I would like to do some "customizing" to it to make it as usable as possible. If you were building a canoe from scratch, what additions/alterations would you make to be as useful as possible?
Would you consider a square stern canoe so you could use a small motor once in awhile?
Would you add storage compartments fore and aft to keep things waterproof or just go with waterproof bags?
What are the best type of oars and where are the best places to get canoe and oar plans?
I'm sure lots of other questions will come up, but hopefully this will get this discussion started.
Thanks- Sheister

Sheister,
As a young man, I enjoyed some great moose hunting by canoe.....I sure wish we had the waters for it here in AK....

For starters, I haven't built a strip canoe in the past 35 tears. Materials are better but design should be similar.

If you are in faster waters, you would want some rocker to that bottom to facilitate easy turning. For slow rivers and lakes there should be minimal to no rocker for straight tracking. Keels are almost never seen anymore and not needed if there is no rocker.

I would not build waterproof storage into the canoe....it adds to portage weight....use dry bags. Keep the canoe as light as possible withour compromising strength.

My personal preference for 16-18 foot canoes is traditional....no square stern.....if you wish to add a kicker, use a side mount....I have one in the shed should you be interested....they are easily detached with thumb screws....todays electric motors work well for some use....don't try to overpower a canoe....

I prefer a nice cedar or Sirka spruce paddle for most work. But for fast water and rocks, some of the plastic/aluminum models are durable.

Get a copy of "Canoe" magazine and you should be able to find all sorts of equipment including plans.....that magazine has gone more to whitewater gear and away from my area of traditional canoe gear.....

Some place in the closet I have an old photo of my partner coming down the North Saskatchewan River with a load of bull moose....quartered....meat/bones/hide/horns...in a 17 footer.....not a lot of free board.

Good luck with your project....if I had an extra warm garage stall, I would be tempted.

Vern

First off a canoe is not a boat,so don't expect it to behave like one.Paddling a conoe is more like riding a bicycle.When you sit in a good canoe it will move.I kneel and control it with my hips.

Square sterns drag the lake behind you making paddling much more work.If you have a keel you can't dodge rocks,they move very quickly.Over 34" wide and you need oars not paddles for that barge.

Bill Mason did some great films on paddling follow links from this site http://www.wilds.mb.ca/

I am putting together a 8x57 as a canoe rifle.

Agreed that a square stern paddles like a wash tub. Have hunted from all sorts of canoes, some leaked. Three of us were hunting from a 15 footer once, and everytime someone moved the wrong way, the guy sitting in the middle got wetter. It is a real quiet way to hunt the water. Wood and fiberglass are quieter than aluminum. Carry your gear in dry bags, you don't need the extra portage weight. Good advice so far, from my POV. The rifle you use in a canoe need not be of the magnum variety as you can normally get real close to the animal.

What those guys above said.

I'm not sure my partner and I qualify as hunting from a canoe, but we do use it in our moose hunting, mostly to cut meat packing effort. Also handy for camp pack out- since we usually have several packloads of gear in there by season's end, and the packs to carry them. It lets us hunt a mile or more farther back in than virtually anyone else is willing to.

One trip across a lake with the moose beats the heck out of 6 to 10 packloads around it, plus the returns for more. It often seems like it might not be worth it, since you have an "extra" trip portaging the canoe between lakes as well (we are 3 to 5 lakes back in- and only one of them is over 300 yards wide - that one is about 550), but start adding up those 500 yard or more land trips around the lakes, plus the fact that it is easier to paddle 500 lbs of moose meat than carry 80, and it quickly becomes apparent it IS worth the extra trip. In fact, we take a second canoe into the first lake to avoid portaging the canoe on the longest between lakes portage- about a quarter mile - when bringing out meat.

That "first lake" takes one of my aluminum Grummans- noisy. Our back-in canoe is one of my partners - either the Old Town? plastic canoe, or his Kevlar one - he's pretty paranoid about leaving the "good" one in there for the 6 week season! Those are both quiet enough for hunting from, or paddling up to moose just for the heck of it, or crossing the lakes with gear in the "quiet zone".

