Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Less Heavy Topic: Canoe Color

ND, you have good taste in boats. A Souris River is tops on my list too, but a Mad River works pretty damn well in the meantime. Makes me wonder how I managed all those years with Aluminum.

My aluminum Smokercraft was bright yellow for 35 years until I finally had to paint it a couple years ago. I went with dead grass green. Didn't work. My duck kill didn't improve a bit. I still can't hit them.

I hear ya man, the weenonah is high on my list too. I have an old fiberglass wenonah, think it's a good 18' long. Not a lightweight, probably 80 pounds or so. but it sure is a dream in the water cutting across lakes, rivers... not so much. She's got no rocker, it lays in the water like a sewing needle. Awesome for effortless straight running but not very stabile for fishing out of. more of a "get ther fast" canoe.

That souris quetico 17 design is said to have the stability of an old grumman but portage weight is about half.

I sold an alum smokercraft last year, I'm down to an old alum Aero craft double high ender (thin hull) and an old fiberglass wenonah.

As much as I want a pair of those souris qt17's i don't think I could be without an aluminum canoe.

I used a Grumman a fair bit in the 70's on fast-flowing Alberta rivers, and I am sold on the value of an aluminum canoe for such applications.

I don't canoe much on rocky rivers any more, though, which is why I decided on the 17' Wenonah Boundary Waters. It's got a bit of rocker but still paddles sweetly straight on flat water:

http://www.wenonah.com/products/tem...amp;SID=0d7e8b24eaa3f41ce9e96dec748e3ccc

I bought the "Tuf-weave Flex-core" model, which is a sprightly 58 pounds. It's stable enough I can stand in it and flycast on calm water.

Bright colors are easier for Search and Rescue to locate.

I like the tan or natural. I commute about 100 miles to/from work and drive by the road into the Sylvania Wilderness, I can spot a Wenonah on a car/truck top from a ways off. Souris River makes a real nice canoe also, I don't notice as many as Wenonah though. Me, personally, 17' aluminum my dad bought in 1976, not the lightest or fastest but with 8 year old kids stable and durable.

Very nice Doc, The BW17 is one of the models I watch for on used sales listings from outfitters up around Ely.

12' Radisson. Very nice handling and wide beam.

Very nice.

Mine is aluminum colored.

Mine was built for waterfowling and is ULTRA STABLE; perfect for cruising w/ 2 boys, deer hunting, etc.

I love it. Closest I'll ever come to a yacht and the color is PERFECT!

I do mostly rivers (Pere Marquette is pictured) and it is very maneuverable for that, but on lakes it is TOUGH. Its so short that I paddle twice on the same side and I'm zigging before paddling a couple times on the other so I can zag...

Now yer talkin...

As far as color, yer basic hoser prefers green or red, but I have seen a few in the great white north that were yellow, doesn't look too bad, either.

mines aluminum.......it was $100 so i didnt care bout the color

Northern Dave, that is a fine looking canoe.

I gave my brother the old 17' Ouchita aluminum that we used as kids in the 60s when I went to kayaks for float (fishing/camping) trips. I got to really liking solo craft that allowed us to float as groups, but a little independence in fishing. Then I got the Old town PACK solo (12', 33 lbs, 550-600 capacity) and love it, especially on multinight trips. I just bought an Old Town Explorer 119 (11'9", 43 lbs, 450-500 lbs capacity) as a companion as back up and loaner to friends starting. I have not tested it yet.

I like the Winonah solo crafts looks online and will have to look this new line over for solos too. Kayak or canoe I am finding I can't own just one.

P.S. I have not figured out how to post pictures here yet. If someone will PM me I will happily put some trip reports on the fishing forum or camp forums.

I use a long, two bladed kayak paddle for my solo canoes. Actually the same one as my kayaks. Careful, you can spend a few hundred dollars on a carbon paddle. I would buy about a 50 dollar paddle first and see if you like it for canoe use before putting out big dollars. Two good ones in that range are Bending Branches Whisper and Carlisle Day Tripper.

That is a great suggestion! I'll have to try that out... my older son is 8 yo now so he is starting to help me from the front, but taking them across a choppy lake as the wind blows requires a little more "umph" than he has to offer. A kayak paddle could be just what the dr. ordered!

Be sure you get something at least 240 centimeters.

Be sure you get something at least 240 centimeters.

The owner of Cipper Canoes and I discussed this. As we are both moose hunters, his experence suggested grey. As he said "if you look,most water looks grey". So my 16'6" Mac Sport kevlar is grey with black trim. The Mac Sport is 18'6" freighter with a couple of feet chopped of for a square stern. My main canoe is a 17' cedar strip prospector with some of the hollow taken out of the stems,Ted Moores' design he called Nomad.

I'm leanin with the camouflage guys, but I guess whatever you like on the outside. I would make sure I didn't get one that was silver or white on the inside -- the worst sunburn that I've ever had in my life came from the inside of an aluminum canoe, even worse on the backside of my legs -- ever made one of those parabolic solar reflector ovens?