Moose seem not to associate danger as coming from the lake. I've paddled/drifted (keep movements minimal) up within 10 or 15 feet of feeding cows, and a week before season two years back, within 25 yards or so of the opening weekend bull that my partner took. The previous year, my partner and I had just unloaded our packs from the canoe and rolled it over on the island we were to camp/watch from (same lake) for the opening weekend, when a forkhorn bull came swimming out to see what we were doing. They don't come any easier than that one! If you are after moose don't shoot them in the water (I wouldn't let him!). They don't float they tell me, and they are two danged big to drag out, much less dive for. Caribou do float- don't know about anything else.

If you are actually hunting from the canoe- you might give some thought to rigging up gun brackets to securely hold the rifle out of the way , yet handy to the guy in front at least. The rear guy, of course, does not handle or have a loaded firearm. He's propulsion and steerage on final anyway. I hate having rifles sliding around, or not handy, and/or getting dripped on from the paddles, etc. I need to work on something like that myself.

I will likely take one of my canoes in to some nearby interconnected larger lakes for opening (blowoff" weekend this yearand just crueise the shores morning and evening. Been meaning to do that for several years.

Tie EVERYTHING in you don't care to lose, no matter how short the trip. Trust me on this one! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

It more than likely wouldn't work for moose, but I have used the "Poke" boat, in the swamps here for deer hunting, the modern version is more stable than a canoe, but it is wider and almost a straight flat bottom

I know this threat started regarding a cedar canoe - but here's just some general canoe advice.

If you ever plan on on taking a trip where there may be rocks, stick with the plastic boats. Wood, Aluminum, and Fiberglass all crack, break, or pop rivets. Plastic boats do a nice job of bouncing off of or slipping over rocks. You may end up with some scratches, but you'll stay floating.

Roger on that! I got caught at my remote cabin by freezeup one fall in Interior Alaska. My 18 Foot Grumman did about 15 miles of icebreaker duty under 4 hp propulsion before we hit the larger Tanana River, with slush, rather than floating or dammed ice. Ain't a 6" straight line on it anywhere anymore, but at least I didn't spend 6 unplanned for weeks in the toolies before I could travel again! Wrecked a paddle, too.



My 16 foot lightweight has several cracks in its skin (bought used like that), sealed by me with silicon adhesive. That lightweight skin is really thin and doesn't take much abuse. The silicon is holding fine for the use I put it to (moose hunting) but a better fix might be a thin aluminum patch inside, riveted , with a silicon seal between.



The plastic canoes, some with "memory" are really abusive resistant, tho they tend to paddle and steer like pigs. Fat pigs.



You know - as I age, I'm only just beginning to realize just how much damned FUN I had in my younger, more carefree years - times when I thought "Whew - dodged another one!". Not that I'd trade my wife and kids for anything.

Las, Off subject but you mention the Tanana. Do they still do the raft race each year, after the ice goes out. Did that with some Air Force buddies in 69 and still remember it vividly. What a trip! TM

Probably good advice on the plastic boats, but I have to admit I just can't love the things. I've looked at the Old Town, Wenona, and other plastic boats and they look like a fine unit to use, but I agree they don't handle well after paddling a few.

I just have this hankering for a cedar strip canoe. The plastic boats just don't have any real "soul", just like a plastic gunstock just doesn't do the same thing for me that a beautiful piece of wood does. They are useful, but devoid of warmth and beauty, IMHO.

Besides, with proper construction, epoxy and glass on the outside and properly constructed, they should be tough enough for the uses I have envisioned. Mostly lakes and slow moving streams will be the waterways I use them for on the many lakes and small streams of Central and Eastern Oregon, as I have a nice driftboat for the rougher variety of waters.

The main question in this thread is how to make a canoe useful for this type of hunting. How do I stow guns, fishing rods, and gear out of the way for the particular needs of a hunting trip on water? What is the best way to carry animal quarters, especially something large like an Elk (and possibly a Moose in the future) in a small boat without swamping? Would it be wise to mount gun mounting racks inside the boat to keep them handy and secure while rowing and also to balance the load?

Keeping in mind my canoe experience is pretty minimal, just a couple of trips that lasted overnight and a couple of day trips on small lakes, so I'm more looking at this from a builder's standpoint at the moment and will acquire the outfitting ideas from there.- Sheister

Has anyone tried those pontoon mount thingies that help you upright???


Sheister,
Lets pencil in a date for a day trip up to Lost Lake on Mt Hood. I love paddling around that lake trolling with a fly rod after trout. There are some monsters there also but need to be fished deep. Whatcha think, you game?

One of the things I used to love when I was guiding was taking a client down river or along a lakeshore in my canoes.

The last one I owned was a crosslapped mahogany plywood

16 footer. 37" acroos the beam, with a 3/4" keel for tracking.

I used to stand and paddle it quite often with a client in the bow, and it was super stable enough to fish or shoot from.

After years of beaver dams and rocks I had a fiberglass expert grind off the epoxy finish and coat it with a bone coloured composite that added a few pounds, but made it very tough. Just wasn't the same , though. One thing I used to carry in the aluminums was a piece of light gauge sheet metal, silicone and some pop rivets/ Worked very well.

Come to think of it, the wife remarked the other day how I didn't have so much hassles when my boats were canoes, not jets. Wasn't in so much of a hurry then, I guess! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

Oh ya, pontoons! A buddy of mine started tying on a long , light poplar branch to his canoe and tied an inflated small car inner tube to that. That way he could take the kids and not have to worry about them tipping it over in a "I got one Daddy!" frenzy. Says it wotked real well, but he had an electric trolling motor, he wasn't paddling.

Catnthehat

Spike,
Try Lost lake with a diver, flasher with wedding ring spinner with a piece of worm on it. We hiked in to Marion lake with an inflatable raft and fished this way and just killed the kokanee and caught many brookies also.

ST,

I've got a picture around here somewhere when I was about 12 years old, I'm holding up a 3 pound Kokenee caught on Lost lake using a worm and bobber. Have loved the place ever since.....just hate camping there now with all the mayham, it's anything but a "get away" experience.

I haven't fished Lost Lake for years, but when we did we used the drift boat and rowed slowly trolling a small spinner deep or a fly behind a clear float on the surface. Didn't catch a lot, but when we did catch something it was usually a real trophy.

Sure, give me a call and we'll set something up for later in the year. I doubt you can even drive in there right now with the snow and all. Great place to take the family for a day outing. I agree it isn't a great place to camp anymore, though. Might as well be camping at Waterfront Park downtown Portland!- Bob

No Tanana Raft Races anymore. The liability shysters got into it. Considering the charachter of the river and the amount of alcohol consumed, probably rightly so.


The cedar strip ought to do fine for what you envision- and is quiet enough. The more weight you put in a canoe, generally the more stable it becomes . Inertia, I guess. Of course, the less freeboard above waterline you have also. My 16 foot lightweight Grumman will take a whole moose and two men, but the freeboard is getting pretty scanty! On quiet water and with careful action, it's OK.

I haven't worked a gun rack or gun-retainer design out yet myself, but I'm thinking it should be some sort of clip-on design for easy removal, but also to keep the rifle from sliding around, falling, etc, while keeping it off the bottom of the canoe and pointed safely.

Las, Figured the race was history. Just too much fun for someone not to kill it. Like you said, copious quanities of liquid courage consumed during the day but it was a fabulous trip and one I will always rememeber. TM

Yukoner,where are you? You should be posting some pictures . BL

I am away at the moment, but will do so when I get back.

How about the 63" bull in the freighter Canoe?

That would excite the land locked desert kid to no end <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> !

- Dan